When something comes into my mind, I am eager to have it. By 30s I’ve achieved many of my dreams and now I am making new ones. I have a career, I work, I teach yoga and meditation, plus I travel; something that most of the people would plan to have by their 60s. But all of this wasn’t simple to achieve. Coming from Latina style of organizing things, it wasn’t something natural; I don’t have a culture where our main priority is planning and organizing, not at all. I could say it’s completely the opposite. That is why the next tips that I will share with you I know they will really work because I have done them myself and they’ve helped me achieve many different things.
Create a list of all your dreams
In order to have a clear idea of your dreams, it helps you to be aware of what exactly you want. Visualize it.
I like the phrase in Alice in Wonderland when Alice meets the Rabbit and asks him which road to take. She had two options and the rabbit answered: it doesn’t matter which road you take if you don’t know where you’re going. This is why we need to be sure where we want to go, have a clear idea of what we want to achieve. Write your dreams, make them as clear as you want, describe perfectly with all the details you can, add colours like the colour of the car you are dreaming of having or you can add emotions, for example, what emotions you want to feel in the relationship you are wishing to have.
Make it a goal
Make your dreams a goal. By goal I mean steps to achieve your dreams. For example, if you want to travel the world, your goal could be visiting a new country every year. If your dream is to have a happy life, start by listing all the activities that make you happy. Goals have to be measurable and concrete.
One of my intentions in 2018 was to have a better connection with my family, but this goal was too undefined and hard to accomplish or to measure. If I wanted to make it a clearer goal, I would say: I will call my mom and dad once a week or every Sunday. Is your goal to become happier? So start creating goals that are linked with what makes you happy. My friend had a dream of becoming a writer so she planned her first book and worked on it every day for at least 15 minutes.
Create a schedule
Once your goal is measurable, it is time to put it on a schedule. Will you achieve it in one year or three years? Use a calendar to mark how much you progress each day, week and month.
Sounds like a project? Yes, your dreams are becoming your priority and you are your number one project! Use your calendar to create your own challenge or to create a new habit. Normally people plan these at the beginning of a new year, but any day is a good day to start, every month, every week or every new or full moon.
Meditate and control your mind
Achieving what you want is very much related with willpower and the best way to gain willpower is to control your mind. The number one technique to control your mind is meditation. Scientifically proven meditation will give you many benefits and one of them is the power of self-control and willpower. In order to achieve what you want, you need to say NO to some things and have the energy to do others. Hence, it is important to have the control of yourself and of your mind.
Meditation helped me become focused and committed to my goals. I wanted to learn yoga and I had to make time on my daily schedule for my practice and this means leaving behind other things I liked to do like watching my favourite TV shows. It was hard at the beginning and time-consuming but it ends up being more beneficial for me and in the end, leaving behind other things did not matter to me as I was focused on my goal of learning yoga.
Let go of negativity
Your mind can also be your number one obstacle, so removing negativity from your goals is very important. Know that a lot of people are achieving more with less than what you have. Negative thoughts or ideas will be your number one obstacle when it comes to achieving your dreams and normally these are wrong ideas about you and what you can achieve.
Negativity is just created in your mind, so observe your thoughts when you are creating the life that you want, and when a negative idea pops up, let it go. Burn it. It has to despair, normally we worry too much of things that will never happen.
I used to dream about travelling the world and my negative thoughts were: I don’t have the money or I don’t have time. By now I have travelled to around 20 countries. You don’t need money to travel, you can find a scholarship abroad or volunteer in another country. Time? If you really want it, you will find time for it.
Look for inspiration in other people
Tell your friends about your goals, tell them to support you. Find role models, people that have already done it so they can share with you their experience.
My main role models are my friends – inspiring people that are the same as all of us, beautiful souls that want to change their world by simply living a happy life and supporting others to be happy. All of them have shown me that they practice these tips or have taught me one of them.
Which dream will you start working on today?
Photo by Marcos Paulo Prado on Unsplash