How to make space for your dreams
We all live busy lives. They’re packed full with to-dos, responsibilities, jobs, businesses, things we need to take care of on a daily basis. It’s easy to get stuck in a routine that keeps little room for change. And when dreaming big is concerned, change is what we’re after.
In my coaching practice, but also in my life in general I come across a lot of clutter that keeps so many big dreamers from achieving their dreams. The thing is, if you’re going after your big dreams you need to make room for them to come alive. And that’s where I see a lot of people get stuck.
If you dream about more free time to spend doing what you love, but you keep binging on Netflix every chance you get, you’re not making space for your dream. If your big dream is to become a writer, but your desk is so cluttered that even a post-it note won’t fit on it, you’re not giving your dream a chance. That’s why making room for your dreams to come alive is so important.
How do you make room for your dreams?
Make space
Space is a broad concept. Sometimes for our dreams to come alive we need to make physical space for them, like in the example of the cluttered desk above. Sometimes the space we need to make is less literal, like a change in the way we spend our time, or a mental uncluttering so we can have more room to think, be creative, see things from a new perspective that will help us achieve our big dreams. If you’re not making progress on your dreams, clutter might be the culprit. So look around you, and inside of you for what might take up space and keep your dreams from blooming.
Let go of what doesn’t serve you
Imagine you’re a bookkeeper who’s big dream is to become a chef. You’re used to finding answers to most of your questions in books, or online. So you set out to learn how to cook the same way – after all that’s how you do everything! Quickly you realize it isn’t working. It’s lonely in the kitchen with just books. Sometimes you’re lost, not sure you’re doing it right or what the result should be.
We’ve all learned to do a million things in a million particular ways. As humans that need to operate in society, keep ourselves alive, make a living, raise families this is an incredible bag of tricks to have. It usually serves us well, and makes our lives easier. The issue with all these acquired ways of thinking, seeing, and doing things is that often achieving big dreams requires a new set of skills, another approach, a different perspective.
That’s why it’s important to check in with yourself regularly, and let go of what doesn’t serve you anymore. Our bookkeeper above clearly isn’t getting anywhere by applying a strategy that worked well for other areas of her life. By checking in with herself she realizes she needs to let go of her books, and find someone to actually show her how it’s done so she signs up for a cooking class. From there she enrolls in a cooking school, earns a degree, starts her own restaurant, and achieves her big dream.
Focus on how you want to feel
Often the room our dreams need to come alive relates to the way those dreams will eventually take shape. When we have a goal or dream in mind we have a mental picture of what our life will look like once that dream comes true. That mental picture can take up so much space, that there’s little room left for the dream to take on a shape of its own.
Someone dreaming of love, passion, and romance might be stuck on the mental picture that achieving her dream can only be within the unhappy relationship she’s in. By detaching from the outcome – infuse passion in a relationship that no longer works – and focusing on how she wants to feel instead – loved, and wanted – she’s able to let go of the mental picture that it can only happen with her current partner, and create room for a new relationship that can make her dream come true.
If you want more tips to get unstuck, I’ve got great news for you! This tip is part of a series, you can find all entries here.
