12 Steps to Make a Dream a Reality

Via Marc and Angel Hack Life: 

Step #1 – Lose the negative attitude.  Think positively.

Negative thinking creates negative results.  Positive thinking creates positive results.  Period.

Every one of the other suggestions below are irrelevant if your mind is stuck in the gutter.  Positive thinking is at the forefront of every great success story.  The mind must believe it can do something before it is capable of actually doing it.  For some practical positive thinking guidance I recommend reading The Power of Positive Thinking.

Step #2 – Figure out what you really want out of life.

You’ll be running on a hamster wheel forever if you never decide where you want to go.  Figure out what’s meaningful to you so you can be who you were born to be.

Some of us were born to be musicians – to communicate intricate thoughts and rousing feelings with the strings of a guitar.  Some of us were born to be poets – to touch people’s hearts with exquisite prose.  Some of us were born to be entrepreneurs – to create growth and opportunity where others saw rubbish.  And still, some of us were born to be or do whatever it is, specifically, that moves you.

Don’t waste your life fulfilling someone else’s dreams and desires.  You must follow your intuition and make a decision.

Step #3 – Surround yourself with great people.

You are the sum of the people you spend the most time with.  If you hang with the wrong people, they will negatively affect you.  But if you hang with the right people, you will be far more capable and powerful than you ever could have been alone.  Find your tribe and work together to make a difference in all of your lives. Tribes by Seth Godin is a great read on this topic.

Step #4 – Work on it for real.

The harder you work the luckier you will become.  Stop waiting around for things to work out.  If you keep doing what you’re doing, you’ll keep getting what you’re getting.

While many of us decide at some point during the course of our lives that we want to answer our calling, only an astute few of us actually work on it.  By “working on it,” I mean truly devoting oneself to the end result.  The rest of us never act on our decision.  Or, at best, we pretend to act on it by putting forth an uninspired, half-assed effort.

Remember, life is not easy, especially when you plan on achieving something worthwhile.  Achieving your dreams can be a lot of work.  Be ready for it.

Step #5 – Don’t make life harder than it needs to be.

Life is challenging enough without you senselessly complicating the simple.

As Oscar Wilde once said, “Life is not complex.  We are complex.  Life is simple, and the simple thing is the right thing.”

Read our article 60 Ways To Make Life Simple Again for good a reminder.

Step #6 – Exploit the resources you do have access to.

It’s not about having the right resources; it’s about exploiting the resources you do have access to.

Stevie Wonder couldn’t see, so he exploited his sense of hearing into a passion for music, and he now has 25 Grammy Awards to prove it.

Get it?

See the rest right here! 

{photo via Kate Spade}