You Decide

Where do you want to go? What do you want to do? Do you have a dream waiting for someday? What are you doing to make it happen?

You decide whether your dream will happen.

You can wonder. You can wish. You can wait for help. Say that you will, or say that you can’t right now. The most important key to a dream come true is personal investment.

Dreams that come true need commitment and action.

Wonders, wishes, and waiting without commitment are a whole lot of nothing happening. Folks who might help us won’t show up for “what ifs” and “could bes.” Their lack of support can be a convenient excuse. That’s the wrong reaction. If we want a dream to come true, we have to be able to explain it how it can be turned from a dream into a reality. That takes thought, strategy, and action.

How to Make Your Dream Come True

A dream needs more than a wish. Wishes dissolve in the mist. To come true, a dream needs a foundation of concrete not sand. When you offer a solid foundation, people listen. They pay attention because you’ve moved the dream into the realm of possibility.

Here’s how to get to the concrete foundation you need.

1. Define the dream. Take the idea out of your head. Put it in front of you to look critically at it. How does the “dream come true” look? How does it work? Do you see a living example in the world? Describe it in the smallest details.
2. Define where you sit. Is the dream a good fit to who you are, what you know, and what you can do? What seeds for the dream are in your life already? How might you nurture them?
3. Plot your strategy. What’s the path from here to the “dream come true”? Start with the finished dream and work backwards until you’re where you sit.
4. Detail your needs. What work have you already done? What can you do on your own? What sort of help and resources can you hire, borrow, or dig up? Sort them into three lists.
5. Determine your commitment. What will it take to make the dream come true? Why this dream not another? What arguments will you face? How will you answer them? What will you be willing to give up and invest? Would you do it alone if you had to? Will you give yourself permission to go after the dream — even when the world says you should not?
6. Enlist support and advocates. Who sees the same dream? Who wants your success? Who helps you think? Who can help you meet the needs you’ve outlines above?
7. Write the story. Name the dream come true. Write one sentence about what the dream will do. Write three points that explain how other folks benefit from helping this dream become reality.
8. Know how you’ll ask. Visualize yourself asking for help. Choose the words you will use. Write several kinds of requests based on benefits folks will get from helping the dream into reality.
9. Define yourself by the dream. When people ask what you do, tell them about the dream you’re making come true. Think of your “day job” as support and supplemental to the dream. I’m an actor who works here now, not I’m a waiter who working to be an actor.

It’s willingness and determination to give ourselves over to our dreams that makes them happen. What’s the difference between me and the guy who got what I wanted when I didn’t? He wanted it enough to stick when it got difficult. I decided somewhere that something else was more important.

The dream is there. It’s not magic. It’s not the big break. It’s giving ourselves permission to pull out all stops. Surely you’ve known someone you would defend at any cost. Find a dream like that — one you’ll single-mindedly protect — and you’ll make that dream happen.

Got the dream? When will you make the investment?

— ME “Liz” Strauss