May 5, 2011 5 Easy Steps To Making Your Dreams Come True
Humans have the amazing gift of dreaming. It allows us to imagine things that are absolutely crazy, and completely out of our reach. Like flying, staying hours under water – or world domination. That’s what we do. Ambition is a great source of energy. Being able to dream big will give you guts and make smaller dreams feel much more attainable. Ambition will make you creative and more resourceful.
Dreams are only dreams until you write them down. Then they become your goals. – Anonymous
The difference between a dream and a goal is just a question of attitude. Dreams are by definition something that’s out of reach. A goal is something that you plan and work towards. If you start treating your dreams as your goals, then you have already taken the first step towards making them come true.
1. Start Small
The first step towards your dream is to get started. Do something every day, anything. Don’t go and spend tons of money on fancy instruments and studio equipment. Don’t waste time on trying to get a gig at the best venue in your town before you’ve played the toilet around the corner. Start with the stuff that matters and that you know you are capable of handling. Give yourself time to learn your art and the tricks of the trade.
2. Live Cheap
You are immediately limiting your options if you get yourself into too much debt. If possible, start saving so that you have a bit of a buffer if you need to take time out of work, or your car breaks down. Don’t jump at every fancy new gadget that comes your way. Buy stuff only when you really need it. Keep your every day expenses reasonable. The less you spend, the less you need to make money. And that will give you more freedom to do whatever you want.
3. Plan Regularly
Ok, so you played that toilet around the corner a few times now. Maybe it’s time to move on. Take a step back and map out the road to your Big Dream. Break it down to monthly, quarterly and yearly goals. Decide what to do and make time to do the tasks you set yourself. By having a good plan will make each step a bit clearer. It will give you ideas of what you should be aiming for next. It will also help you realise what is useful and what is a waste of time. Set yourself a budget and stick to it.
4. Make Friends
Connections are gold. Your genius will go unnoticed if no one knows about it. The myth of the lonely genius is exactly that – a myth. Successful people are without exception well connected. Luckily making connections is easier than ever before. Connect with other bands, bloggers, music lovers, friends of friends and random people. Don’t try to gain anything from these connections. Have inspiring conversations and people will remember you. Offer to help and people will help you back.
5. Commit
No dream is going to come true if you don’t make a commitment to it. Everything that can, will go wrong. You will lose faith. You will suck. You will run out of money. You will play empty venues. You will be too busy. Sorry, you’ll just have to keep your head down and keep going. Without a commitment life will get in the way and before you know it the attainable goal has turned into a distant dream again.
This post first appeared in Music On The Make blog. It provides inspiration, skills and tools for the artists. Follow on twitter @musiconthemake
Reader Comments (4)
I remember hearing a piece of advice about eating healthy, and I've applied the notion to other areas of my life.
"You're not on a fucking diet; it's the way you eat now."
Having a plan isn't temporary. Certain things in it should stay with you the whole way. With this plan, one wouldn't suddenly stop planning regularly once they get close to obtaining their dream. In my experience, keeping your head down and refusing to quit is one of the hardest things in life.
Great post.
This is all good common sense advice. If you want it you have to be driven and work hard. Those who are sucessful really have worked hard, so set aim and fire !
Great post. It's all about perspective.
Dreaming is quite natural for human being! We used to dream for our mental satisfaction and try to make them true. It is very rare that people are chasing their dreams; as we well known with the fact that chasing dreams are now days valueless until we are not able to make them true. Therefore from here we used to learn some facts that helps to make our dream comes true; I hope while following these tips we understood the importance of dream as well as learn how to chase them.