Dreams Take Massive Imperfect Action

I was laying in bed one recent morning thinking. It was Sunday and my wife was at work. After a good night's sleep I was wide awake with no where to be. I thought about a difficultly I faced and the systems I implemented recently. I thought about how my situation was in direct contradiction to my new systems. And I felt stuck and not sure what to do.

You see. I have a dream of what I want my life to look like in four main areas: Family, Personal, Career and Spiritual Growth. It is a big dream. It is very detailed and is actually the most freeing thing I have done recently. I finally have on paper, right in front of me, my priorities for each of these areas and the actions that I will take to make these dreams a reality. It is very simple and clean.

So, as I was journaling and thinking this morning I realized why I failed so many times in the past in establishing a direction and sticking to it. I came up with hopes and ideas of where I wanted to go and what I wanted life to look like. Unfortunately, I had not real plan or intent to take the small repetitive steps to get there. It was just a hope and a dream.

This morning I looked up with dream means. This is from Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary:

4: a: strongly desired goal or purpose
b: something that fully satisfies a wish : IDEAL

While there are several other definitions for dream, this was the one that I thought of. So, dreams are a strongly desired goal or purpose that fully satisfies a wish. It could be a dream of a wonderful marriage. It could be a dream of a Ferrari. It could be a dream of being an astronaut. It could be a dream of using your talents to the full extent possible.

But how do we make dreams a reality? How do we achieve our goal or purpose?

Action

Dreams don’t work unless you do. - John C. Maxwell

Action is the only option to make a dream a reality. There is no McDonald’s drive thru to order a dream up. There is no shortcut or easy button to fulfill a dream.

But what exactly is action? I just happened to look that up as well:

1a: a thing done : DEED
b: the accomplishment of a thing usually over a period of time, in stages, or with the possibility of repetition
d: INITIATIVE, ENTERPRISE
2: an act of will

So, action is an act of will, often repeated over and over until the thing is done. In this case, until a dream is achieved.

I realized I have not taken action. I hoped. I wished. I thought about. I am from South Georgia and we have a funny little saying, “fixin’ to,” which means you are thinking about maybe, possibly doing something. You are getting ready to think about taking action.

I realized this is how I approached my dreams. I had not established my True North. I had ideas of what I wanted life to look like, but no true sense of direction and steps to get there.

What about you? Where are you in your life? Are you dreaming of maybe someday? Do you have a plan to get there? Or have you been like me, having somewhat of an idea but not truly committing to the direction you are going and formulating a plan to get there?

The system I created has my four areas of focus - Family, Personal, Career and Personal Growth. Under each area of focus I created 3 goals. I then listed out action steps with deadlines to take in order to complete my goals.

Here is how I keep this document at top of mind:

1. Complete a nightly evaluation and journal how things went and what I will change/improve the following day.
2. Review my Scorecard, update it and make notes of wins and opportunities. (I got this from Brian Ford. If you would like a great tool to help you, go check him out here.
3. Review my Areas of Focus (AOF) nightly and place on my task manager the actions I will take tomorrow to move the needle.
4. Every morning I review my tasks and set my intentions for the day.
5. Take Massive Imperfect Action (MIA).
6. Start over at Step 1

There are some other systems I put in place, but these are the key steps to take that will move the needle and get you on the right track.

I hope this post helps you. I wrote this post for a couple of reasons. First, I am learning and growing. And I have so much to learn and grow. I mess up daily, multiple times. This post is my personal line in the sand. It is my public declaration of my commitment to personal change.

Secondly, I wrote it because I know I am not the only one struggling. I hope in some small way this will help you, the reader, to draw your own line in the sand. It will help you dream bigger and dream better. It will help you give legs to your dreams and actions to take.

We only get one life. It is up to us how we live it. It is up to us how we use up this life we are given. I have wasted many years chasing stuff that just does not matter. I have wasted energy and money on things that caused me to give up on my dreams. I choose to dream bigger. I choose to dream with my eyes open. I choose to take action to achieve my dream. I choose to say NO to those things which will not carry me forward to complete and fulfill my dream.

So, get out that pen and paper and organize your life and then take massive action .

Create the life you want or settle for the life you are given. - David Williamson