5 Steps to Bring Dreams into Reality
Reading time 2 mins
They talk a good talk…
A lot of people talk a good talk. They have wonderful, inspiring dreams – that one day they’ll be healthier, fitter, happier, have more friends, be more successful. And they keep dreaming about what they want.
They really enjoy living the dream – or, to be precise, living in the dream. And by living in the dream they get some of the feelings which the dream would bring them and this is what makes them so believable – even to themselves.
Problem is it’s just a dream…
They are talking the talk but not walking their talk.
The 5 Steps
This month’s Pegasus NLP Newsletter is about what needs to happen to move from dreaming to making it happen. By using NLP we can identify 5 stages that we need to go through:
- Selecting a dream that appeals to us
- Making the dream into a goal – using, for example, our own NLP PECSAW Model
- Listing action steps that link Today with the Future when we have achieved the dream
- Taking action – which sounds simple but is the stage at which most of us NLPers stumble. Everything up to now has been intellectual – now we’ve got to actually do things.
- Maintaining motivation – even when the going gets tough. And this requires being very clear about why making our dream a reality is important to us.
The 5 stages or steps are pretty obvious once they are mapped out. Yet if we each look back over our own Great New Beginnings – the ones which quickly fizzled out – we can identity where we slipped up.
Hope deferred…
There is a biblical saying which goes “Hope deferred makes the heart sick.” It’s very insightful: the more we defer our dreams the less we feel good.
And having lots of dream and plans which we never bring into reality is deferring hope. And can make us sceptical about ‘all this positive thinking stuff.’ The solution is not to avoid having dreams but to have a way of linking them with action. Hence the 5 stages.
The future is the result of what we are doing right now. What you or I have been doing over the past week or two is what is creating the future we are heading towards. Not what we are going to do when we have time.
There are more articles on NLP & Goals
On our main website site
The NLP goal-designing method
NLP Goals and how to avoid regret
The ‘future on wheels’ pattern
NLP and the need to focus on what you DO want!
5 Tips for those New Year goals
Dreams into Reality – The 5 Steps (This one)
Hi Reg
It’s easier when your goals have measureable steps but it seems much harder when there is no way of checking your progress or you don’t know what steps you need to take to improve yourself/ your skills. Can you offer any advice on this?
Tara
First of all, sorry for the delay in responding. For some reason your comment originally ended up in the “spam folder”.
Yes, a lot of goals are measurable in terms of units. However personal goals need to be designed using a model such as the Pegasus NLP PECSAW model and evaluated in terms of this model’s Evidence step.
Let’s say that my goal is to be able to handle a certain type of difficult customer more confidentially. The initial Evidence will be defined by me in terms of how I intend to look, and sound, and be interacting with them.
So my en route progress will be measured according to how differently I’m doing it now compared with when I started – and how nearly my current behaviour approximates my ultimate goal.
Hiya,
Great post, i really believe that applying the skills & techniques used in NLP can absolutely aid & help anyone to achieving their dreams/goals! The thing that holds most people back first off is their lack of self belief & confidence. NLP can help with this, then it is a case of getting those goals down seeing them & feeling them & following through step by step. Living in the present moment helps greatly with this!
Will check out your Pegasus NLP PECSAW model, sounds great 🙂
Many Thanks
Bex
Hi Bex
Yes, and living in the moment is often seen as contradicting the goal-focused approach.
i believe they can co-exist. It’s easier to live in the moment if your well-designed goals are in place.
Reg
PS: apologies for the delay – a batch of comments were picked up as spam – I’ve only just discovered this.