How to be a better you: It is not selfish to dream, nor unproductive to envision, for all innovation begins with inviting imagination. Follow your deepest desires to dream of an amazing future that will propel you to your destination. Keep your train on track. The secret to the most successful people, in business and in life, is that they never lose focus, never stop reaching, never stop striving to overcome and accomplish their goals. You can too, right now. It seems paradoxical but it is nevertheless true: you must dream beyond the imaginable to achieve success beyond the attainable. Are your visions of the future confined in a suffocating box of limitations? What is holding you back? How are you preventing yourself from success? Dream your dreams today.
Success requires initiative. If you act in business as your elementary teacher trained you, you will never advance. Were you taught to sit quietly when you do your work, only speak when spoken to, respond with expected answers, follow exact instructions without adding any creativity, and let others plan the lessons? To succeed in your personal and professional life, get up and move, be creative, take initiative, suggest new ideas, surprise yourself and others, design your own life, and envision the big plan. In archery, there are four main components to success: have the tools (bow, arrow, strength), know your target, focus your aim, and shoot. Achieving your goals is like that.
1.) Tools: Many inhibit their achievement by convincing themselves that they will never have the skills (tools) to accomplish their dreams. As a doctoral candidate, completing my dissertation for the Ph.D. degree, I can tell you a secret of education at this level: learn how to learn. After absorbing knowledge from others (professors, etc.), teach yourself whatever else you must know. All the courses I have taken have prepared me now to continue learning by self-educating. I have learned how to learn. You can too, even without the degree. If you lack a skill to accomplish your goal, if you do not know it yet, or cannot do it yet, you can learn it! You CAN do it!
2.) Target: Know your goal: what are you aiming to achieve? Take your dream to the next level by writing it down on paper, and then adding details until it becomes not just a hope but a plan.
3.) Aim well: Remember to keep focused. Just as in archery, where your eye gaze affects how well you shoot, if you take your eye off your goal, your aim will follow. In addition, compensate for gravity and aim high. While a short trajectory can aim straight on, a long-term goal (or more distant target) requires you to adjust your aim as you shoot.
4.) Shoot: This is so simple, but most goals are never accomplished primarily because of a lack of action. Take action today. Have a determined stance to achieve greatness and give to the world an inspiration that was designed to come from you alone. God gave you a purpose in life, find it and create your own success.
With the tools for the job and the target in sight, you take aim and soar to your future. Dream big, clarify your goal, aim high, and act, and you will hit the target you know will fulfill your life’s purpose. Remember, even by dreaming your dreams, or preparing and gaining the tools, you are succeeding in your goal, because you are moving forward towards the target.
“You measure the size of the accomplishment by the obstacles you had to overcome to achieve your goals” -Booker T. Washington.
“Shoot for the moon.? Even if you miss, you will land among the stars” – Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Dream your dreams today: they are the secret to your success and the mechanism by which you inspire others. As you DREAM, you get hope; as you HOPE, you aspire; as you ASPIRE, take aim; as you AIM, act; as you ACT, you SUCCEED; in success, you INSPIRE.
