Make Time to Dream

I’ve always struggled with New Years resolutions, though I participated in the process. I created resolutions around weight loss, meditation, scheduling, things I wanted to achieve in the course of the year. Some resolutions made it to my list simply because they were the type of resolutions we’re supposed to make, like eating healthier or getting to the gym more. Others were a bit more personal.

What I’ve come to realize after years of broken resolutions and watching what behaviors I have been able to shift to regular habits is that it all comes down to vision.

And I’ve struggled with vision. They tell you that you need to have a 2-year and 5-year plan for your business. You have to know where you’re going. Yet my business has changed and grown so quickly, I find myself shifting plans every 3-6 months, making it hard to spend time formulating such long-term plans when I’m learning so much that affect what I want and how we do things.

But in the past two weeks I keep coming back to this truth: if we don’t look up to see the mountain we must climb, to know there’s a path beyond that, and solely stay focused on each single step we take, we may never reach the summit and what’s beyond it.

When it comes to vision, you can refine. But you can’t refine if you never take the time to dream.

I realized this morning that I haven’t had time to dream in a very long time. I’ve been shifting and adjusting, but with no real vision in mind. I want things to be better, ideal. I want our clients to be happy, I want to deepen a wonderful relationship with my boyfriend, I want to be there for family and friends, I want to travel, I want to learn new things. But it’s been disjointed, like little pieces of a puzzle that might be part of the same picture but seemingly don’t fit together well.

I haven’t created the space to dream. I haven’t dedicated the time to imagine the bigger picture of my life and where I’m going.

So the first step I’m taking is finding a day to dedicate to dreaming and visioning.

And then I’m going to ask myself some hard questions:

Who do I want to be?

What do I need to do daily, weekly, monthly to live as that person?

How do I want to help people?

How do I want to be remembered?

What specifically needs to change in my life and my business?

What tasks do I need to keep doing, delegate, stop doing, or start doing?

Part of me is afraid to do the work, knowing there may be a rather wide gap that I need to cross. But what do I risk if I don’t allow myself this time? My sanity? My freedom? My very spirit?