My 4 Rules To Dreaming Big
If you’ve ever had a dream come true; you know how much joy and fulfillment it brings.
We all have dreams and although what we hope and desire to achieve aren’t the same, we have them nonetheless, and usually, we are inspired by other people’s dreams.
Some of us dream about being the first in the family to go to college, maybe moving to the big city to become a star, or even becoming president one day. They are all different dreams and all require different levels of effort and dedication to achieve, but they are all achievable. It doesn’t matter how crazy your dreams sound or how unattainable they seem. If you can think of it, you can most likely do it.
I think dreams should be MAGNANIMOUS! they should sound impossible! They should ridiculous and insane!
President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf in her address at a Harvard Graduation in May 2011 said something very profound that has inspired me to this day.
She said: “If your dreams do not scare you, they’re not big enough… the size of your dreams must always exceed your current capacity to achieve them. … If you start with a small dream, you may not have much left when it is fulfilled because, along the way, life will … make demands on you…”
So, how big is your dream? Children have the craziest dreams, and a lot of times, when you talk to people who have made it big, they will tell you: “I always wanted to be number one,” or “I have always seen myself as the best in the business,” or “that’s what I always wanted to do since I was a kid.”
Ask yourself why? This is because dreaming is the beginning of achieving great things. It is part of human nature to dream.
If you are going to dream, why not dream big? After all, it’s free. The world is waiting to see what you’ve got because there is no other version of you. The definition of dreaming big is different for everyone, but let’s use Madam Sirleaf’s quote and say, for your dream to qualify as big, it needs to scare the daylights out of you! Here are 4 of the rules I recommend for you if you want to dream big.
Forget Limits Exist
What impact would you want to have on the world if you could do anything? How do you want to change the lives of people? What kind of value do you want to make for yourself and others?
Let go of any limiting beliefs and start imagining all the great things you can become, have, and do. Dream about finding that cure for cancer or covid, about bringing your talent to the world to change the lives of people all over the world, the desire to leave a legacy in the world that when people mention your name, they will think about your contribution to the world, or owning your little corner store on your street.
What this does, is that it sets you up to start thinking of ways to achieve it. All greatness begins with a thought.
Surround Yourself with The Right People
The people you hang out with can influence your life path, that includes professionally and personally.
If you hang out with people who are dreamers and have a vision of where they are headed. They go after great ideas and are always looking for ways to make them come true; it will feel like a crime not to have a dream. This is a good source of inspiration because it will fuel what you already have, and if you have a problem, they’ll be willing to help you through it because they’ve been there themselves.
As Tony Robbins said, “If we surround ourselves with successful, forward-moving, positive, focused on producing results, and supporting us, it will challenge us to be more and do more and share more. If you can surround yourself with people who will never let you settle for less than you can be, you have the greatest gift that anyone can hope for.”
Accept Setbacks, Learn From Them, And Move Forward
It can be very hard to move on after a setback, but you need to know that failure or setbacks are part of the character-building process for greatness. I don’t know many great people who have achieved great things and don’t have a couple of setback stories or even more. However, as humans, if we don’t psych ourselves up about this, it can cause us to stop and never try again. This is how life is, it comes with challenges and tough times, and if we don’t recognize that, and know that we need to tough it out. We will never achieve our dreams.
Many of the great successful people we know today suffered many setbacks before they became who they are today. Some of them still do. Thomas Edison is said to have tried his light bulb idea thousands of times and all those times, but it didn’t work. Today the light bulb has evolved into a much more complex system than it started because Edison didn’t allow his setback to deter him.
Walt Disney’s idea for Disney was turned down so many times by those who could have financed it. His first cartoon business failed. He tried acting and failed at that too. Once he finally got to launch his first cartoon character, he still encountered a lot of problems, but that didn’t deter him, look at Disney now.
Famous playwright, film producer, and actor Tyler Perry didn’t get to where he is without his share of setbacks and struggles. Mr. Perry in numerous interviews has been quoted as saying: “Do you know how many times I tried to be successful at doing plays before it finally worked? From 1992 until 1998, every show I put on flopped. No one showed up, and I lost all my money. I wanted to give up. I thought I had failed, but the truth is, I never failed. Each and every time the show didn’t work, I learned something new. I learned what not to do and what I could do better…”
He’s not the only one, many of the successful people in the world today had setbacks, but according to their stories, they accepted the setback, learned from them, and pushed ahead.
It takes a lot of courage and dedication to reach big dreams, and when things don’t work out the way we plan, we can cry if we need to, and sulk if we4 need to, but not for long. We have to remember why we started and where we are going and try again. Most of the time, there are lessons to be learned.
Give yourself time to process and recover, and talk to people around you who have achieved their dreams to hear what they have to say about what happened.
Be Consistent And Patient
The journey to your dream can be long, sometimes scary, uncertain, and lonely. That’s the absolute truth, but if you want your dream to come true, you must keep working toward it. Achievers are different because they show up daily to prove they have what it takes to get things done.
It takes time, like everything else, so be kind to yourself and have patience. After all, no one becomes successful overnight. Each step adds up until you reach your big goal.
Finally, every time in a while, look at the big picture, be proud of how far you’ve come, and tell yourself, “Patience is the key”.
