Stop all that Dreaming. Start Doing

Are you ready to stop dreaming and start doing?

It’s easy to become a habitual planner.  For years I prided myself on my elite organizational skills, my keen strategic planning, my penchant for detailed to-do lists.  And then one day I realized ten years had gone by and most of my great plans had yet to materialize.  That’s when it hit me…

I wasn’t really planning at all… I was just dreaming.  And worst, I was working very hard at disguising those dreams as “plans.”  Once I woke up to that fact, I realized I needed to stop dreaming, and start doing.

Are you in a similar situation?

A plan is a great tool to have, and no doubt you’ll hear me advise to no end that you’ll never get anywhere if you don’t know where you’re headed.  But plans lose their value if they’re never put into action.  A plan without action is merely a dream.

Even the most unlikely paths to success or riches or fame, like winning the jackpot lottery, require some type of action.  The lotto agency actually has a solid point when it says, “You can’t win if you don’t play.”  If you only dream of winning the lotto, but never go buy that darn ticket, you’ll have absolutely no chance.

Now, that’s not to say there is no value in dreaming either, but a dream without action is, well, just a dream.  And although combining a dream with a plan is intrinsically rewarding, ultimately the best you end up with is a vision.   Remove action from the equation, however, and your vision never gets a chance to become reality.

A self-made sage, of course, would never resort to unlikely chances of a lottery win as part of their personal success strategy.  But this point should be well taken: success begins with action.   A step, no matter how small, gets you moving.   And sometimes that’s you need to do… is to get moving.

To recap,

A dream with a plan = a vision
A vision without action = motionless; stuck in neutral
A vision with action = a step towards success.

   Dream
+ Plan
+ Action
Success!