“It’s never to late to set a new goal or dream a new dream”
~C.S. Lewis
Goals are the markers that help you accomplish your dream. A dream is filled with many goals to help you see the fulfillment of what fills your heart. A dream is a vision of future expectation or destination.
Dreams that come from the head don’t often move past the hand. But, dreams that start in the heart can shape a destiny and impact eternity. Every great leader is a part-time dreamer, not a day-dreamer. There is a difference. A day-dreamer spends all their time going through the motions of life while their dreams flit and flutter in the alternate reality of their mind. If you want your dream to become a reality, then you must start with the correct reality.
There are four character qualities that are critical to anyone seeking to unlock their dream: passion, humility, courage & discipline.
Keys to unlocking your dream:
#1 – Discover it
Simon Sinek says, “People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.” This statement applies to the leader dreamer because until you know why you are doing what you are doing, you are simply going through the motions. Leaders must seek to discover their own why. Discovering your why is like digging into your purpose, your meaning. Once you’ve arrived, then you know where you are heading. People don’t buy blank airline tickets and hop on the first plane hoping to get to Hawaii, but the pilot’s flight plan says Detroit. Discover the why in your dream and then set your destination.
This requires passion. Passion is the energy that will at first help you dig into your dream and later sustain your dream.
#2 – Set the Destination
Once you know the why behind your dream, then you can plot the course for your destination. You can actually begin to put the preparation for the dream in motion. This is when you should actually start the dreaming process: what could we accomplish, when could we do it, how would it begin, who can help me part.
This stage requires humility. If don’t approach this stage with a humble attitude, then you will get humble. There are only two approaches to humility in life, and both require pain: to humble yourself or to be humbled. Humbling yourself is far less painful than being humbled.
#3 – Departure
Nothing says “I’m really doing this” like actually doing it. The dream can’t stay inside your heart or your head. The dream must move to your feet, to your hands and to your resources. You actually have to get on the plane and take off. This is called a strategic bet. A strategic bet is where investment meets your idea. Ideas without investment are called wishes! And because there are no magic fairies or genies in lamps, wishes don’t come true without investment. What are you willing to invest to see your dream become your destiny?
This stage of the dream requires courage. You actually have to take a risk, pay a price and count the cost. Courage is not thinking you are brave, but actually going out and being brave.
#4 – Share it
Your dream will require help. Most dreams are built through others believing and buying into your vision of the future. A really exciting dream is on that engages others to see themselves in the dream that was born with you.
Truett Cathy had a dream to build a restaurant chain from a hand-fileted, hand-breaded, boneless breast of chicken served on a toasted, buttered bun with two pickles. But to build a chain, to go big in your dream, always requires the help of others. Enter a young, engineer named Jimmy Collins and a young, accountant named James “Buck” McCabe. Both of these young men, pursing dreams of their own came across this young entrepreneur, Truett Cathy and bought into his dream. But, they never could have bought into the dream if Truett had shared his dream with them. Both men were not only critical and instrumental to Truett, but absolutely vital in the building of Truett Cathy’s chicken-steak sandwich into the multi-billion dollar restaurant chain called Chick-fil-A. Both Jimmy and Buck served over 35 years as the CEO and CFO of Chick-fil-A, Inc, respectively.
This portion takes more humility. The leader must entrust his dream to capable and competent people who have greater vision and insight into how to make the dream a reality, perhaps even taking it beyond where it began.
#5 – Direct it
If your dream doesn’t have a director it will never happen. Movies without directors are simply writer’s scripts or producer’s hopes. Your dream must have you directing it. This is why leadership is critical to the fulfillment of your dream. The leader must see each twist and turn as a new chapter, each obstacle as a new opportunity and each hand of adversity as the basis for new initiatives and creativity. There will be challenges, but the untested dream is an un-trusted dream. Testing is good for your dream and your team. Adversity that leads to action serves to strengthen your dream.
This stage of the dream requires discipline. It’s easy to loose focus at this stage of the dream, because patience is required. You will never experience your dream if you are not disciplined. It’s like a flight that has a layover. Instead of getting on the next leg of the flight to reach your final destination, you stay at your lay-over stop. Many, many leaders have forfeited seeing the fulfillment of their dreams because they got comfortable or discouraged at a layover or delay. Remember, delays are not always denials. Discipline is the inner fortitude to stay the course no matter the cost, no matter the time and no matter the setbacks. Discipline makes dreams come true.
Final thought: Your dream will not occur because of chance, your dream will will come to pass because of the choices you make.
Truett Cathy said, “Each person’s destiny is not a matter of chance; it’s a matter of choice. It’s determined by what we say, what we do, and whom we trust.”
Wise words for a man who saw his dream of a chicken-steak sandwich transformed into the nearly $7 billion dollar a year restaurant chain called Chick-fil-A!
