Let me introduce you to Emma Hooked. Of course Emma’s not a real person, but what Emma is addicted to is very real. Emma is addicted to tomorrow.
This morning Emma felt herself coming out of the shallow, restless nights sleep and for a brief moment she felt a surge of hope and exhilaration. That inner voice she converses with every day says to her, “Tomorrow is here!”
All day yesterday she’d been looking forward to ‘tomorrow’ and now, at last, it was here! For over 15 years Emma has lived in the hope each tomorrow would be the one she no longer lived and hoped for…… tomorrow!
Emma has held on to this promise of tomorrow for years and every day, one after another, she has been let down.
Emma is addicted to tomorrow. She goes through every day living and dreaming tomorrow her life will change. So, as Emma wakes up on this fresh, brand new tomorrow, she opens her eyes with the same hopeful expectation she’s had for a thousand tomorrows before. She goes through the morning routine and enters the rat race called ‘making a living’ and by the time evening turns into night – she is once again preparing for another tomorrow.
Maybe tomorrow things will change.
Maybe tomorrow she will change.
Maybe tomorrow her boss will change and maybe tomorrow she’ll start to feel she’s living her dream instead of simply surviving.
Maybe tomorrow she’ll wake up and find, somehow, in some miraculous way, all her debts, relationship identity problems will have been solved. Maybe tomorrow she will have a sense of living a life of fulfillment and purpose.
Maybe tomorrow. Emma is addicted to tomorrow.
So, how does Emma go about overcoming this addiction?
There are four steps to overcoming the Tomorrow Addiction:
1. Clarify The Dream
2. Think Small Steps Rather Than Large
3. Narrow The Focus
4. Work On The Dream
Today I will cover Steps One & Two.
Step One: Clarify The Dream
The first step for Emma to take in breaking her addiction to tomorrow is to clarify her dream and this means to get it out of the domain of her imagination and into a succinct, written statement.
Without this statement her dream simply remains a fantasy, an abstract in her mind. Emma’s ‘Tomorrow Addiction’ is fuelled by a lack of commitment to a written, clarified dream.
Here’s a profound question Emma needs to consider as she begins to clarify her dream: If I knew it would not fail, what would I set out to accomplish in the next 24 months?
So, let’s bring it back to helping you clarify your dream, rather than our make believe Emma Hooked.
I invite you grab a blank piece of paper and give some thought to these questions.
- Is there a latent talent you want to develop and have never really taken that step?
- Maybe you’ve wanted to turn your creativity into a business for the last three years but you haven’t felt confident in doing so?
- What would you love to do with your life if you had the time and resources? Travel? Volunteer work? A craft or hobby?
- Is your dream to work in a certain profession or live in a particular place?
- Does your dream involve simple things like having more time to work in your garden, spend more time with family or friends, or have time for walks or to read books.
- Is your dream an event to help you reach your life’s purpose, one that may be completed in a few months, or it can be a life long pursuit.
Overcoming the Tomorrow Addiction starts with this step – clarifying your dream and clarifying means writing it down, getting it out of your imagination.
When you clarify the dream, you have unleashed a powerful motivator, which enables you to start making changes in your life – today!
The first step in breaking the Tomorrow Addiction is to clarify and express it – write it down! A clarified, written dream will help you become confident and alive and this is the beginning of breaking the Tomorrow Addiction.
Step Two: Think Small Steps Rather Than Large
So, you’ve clarified your dream and you want to start pursuing it, but don’t know how?
The most common mistake is thinking only large steps and big actions is the way to break the addiction to tomorrow.
Think again!
The most effective way to break the addiction to tomorrow is to think small steps.
In other words, once you have clarified the dream, then you sit and answer four ‘step’ oriented questions:
1. What are the three most important things I ‘must’ start doing that I am not doing now – so I can start pursuing my clarified dream today?
2. What is stopping me (obstacles) from doing these three things?
3. What must I start or stop doing in order for me to overcome these obstacles?
4. Who do I need to connect with, as a support companion, to help me overcome these obstacles and start pursuing my clarified dream?
Answering these four questions starts the dream pursuit process and prepares you for the third step.
Next week we’ll look at Steps Three & Four as you start breaking the addiction to tomorrow.
Until then……DARE TO DREAM!
Eugene