Did it happen to you that you hear about some entrepreneur who became extremely successful with a new creative product and you think “Oh, I thought about that years ago!”?
We all have ideas that we’d like to see come true. But, it takes more than thought to create something from a mere idea. Whether you have an idea for a heated snow shovel or you want to spend a year living in Thailand, you have some work to do. Moving from an idea to reality is a skill that anyone can learn.
Bring your best ideas to life with these strategies:
1. Be clear on your outcome. Lots of people have vague ideas of what they would like: more free time, more money, or a better body. But, this is very different than specifically knowing that you want to make $100,000 per year or weigh less than 160 pounds. Specificity is important.
- If you’re not clear on what you desire, you can’t expect to achieve it. How would you even know if you did?
2. Visualize daily. Once you have a clear goal, it’s important to remind yourself about it each day. How many times have you set a New Year’s resolution, only to forget about it three weeks later? Just a few minutes each day can be enough to keep your goals fresh in your mind.
- Re-writing your goals each day is another option.
3. Consider your resources. You might only need yourself to be successful, but you might need much more. Think about the people, time, knowledge, and skills you might need.
4. Break the process down into steps. What are the logical steps to get from where you are to where you want to be? Whether your idea is to build a business, lift 500 pounds, or invent a new gadget, consider how you will get there.
- Start at the end and work your way back until you reach a step you can begin today.
5. Start at the beginning. In other words, don’t worry just yet about how you’re going to complete step 8. Just worry about taking care of the first step. Trust that you’ll find a way to take care of the latter stages of your journey when the time comes.
6. Take action each day. Make a habit of working on your dream at least a little each day. It’s too easy to procrastinate if you only work on it occasionally. Believe that doing a little each day can bring significant progress over time.
7. Assess your progress. It’s not enough to just lower your head and grunt your way to your goal without putting any thought behind it. It’s important to regularly take a look at how things are going.
- What could you improve upon? In what ways are you wasting your time? How much progress have you made? Lift your head up and check on how you’re doing.
8. Never give up. Aside from not having a clear outcome in mind, this is likely the biggest issue people have with going from idea to reality. Most of us give up far too easily. There will be plenty of hiccups along the way. It’s important to stick with it until you’re successful.
- Practice perseverance in your everyday life. Avoid giving up on the small things, and you’ll be better at sticking with the big things.
What do you think about doing, seeing, or accomplishing? What are you doing to make those things happen? There are many gurus that want you to believe that happy thoughts alone can change your reality. Take responsibility for your life and do your own creating. You can turn your thoughts and ideas into reality, starting today!
