Moving From Where You Are To Where You Need To Be

Almost everyone dreams of a better life or version of ourselves. We can envision ourselves living in that beautiful home, having happy families, thriving businesses or fulfilling jobs. But, unfortunately for some people, these things will just remain what they are… dreams. Not all of us manage to make those dreams come true even though we all have potential and ability to. Why is that? It is because dreaming is easy. The challenge is making your dreams a reality.

Moving from dreaming to living the dream requires so much from us, but sometimes we overthink it. The world seems to believe that success only comes from suffering and sleepless nights… aka, “The Hustle”. Many success stories have that part, and hard work is certainly required. However, sometimes all we need to do is plan well, work smart, get enough rest, stay healthy and be consistent.

These everyday steps can help us move from where we are to where we need to be: 

Prioritize your mental health – you can have all the plans and good intentions, but if your mental health is suffering, the journey from where you are to where you need to be will be more than just a struggle. It is critical for you to wake up and remind yourself that you have and are all it takes to get where you need to be. This will require you to stay away from energy sucks, negative people, and anything that makes you doubt your capabilities. 

Be grateful for what you already have – gratitude is one of the best ways to keep us at a high energetic frequency and stay motivated. Counting your blessings gives you the hope that you do stand a chance to get the things that you still dream of… because when you’re grateful for what you have, you always receive more. Gratitude also shifts our focus from negative things which helps clear our minds and enables us to see things from a different point of view.

Remind yourself why you chose the path that you are walking – sometimes all you need to do to get yourself motivated is to remind yourself why you chose to be the person you are or want to be. When you feel like giving up everything, returning to your purpose helps you find yourself back to your feet again. The thought of what you lose by allowing yourself to give up will not give you peace. You are then left with no choice but to keep moving forward.

Revisit your set of principles and acknowledge that you have boundaries when you need to make a decision – when we keep our principles and acknowledge we have boundaries, or limits to what we can physically do, in mind as we make decisions, we remind ourselves why other choices may never work for us.

Do what you have to do – strategies do not implement themselves. You have to take action. Success is an endurance game, and laziness is what fails most people. Good people with good plans included. Make it a point that you fight the spirit of laziness with all you have else your goals will be nothing but dreams.

Get enough rest – one of the mistakes that we make is overworking. Learn the difference between working hard and hitting burnout. Yes, you can make more money and gain more experience by working hard, but you need to listen when your body starts screaming for help. Exhaustion affects us mentally and physically, and negatively impacts our focus and performance. We might end up having to pay hospital bills with that hard-earned money, or taking forced time off to recover, instead of just enjoying it and investing in who we want to be.

Stop the comparison game – we see so many people living the ‘good life’ on social media without stopping to consider whether it is real or not. Regardless, it is not your race. Protect yourself from unnecessary anxiety and feeling like a failure by staying in your lane. Remember that we’re all human, nobody is perfect, and your version of success will be different from everyone else.

Trust the process and be easy on yourself – it’s normal to have moments where we feel as if our dreams are taking too long and start doubting if they will ever come true. Be patient and remind yourself that you haven't failed yet. Life is not just about that one dream. We will always have things to work on. This includes personal development, and gaining work experience among other things. Find something to keep yourself occupied and growing as you wait for the 'bigger' part of your dream to start moving.

Build or strengthen your connections – be it socially or in the workplace, we need people we can rely on when things are tough or we are discouraged. Make it a point to build and maintain good relationships with people who understand and believe in your dreams, so that you can get the help you need when things get hard. Remember to not step on people on your way up. You might need them on your way down.