From dream to reality: how to carry out your projects?

Everyone has projects but few of us are able to achieve them. There may be several reasons for this: no time, no money or simply circumstances of life. Should we abandon our projects and only dream? Not necessarily. Here are some tips that may help you to make your dreams a reality.

If you want to give your project, whatever it is, the best chance of success, the first attitude to adopt is to focus on the Why, not the How. Instead of asking yourself how you would carry out your project, ask yourself why you want to achieve it. What inspires you? What results are you expecting? Which particular aspect of your life do you want to change? Give concrete answers and not platitudes like “I want to become rich and famous”. Wealth and celebrity are consequences, not goals.

On the contrary, if you are focusing on the How, you will be quickly discouraged, especially if your project is important. By listing all means you need, you will realize how difficult it is to carry out a project and rapidly give up. However, people who have managed to succeed without money and without special skills are legion. For instance, the founder of the famous brand Apple, Steve Jobs, heralded as a genius and a visionary, has never been an inventor, an engineer or a high-skilled computer specialist. And, at the beginning, he didn’t have any money: the first Apple computer was created in his family garage.

By focusing on your motivations, you will keep your enthusiasm and your passion high but this is not enough to succeed! Some planning is required. What do you want to have done in six months, one year or two years? Whilst staying focused on your final target, set measurable interim goals, break them into sub-goals and then into tasks and plan tasks which are to be performed every day and every week. Create some type of visual representation of your plan in a document. By doing so, you will avoid wasting time and be more productive. If needed, you might update your plan when your finish up a task before or after the deadline.

Believing in your project is good. Taking action is better. What do you have to do to achieve your project? Don’t let a day go by without making a step, even a little one, toward your final goal (a phone call to make, a course to follow, a mail to send, etc.). All these little things that take you forward – these quick wins – keep your enthusiasm intact and, taken together, shorten the long way to your project achievement.

Believing in your project is good. Taking action is better. What do you have to do to achieve your project? Don’t let a day go by without making a step, even a little one, toward your final goal (a phone call to make, a course to follow, a mail to send, etc.). All these little things that take you forward – these quick wins – keep your enthusiasm intact and, taken together, shorten the long way to your project achievement.

Launching a project alone – especially if the project is very important – is not the good solution. If you don’t have all the skills needed for achieving the project objectives – nobody knows everything -, fill the gaps with partners. Get the support of people that are better than you in areas where you are weak.

We are living in the era of the snapshot and the immediate satisfaction of our needs. Yet carrying out a project takes time, a lot of time. However, when they are achieved, they bring you joy and serenity. So stay focused on your goal and believe strongly that you will succeed. Learn to enjoy the path and to reward yourself from time to time.

Focusing on your goal must not become an obsession. When you feel that the more efforts you make to do something, the less effective those efforts are, give yourself a break. Temporary detachment allows your brain to generate new ideas and to think more creatively. So take time to laugh with your friends, play with your children, go on vacation or relax yourself in a sauna.

Letting go will allow you to review the state of progress of your project. If you realise that your project is doomed to failure, don’t continue even if you have made considerable efforts. Abandon the project and analyse what has been wrong to bounce back and start another project.

Don’t be afraid of failures. If success makes you happy, failures make you strong. So stay positive, whatever happens.

11/2021