Make Your Dreams Come True in 2017
Act on Them and Have a Plan
By Daina Hulet
December 21, 2016
Have you neglected your dreams lately? We often wait for the perfect time to pursue our dreams. We might set them aside until we believe we have enough money or time, the kids have grown up or our careers are more stable. And then some of us aren’t quite sure that we really deserve to reach our dreams, so we get caught up in other things in order to protect ourselves from fear.
Why not make 2017 the year you move your dream along to get it closer to fruition, or actually work to make a dream come true? Dust off the dream you are most passionate about and see if it still holds up. Does your idea evoke the kind of passion that creates the ambition, focus, courage and resilience it takes to get there—or do you need to tweak it a bit. Psychotherapist Martin Novell, a Marriage and Family Therapist who practices in West Los Angeles says, without the passion to do the work required to sail around the world, learn to play the piano well enough to join a band, or start a small baking business on the side to pay off your college loans… all you have is a daydream. “Passion gives you the potential for seeing a dream through to reality, and keeping that dream fresh helps fuel your ambition.”
Visualize Your Dream
Use mental imagery as a successful tool to keep your dream alive and inspired. Visualizing your dreams keeps you knowledgeable about how you want your dream to play out. “Use imagery to create short and long term goals and work out the inevitable obstacles and hurdles as you go about actualizing your ideas,” says Novell.
Talk to Yourself
Because fear of failure or success can easily kill a dream, use “self-talk” to support your belief in yourself and your dream.
Start by referring to yourself by name rather than using “I” and speaking to yourself as you would talk to a friend. According to scientists studying the process, this distance allows your brain to step back from the dream and all of its possibilities so it can think more clearly and deeply. For instance, you might calm yourself about a block you are experiencing writing the lyrics to a new song by saying, “When you write (put your name here) you’ve experienced some brain freeze now and then. But, you always get over it quickly. Instead of stressing, take the day off from writing.” With positive self-talk, you’ll find that the situation gets worked out effectively, and success will come more easily.
Daina Hulet spent ten years as the west coast editor for Glamour magazine covering beauty, fashion and lifestyle. She has also written freelance articles for national publications and created content for corporate fashion and beauty websites.
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