Moving From Where You Are To Where You Need To Be

lmost everyone dreams of a better life or version of ourselves. We can see ourselves in houses we see in magazines and the television, we see ourselves having happy families, businesses, or good jobs. But, unfortunately for some people, these things will just remain what they are; dreams. Not all of us get to make our dreams come true even though we all have to potential and ability to. Why is that? It is because dreaming is easy. The challenge is with making the dreams a reality.

Moving from dreaming to living the dream requires so much from us. Sometimes we overthink it though. The world seems to believe that success only comes when we suffer and spend sleepless nights. Many success stories have that part. However, sometimes all we need to do is plan well, work smart, get enough rest, and stay healthy. We can follow these everyday steps to move from where we are to where we need to be: 

1. Prioritize your mental health – you can have all the good plans in place but if you have mental health issues, your journey from where you are to where you need to be will be more than just a struggle. It is, therefore, necessary for you to wake up and remind yourself that you have and are all it takes to get where you need to be. This will require you to keep away from negative people or anything that makes you doubt your capabilities. 
2. Be grateful for what you already have – gratitude is one way to keep us in a good mood and get motivation. Counting your blessings gives you the hope that you do stand a chance to get the things that you still dream of. Gratitude also shifts our focus from negative things which helps clear our minds and enables us to see things from a different point of view. 
3. Remind yourself why you chose the path that you are walking – sometimes all you need to do to get yourself motivated is to remind yourself why you chose to be the person you are or want to be. Where you were starting to feel like giving up everything, this helps you find yourself back to your feet again. The thought of what you lose by allowing yourself to give up and be something else will not give you peace. You are then left with no choice but to soldier on.
4. Revisit your set of principles and boundaries when you need to make a decision – when we keep our principles and boundaries in mind as we make decisions, we remind ourselves why other choices may never work for us.
5. Do what you have to do – strategies do not implement themselves. Get up and work. Laziness is what fails most people. Good people with good plans included. Make it a point that you fight the spirit of laziness with all you have else your goals will be nothing but dreams.
6. Get enough rest – one of the mistakes that we make is overworking. Learn the difference between working hard and overworking yourself. Yes, you can make more money and gain more experience when you overwork but you need to listen when your body starts screaming for help. Exhaustion can affect us mentally and physically. We might end up having to pay hospital bills with the hard-earned money instead of just enjoying it and investing in who we want to be. When we are well-rested we also function better. 
7. Do not envy – there is so much that we see around us which appears like ‘good life’. Well, we will not bother to talk about whether it is real or not. The point is, real or not, it is not your race. Protect yourself from unnecessary heartache and feeling like a failure by staying in your lane.
8. Trust the process and be easy on yourself – we do get moments where we feel as if our dreams are taking too long and we start doubting if they will ever come true. Be patient and remind yourself that you haven’t failed yet. Life is not just about that one dream. We will always have things to work on. This includes character development and gaining work experience among other things. Find something to keep yourself occupied and growing as you wait for the ‘bigger’ part of your dream to start moving.
9. Build or strengthen your connections – be it socially or in the workplace, we need people we can rely on when things are tough or we are discouraged. Make it a point to build and maintain good relationships who understand and believe in your dreams so that you can get the help you need when things get hard. Remember to not step on people on your way up. You might need them on your way down.