Dream Bigger means having bigger goals and significant commitments, more powerful than ever before. To succeed requires some big steps and lots of little supporting steps. Moreover, it requires motivation and lots of encouragement. Finally, Dream Bigger involves harnessing a lot of energy to perform a tremendous feat. This kind of action is difficult but central to all outstanding achievements. If the Mission is more extensive than anything you’ve ever done, be realistic in setting your goals. You don’t want to swim in deep waters when learning how the first time.
Share Your Dream / Mission With Others
For most of us, the Big Dream will not be Putting A Man On The Moon, as Jack Kennedy stated in his inaugural address. Nor will it be Martin Luther King’s I Had A Dream speech in Washington. But it may be just as significant and influential, especially for those with a stake in your success.
Those who support your Dream are special people. They are a crucial element of your motivation to succeed. They may have as much skin in the game as you do in making your Mission, their Mission, a reality. For some, failure is not an option. And for those who support you, their future may be shaped by your achievement or lack thereof.
Perhaps one set of your supporters are your children. First, your achievement will leave an indelible impression of what’s possible. And later, when they try to do the same, they will make it look easy. It’s then you realize your achievement is not yours alone. It’s a shared experience.
The Mission is On
Once you set the Dream in motion, it becomes your mission statement and a clear message to your supporters that the Mission is underway. Of course, missteps, obstacles, and setbacks are around the corner. Yet when that happens, you modify your strategy or make tactical adjustments – the Mission however stays intact. To recover from mistakes is an opportunity to strengthen your armor. It’s a time to reflect on how you got this far and what’s left to accomplish.
Also, let your supporters know their importance and why their continued support is so important. It’s also an opportunity to refocus and sharpen your tools. The road ahead may be more complicated than you realized. Danger lurks. And guaranteed, there will be a mishap or something more severe than you ever imagined. Once again, there is a threat to your Mission. However, you find the strength you thought you never had. You have been tested like never before. These tests and your ability to overcome them gives you a snapshot of who you are and what you are capable of.
A Happy Ending
Your steps to get this far and closer to the finish encourage you to set your goals even higher. Thus, the Mission becomes bigger. Initially, you did not want to fail, so you chose realistic commitments. But now that you have seen what you have achieved thus far, you Dream Bigger. At this point, you are functioning at a level never achieved before. It has become a way of life. What was hard in the beginning is now routine. What was foggy is now very clear. The smell of success is near. Those close to you may be too close to see the dramatic shift as you become the person described by your Dream. But, those afar see a transformed person – a living example of what you dreamed of being.
Now you have reached the end. Mission Accomplished! However, after a period of time has passed, you get a chance to recover and reflect on your remarkable achievement. It all seems so anticlimactic. At that point you realize the joy was in the chase.
The article above neither describes the goal being sought nor the achievement reached. Instead, it’s the framework for identifying a mission and the process to achieve your end goal. However, in this case, the achievement is to Dream Big. And, this is the framework for any Big Dream. And it works. I used it several times.
Real Example
My Big Dream was to be an engineer. I don’t know how or when exactly I got the idea. But there it is. Like most engineers, I liked science and math. And my grades were ok, but nothing you would expect from someone wanting to be an engineer. That’s because my dream had no structure. There was no mission statement, no group of supporters, and most importantly, no timeline of events needed to make my dream a reality.
By the time I got to high school, my dream to be an engineer virtually faded. There were no funds to support college and the grades were below what was needed to get accepted to a good school. So like a lot of high schoolers, I got a job. A job I didn’t like with no clear future. It wasn’t until I got married and begin to raise a family that I got the motivation to get an engineering degree. So I decided to take some courses at the community college.
This time the Mission is Real
So I got the Associate degree in Engineering Science. And it was enough to get me a job aligned with my education. In fact, the company encouraged education through tuition and textbook reimbursement. What an opportunity. I saw a clear path to get my Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering. And perhaps, a promotion in the end. It would require working full time and attending class part time to achieve this goal.
A Promotion and a Daunting Challenge
Halfway to the BS Degree, I was offered an opportunity to a brighter future with potential to higher achievement opportunities. The challenge, however, was large. Eighty percent of the engineers working in this division of the company had advanced engineering and computer science degrees, from the top universities across the nation. In order to compete in this environment, I had to complete my BS degree, go on to get a graduate degree in engineering or computer science, and continue to do steller work. There was one additional requirement. I had to move my family to a different part of the country. This meant different schools for the kids, and my wife moving away from her family and the place she knew as home. The choice was daunting yet clear.
Danger Lurks
So I took the job offer, and moved the family to our new home. In addition, I was accepted and had my grades transferred to the new university. I was comfortable with my new assignment, and my family was ready to go.
I remember receiving the results of my first engineering course. The grade was in the top right hand corner of the exam paper. There is was – the letter “F” circled in red. At that point I remember all the differences I heard between competing at a top university with top competition was true. If I expected to graduate from this University with top grades, I needed to work much harder.
I recovered
To make a long story short, I studied every night after receiving that grade, even if didn’t have to. My modified mission was to achieve a grade point necessary to get into the targeted graduate program. I went on to earn my Bachelors (BSEE) and Masters of Science in Electrical Engineering (MSEE). Later in my career I got a Masters in Business Administration (MBA) Degree and I’m a Graduate of Harvard University’s Graduate School of Business Administration.
Have Fun Achieving Your Dream
A most critical ingredient in achieving your Dream is to have fun doing it. Sometimes in our pursuit of a goal, we get so deeply involved and focused on what we are after that we forget those who are most important. Fun times spent with family and friends help to keep things in balance. Sometimes we think it’s OK to neglect our family because the goal we are so focused on will result in their betterment. Spend time with your family enjoying life. It will energize you and better equip you to tackle your goals. A healthy relationship with family and friends is about living life to its fullest with the ones we love most.
Sincerely,
George
Response Magic