How I turned my daydreams
Into day-schemes
Are you a daydreamer or a doer? If you are a daydreamer, you may feel that it is impossible to be both. In this article, I am going to share how I turned my daydreams into day-schemes, and became both a daydreamer and a doer!
I had walked into the local cafe, ordered a hot latte, and sat down with anticipation as I pulled out my laptop. I was going to make things happen. I was, I really was! But instead, I sat there, as I did every day, daydreaming. Making lists. Looking at pictures taken by photographers, in places I wanted to be. And slowly, all of my eager anticipation was replaced with a sinking depression. What I realized was that I had been doing this every day for a whole year, and there I still was. Sitting in the same cafe, probably in the same chair! Sure I was full of hope, but I was no closer than before.
But the daydreaming and the lists and the pictures were not the problem. The problem was that I didn’t couple those things with the actual work required to achieve them. And also, my daydreams were usually just pretty, but had no foundation in goals.
So in order to make my daydreams a reality, I started by making a list that required action on my part. Below is my guide to turning your daydreams into dayschemes.
#1. I Stopped Procrastinating
I can think of few scenarios where procrastination has positive results. The whole idea of delaying something that you could simply do and be done with, is the opposite of productivity. Well, obviously. But what I realized was that I could easily post-pone small things every day, push them into the next day, and into the day after that, until months at a time were lost. It happened to me. While I was innocently putting things off, I was actually deceiving myself into tomorrow. And interestingly, nothing in small increments ever feels like a big deal. Until an “I’ll do it tomorrow” turns into…next year.
Which brings me to #2. I had to determined to stop procrastinating, so what next?
#2. I set small goals for myself.
(And practiced patience!)
First, I knew what my big goals were. That was my biggest problem. Who else out there has this thing where they go for the big goals, and skip all of the in-between goal work? Well that was me. When it came to achieving small goals, I did not see immediate results, and I would become discouraged. I wanted results now. I wanted to feel like I was making a dent. But I obviously wasn’t looking at the big picture.
There is a reason why people say that the small things in life make the whole. Because they actually do. And I have learned that when I set smaller goals, I not only feel the satisfaction of achieving them, but I also don’t experience burnout. When I would set my bar too high, I would fail and then sink into depression. And sometimes it would take me months to try again. That was when I realized that if I ever wanted to achieve my big goals, I would need to start by prioritizing the small ones.
#3. Day dream less
When it comes to daydreaming…there “is” such a thing as a healthy balance. 🙂
#4. I started putting in the work
(And was consistent)
Now I think I can safely say that daydreaming is much more fun than actually doing work. But I came to a place where I realized that I wanted my interior world to become my reality. I wanted all of the things I dreamed about to come true.
But I was afraid of the work. I was afraid of saving the money. I was afraid of getting up early. I was afraid of, afraid of, afraid of…
Maybe it came down to discipline. Maybe it came down to just doing it no matter how I felt. But when I started putting in the work, that was when I started to see results.
#5. I stopped comparing myself to others
While it is important to surround yourself with people who have ambitions, it is even more important to remind yourself not to compare. Our journeys are all different. We achieve at different ages, start at different times. I like to remind myself of this.
I had a really nasty habit of comparing myself to people who were decades older than me. Or to people my same age who had graduated university earlier than me. What I wasn’t doing was filling in the blank space of why I wasn’t exactly where they were. Firstly, I wasn’t a 40-year old. Secondly, I didn’t actually want the life of the kid who had graduated early. But when we compare, we don’t think about the not-so-pretty details in between. Instead, we have narrowed our focus down to one single object (which is really only a good idea in portrait photography).
One day, upon hearing good news about an acquaintance, I felt a physical shift in my body. There was a weight inside me, and all of a sudden it didn’t matter that at barely 22 years old, I had just performed for a high profile event. But that accomplishment ceased to matter. All I could think was, “why are they further along than me?”
The problem with comparison is:
It minimizes our own unique accomplishments, and exalts someone else’s. It is paralyzing. It funnels all of our energy out. But guess what is energizing? Switching your mindset to draw inspiration instead of comparison. Because at the end of the day, there is only inspiration. We find it in people every day, if we choose. I have chosen to be inspired by others, rather than compare myself to them.
In doing this, I have freed myself and now have more energy to focus on balancing my daydreams, and also to set realistic goals for myself. And this is how I have turned my “Daydreams into Dayschemes.”
