Living your dream… the four stages you’re going to encounter

Life can be a rollercoaster ride, especially if you have decided to follow your heart and dreams. From the moment you wave your old way of living and thinking goodbye and moving unto a life of success and a spirit of excellence things are just never the same again.

Even if you still work for another five years in that mediocre job you hate so much, somehow it doesn’t feel the same. Why? Because you have made the decision to follow your dreams, you have written down your vision and goals and now you are working towards it.

And then it happens, you finally get that dream job or the promotion you were working for. Maybe you can finally start your own business.

One day you are still thinking about it and the next day you start your dream job and it feels like everything is happening at once. You learn, you struggle, you develop new skills and you work harder than you have ever worked in your life. You see your dream becoming reality in front of your eyes. You are living it!

It’s a crazy, busy time where you sometimes feel as if you are holding on just with your fingertips and other times if you are on top of the world. Step-by-step, day-by-day you struggle to get everything under control. Your friends don’t see you, you forget to post on Facebook. You live on adrenaline and most probably caffeine.

Somewhere along the line, it might be days, it might be weeks, you start to realize this is your new normal now. You are living your dream. Things are more under control, the systems are in place, you are finally starting to feel like you know what you are doing, and you start to live along the new rhythm of your life. The new routines. The new way of thinking and doing. Slowly but surely you realize that you have some time available again to call up a friend, to spend a bit more time with the family...

You are still very busy, but somewhere in the back of your mind, there is an uneasiness brewing. After the first rush of excitement has settled down, you might find yourself a bit worn out, overwhelmed and just plain tired.

You even might start to wonder if you doing something wrong, why do you suddenly have the time to watch your favourite show on TV again?
Relax. All that has happened is that you have now settled in. You are now doing things faster as in the beginning because you now know how, and you have put schedules and systems in place that are actually working.

Use the bits of extra time to get the fine balance between work and play back into your life. Save your energy, build your mental muscles, because the next stage is going to tax you.

There will come times when you feel like nothing is happening. Maybe your new business had a growth spurt in the beginning and suddenly there is no growth. No new customers, new franchises, new projects to take on. Or maybe your dream and goal are to lose a lot of weight. In the beginning, you worked hard, followed the new diet, struggled to get used to the new lifestyle, but week after week you saw the results.
Then, one day out of the blue, you are working just as hard, still eating exactly as you should, but nothing happens! This stage can last for weeks and it can be more draining on you than the first stage.

If it feels like nothing is happening anymore. If you can’t see the results of your hard work, it’s so easy to feel that it’s not worth it. It’s so easy to feel like you just want to give up and go back to being a couch potato. You might even catch yourself looking at job advertisements of that one kind of job you did for years. You know the one that you secretly hated, but if you think about it now... were you not happier? Didn’t you have more security? Oh, and that holiday bonus… maybe... STOP!

When you are in the midst of the oh so normal, slightly boring, but totally nerve-racking phase 3, you don’t give yourself time to long for a life or a job you didn’t like. No! Go back to your vision and goals. Remind yourself WHY you are doing this. Refocus. Now is the time to call on your mentors for advice, to gather more knowledge on your field of expertise, to join forums, go to seminars and workshops. To stay motivated. To keep working.

You will get through this dreaded phase 3. That numbers on the scale will fall again. The projects will come in again. Don’t give up. Sooner or later you will reach the final stage.

This is the stage where you have reached your initial goals. You are finally fit and healthy. Your new business is running like a business should. You have written that book. Either this can be the start of working towards a new vision or dream or you can just keep up the good work that you have done so far. Always with a new goal to work to, be that to expand your business or start training for the Comrades. You now know what to expect and you are in the position to mentor all the others following in your footsteps. Go for it. Enjoy living your dream!