Alice laughed: “There’s no use trying,” she said; “one can’t believe impossible things.”
“I daresay you haven’t had much practice,” said the Queen. “When I was younger, I always did it for half an hour a day.
Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.
– from Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
We all hold what we believe to be impossible dreams in our hearts.
When I was three years old, I truly believed that if I jumped off the top of the stairs in just the right way, I would take flight (thankfully I was too chicken to test this theory).
Your impossible dream might be quitting your job and traveling the world, writing a novel, becoming a CEO, starting a successful business, giving a TED talk or, more simply creating a life you love, complete with financial stability, family time and personal growth.
Do these dreams seem impossible? Depends on your perspective. I personally know people who have achieved EACH of these dreams. Real, live human beings with no more superpowers than you or me.
If your dreams feel impossible or out of reach right now, here are four tips to get you there:
Just Start
Lean in and take the first step and the right people and resources will present themselves to you. Guaranteed. If you take the first action, it creates a ripple effect. This has happened to me time and again. The very first step is simply putting your kooky dream out there so others can offer contacts and support to move you forward. Want to start a YouTube channel? Commit to 30 minutes tomorrow to do some research on how to make it happen. Some other ways you can take the first step are to get your thoughts on paper, or schedule time in your calendar each week to work on it.
Focus
If you are aiming for six impossible things right now (like the Queen in Alice), you may not be successful. It’s like trying to push multiple things uphill rather than one specific stone. Focus your energies on one dream at a time and make progress rather than scrambling to push a bunch of things forward and watching them each slip backwards the minute you jump to something else. A wise friend of mine always says, “You can do everything you want, but you don’t have to do it all right now!” I still have “Publish a children’s book” on my Dream List and someday, I’ll get to it. Just not now.
Be Decisive
Ah, this is so hard, right? See “Focus” issue above. But if you want to make dreams a reality, you have to have what an old manager of mine used to call “a bias toward action.” Perfection is your enemy. Make a decision, test it out, and if it fails, well, now you have more information, don’t you? Don’t be the person that wants to launch but delays it by years because you can’t quite find the right name. If you are an indecisive type, seek out objective help to force the decision.
Find the Next Step
Remember the song “Put One Foot in Front of the Other” from the old Christmas special, Santa Claus is Coming to Town? Wise words. You know your end goal, but you might not be able to see the clear path to get there until you start walking. Focus more on the “what” and “why” and take the next step right in front of you – the “how” will eventually find you or become more clear. If your dream is to write a book, start with determining the topic and preparing an outline of your thoughts. Don’t worry yet about how you’ll do the research or if you’ll get an agent right now. Take one step forward and, like emerging out of the fog, the path illuminates as you go.
Impossible dreams can be made possible when you focus, take action and put one foot in front of the other. (Tweet this!)
