Transform Your Dreams into Reality: Why Waiting Won't Work

Is this you? You have dreams you want to follow, changes you want to make in your life, and ambitions you want to fulfil, but you are just so busy and worn out from living on the hamster wheel of modern life. Between your day job, looking after your family, and other things like health issues and financial worries, your dreams never move up from the very bottom of your lengthy to-do list. ?Every night, you go to bed frustrated that another day has passed without following your heart and vowing to do better the next day.

If even part of this resonates with you, I am with you. This is an accurate description of most days in my life, and, full disclosure, I am writing this advice for myself as much as for anyone else.

I still cannot rid myself of the idea that, at some point, everything else in my life will be neatly boxed away, largely taking care of itself, leaving me to finally do what I dream of doing—building a career as a full-time writer. Intellectually, I know that this is a pile of tosh. Life is messy and complicated, and every day, stuff happens that we do not see coming. That will never change. The day when we can focus on our dreams alone, day after day, will just not come. Even if you win a fortune on the lottery today, multiple pressures will always be on your time and energy.

I know what it is to feel tired all the time. I know what it is like to be in a position where?you barely have the energy to feed yourself and collapse on the couch after completing all the other things you must do. I know how frustrating this feels because I am still there most days myself.

So, what can we do about this predicament, which seems to be a symptom of modern life for many?

Firstly, give yourself a pat on the back. Why? You have seen that it does not have to be this way. You have dared to dream of a better life doing the things that fulfil you, not the things you feel trapped into doing just to exist. Not everyone can do that. Not everyone has a vision for themselves that they are trying to pursue. Not everyone knows their passion and is itching to put it into practice to make it the focus of their life, not an optional extra when time and energy allows. You have already completed step one.

Next, try to understand that the perfect time does not exist. There is always a reason not to follow your dream today, often several very good reasons that it is impossible to argue with. But that is not going to change. Once we truly understand that, our perspective changes. We stop waiting and start looking for opportunities in the present.

I am not going to suggest things like stopping watching TV to reclaim that time for your passion. Obviously, if you watch TV for 12 hours a day while doing nothing else, there is an obvious fix, but I do not think that many of us are doing that. We are so exhausted after another stressful day that we don’t just want to relax; we need to. You can do nothing if you are completely exhausted.

But what works for me is trying to carve out little nuggets of time through the day to write, usually without planning too far ahead. I am autistic and ADHD, so if I tell myself that I am going to write for an hour at 10 am, that immediately becomes a pressure and a burden, and so will almost certainly not happen. But what does work is finding myself with an idea, nothing I need to do for at least the next few minutes, so I grab my laptop or phone and start typing.

That may not work for you. Having a timetable and a plan may be just the motivation and organisation you need to make it happen. We are all different, which is why you have read so much advice about being more productive that does not work for you. It may well have worked for the person who shared it with good intentions, but your brain works very differently, and your life is poles apart from theirs. You are not doing anything wrong; you are just a different person, which is your strength.

So here is my one big piece of advice, and it is nothing hugely profound or clever. Start now. That ideal time is not ever going to happen. As soon as you finish reading this, do one thing towards your dream, however tiny. Writing five words or jotting down an idea is a start and a million times better than nothing. Then try to repeat it every time you get a moment and are not completely exhausted. You will be amazed at?how quickly those tiny steps mount up into something significant, and you build a new habit.

Then let me know how you get on. Let’s build our new lives together, one moment at a time.

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