by Brad Homer
What are your dreams? Knowing the answer to this question is necessary before you can hope to live them. Without consciously following your dreams, you will follow your momentary wants. This is the key difference between people who pretend to have everything together and those who really do. It is the difference between self-discipline and the lack of self-discipline. Short-term wants are fine as long as they do not interfere with our long-term goals. Out of control eating, drinking, television watching and spending erode our ability to address our life's dearest desires. Moderation is key. We can sample a little (and sometimes a lot) of life's little pleasures all along the way and we will enrich our life; overindulge often and we pay the long term consequences of being overweight, unhealthy, tired and broke. Write a few goals down, however, and keep them in the front of your mind and the negatives of life will begin to flee from you. Your dreams will begin to come true.
Knowing what your dreams are is the first step toward you making them come true. Maybe you already know what they are. If you know what your dreams are, you are far ahead of the average person. It means you have separated what others want from what you want. Knowing your dreams also means you know yourself and you are to be commended. If you don't feel like you know yourself very well or are not sure of what your dreams are, start by asking yourself the question: "If I was in a far away place, by myself, and needed to stay by myself for a time, and I had no worries, what things would I most enjoy doing?" This will help separate others needs and desires from your own. The next step is to realize that just because there may be others around you and close to you, that doesn't mean you have to sacrifice your heart's desires just to please them. Most people are familiar with the golden rule "Love your neighbor as yourself", but many get lost about halfway through the sentence and forget to take care of themselves. Love yourself and others equally and you will be a much happier person. You will know you have the right to expect great things for yourself and others. Knowing what your dreams are allows you to take the next step: following them.
Following your dreams requires self-discipline. Self-discipline keeps us on target when trivial short-term wants encroach on our long-term desire. Self-discipline is comprised of four things: self-control, motivation, persistence and goals. If you have a dream of a having a trim, athletic body, chocolate cake and ice cream every day after dinner probably isn't going to help you. Self-control is needed to force yourself to choose a healthier snack and leave the cake for once in a while (moderate) indulgence. Motivation is a mysterious thing to many people; they think it is something you have to 'get'. The big secret about motivation is that we are all motivated all the time to do exactly whatever it is we are doing. So here, talking about motivation as a part of self-discipline, you simply have to ask yourself why you are motivated to be doing whatever it is you're doing. Sitting on the couch watching television is great sometimes when you're exhausted at the end of a day. But if you're not really that tired and instead are doing it to avoid something constructive (but a little hard) that you planned to do, it's probably time for some self-control action. Persistence is simply the wonderful quality of never, ever giving up. You may fail a hundred times, but you won't be beaten until you give up - so don't do it. Just make sure to continue to change your approach based on what you learn from your mistakes along the way. Goals are simply quantified dreams or dream building blocks, written down. Writing your goals down is probably the most important thing to do once you've identified what your dreams are. All goals, no matter how small and insignificant should lead you in some way to making your dreams come true. A well-written and useful goal has an obvious, measurable, target, which is neither too challenging nor too easy to achieve.
Once you've identified what your dreams are, and you've written down your dreams and your goals leading you to your dreams…have faith, take action and magic will begin to happen in your life.
Millionaire 2020™ can help you plan out your monetary goals and master the very important financial aspect of your life as you follow your dreams.