Kapriz Enterprises

We all dream. Some of us do it at night when we are sleeping. Some of us do it in the day when we are bored, and some of us are politicians who do it while sitting in Parliament. We all have the power to allow our minds to simply drift along to places we may never really ever get to.

Isn’t that fascinating? Dreams have kept scientists occupied for centuries. We still have very little understanding of the power of dreams. Whether you are a kind of dreamcatcher person, or a Joseph and his Technicolor Dream Coat fan, dreams have a place in our lives and that is that!

Just the other day, someone emailed me to say they wished they had a million rand. That was a sort of dream they had. The trouble with it was that they sat back and waited for the million to appear.

Sounds like the Chinese story of the man waiting for roast duck to fly into his mouth. It’s just not going to happen.

Another problem we have is that we don’t dream enough. It seems that as you get older, you are sort of encouraged not to dream too much.

Terminology like “pipe dream” or “pie in the sky”, or “dreamer” is often used in very negative ways to describe people who come up with wacky ideas or new and sometimes very different viewpoints.

But imagine if we didn’t have people like that. It took some very big dreamers to come up with things like space travel, computers, iPods and, of course, ice-cream. The world needs dreamers, even if their dreams don’t always come true. It’s the dreamers who have a willingness to listen to themselves. To not let conventional wisdom dictate their every move.

How many of us, simply go with the flow and allow others to decide what’s good for us, or where we should go, and what we should do? You can admit you’ve been there, it’s okay. We’ve all been subjected to it. For too long schools channelled us through a system, without giving us the freedom to choose.

We were all young and bold, and ready to make a life, but were often told what to study, where to find a job, and how we should live.

The world however needs change more now than ever. You may be sitting there wanting to change. Maybe you’ve dared yourself that this is the year for change.

Now’s the part where you dream up that life. You have to dream big. I’m not saying unrealistic craziness. I’m saying you should allow yourself to visualise every aspect of your life and imagine what it is you want to see appear in those parts of your life. If it’s finance, what is your dream for that aspect? If it’s family, what do you dream for them this year? Go through each area and don’t hold back. The only rules for doing this are that your dreams need to feel real. They need to be crystal clear so that you could describe them consistently.

Finally, they need to feel good. Not painful challenges that you don’t believe are attainable.

Let’s take an example. If you want your financial situation to improve this year it’s not good enough to simply state that as a broad goal. You really need to think about what life a better financial situation would give you. In the most detailed and specific way. In other words, would it mean less debt, and by how much? Would it mean more money for holidays, or something you were saving for?

You need to be able to visualise those things. It’s when those things feel real, that you will be more inclined and motivated to take action. And your actions don’t even need to be large scale or dramatic changes. They can be broken down into the small stuff. As long as your dreams are big and real, the actions will be easier to map out.

I’m a big fan of the 48 hour action plan. Something you could measure yourself on in the next two days, rather than having to wait for weeks or even months to see if you are making progress. I think it’s time to get those dreams vivid and vibrant. Taking action on them is something we’ll do next time. Dream on!

As published by John Mullins in BusinessReport