The Missing Piece To Achieve Your Dream
Are you on the right bus….?
Of all themes on blogs, self-realization books and even novels and movies, to let a dream come true is probably one of the most common and also popular themes. Nothing unusual with that, who wouldn’t like to see his or her dream transformed into reality. The problem, though, is that too many people struggle to
“get on the right bus”.
In a moment, I will explain what that means.
Doing some research, the theme “ How to achieve your dream ” has over 18 million articles on Google, and they all write about more or less the same in different shapes. This is the main reason I haven’t touched this particular and somewhat controversial theme until today.
Yesterday I came across a fantastic blog post written by one of my blogging favorites James Clear. He is talking about the “The Helsinki Bus Station Theory”, which provoked me to raise the question if we are on “the right bus”. The post also gave me the missing piece I have been searching for during a long time to understand why we achieve or don’t achieve to reach the dream of our life.
First, let’s go through the necessary basic components which will take you to your goal, or let your dream come true.
The magazine Success does an appropriate and excellent step-by-step analysis, when they explain the 7 Steps to Achieve Your Dream:
- Dream it. This is where the whole journey starts
- Believe it. Working through the dream and maybe fine-tuning a bit, it all comes down to that you must believe in it.
- See it. You must be able to visualize your dream becoming real.
- Tell it. Now it’s time to tell the rest of the world about your dream. It helps you to get a reaction from outside to maybe do some minor corrections in the upcoming plan. However, when you announce about your dream and what people in your environment can expect from you from now and onwards, you will automatically keep yourself accountable and look after that all will be done.
- Plan it. Without a plan for how to go from Dream to Reality, nothing will happen.
- Work it. Now the action starts, and a job has to be done. Depending on the magnitude of your dream, it can take everything from a couple of weeks to several years.
- Enjoy it. Do not only enjoy your dream when it comes true but have fun during the whole journey. You must feel a tremendous passion for what you are doing. Otherwise, I believe the dream wasn’t a real dream.
I had Two Wives
During my entire career everything has proceeded smoothly and “according to plan”. From the University to my first executive position on an international level, it took me one year. Two years later the first position abroad with the responsibility to build up from scratch a representative office in Mexico. Six years later the first position as manager director for a multinational company was achieved. First in Spain, followed by Mexico, Peru and Colombia.
All this looks like the ultimate dream to come true. Yes, I had an interesting job, yes, I earned good money and yes, the prestigious position gave a lot of status and glamour. The other side of the coin sometimes included an insane amount of working hours, business traveling and a never-ending agenda. My wife used to say that I had two wives, she and my job. She took care of the home, mainly responsible for the growth and good education of our three lovely children, and I was convinced that my path was going to pay-off towards something great, the ultimate dream.
Suddenly, as a blizzard from a blue sky, the headquarter announced that the division I belonged to had been sold. The new owners had an entirely different business strategy, and all the companies in Latin America were either sold to the local people or shut down. The corporation I had been working for during decades and from where various rewards had been delivered for an outstanding performance changed the attitude in a strange way.
This was the moment when I recognized how big corporation view employees on any level: As long as you are needed and perform well, you are appreciated.
With the risk to be interpreted as a bitter person, I have refrained from writing about this topic until now. And the missing piece I was searching for was finally delivered by James Clear in his recent blog post, where he talks about the “The Helsinki Bus Station Theory”.
In a brief summary, it’s about the platform station where all buses depart from in the center of Helsinki. All buses take the same exit route but after a couple of hundred meters, each line takes a different way to reach the final destination.
Stay On The F**king Bus
Viewing metaphorically the bus routes as timelines of your life, there are two choices you can do. Either you consider that you got on the wrong bus to reach your final destination, or you try to view each daily bus trip from a different perspective.
The problem by changing “bus line” is that you start over again and maybe you run into a syndrome where changing route too often, won’t bring you anywhere more than to a frustrated and overwhelmed situation.
When I finally got my eyes opened and understood the reasoning typical corporations have, I questioned several times if I had chosen the wrong “bus line”. With this fabulous Helsinki bus line metaphor, I’m convinced I didn’t, but I started to view the same daily route from another perspective.
That dramatic happening in my life taught me that it is challenging and it could be even dangerous to rely on other entities than yourself to achieve your dream. Since then I started seriously to see my own business as the only possible alternative. I failed a lot at the beginning, but that’s part of the game in the entrepreneurial life. Trial and error are continued companions of a true entrepreneur. As an independent entrepreneur, you are 100% accountable for what you are doing and what you are achieving.
You have to build your own dream!
The “dream” you are building in a corporate environment is the dream of the corporation, or to be more direct, the dream of the owners.
A true dream very much uses to be a gut feeling issue and even if you doubt about your dream’s truthfulness; it’s more likely that your dream is true. Using The Helsinki Bus metaphor example, do not jump from bus line to bus line but “Stay on the F**king Bus”, because as time pass by you will begin to start to see a difference.
The skills, knowledge and experience achieved during the corporate years, are skills attributes belonging to your passion. It can never be taken away from you. In my case, marketing and sales have followed me since starting my University studies. From being a managing director in a corporate subsidiary to being an independent online marketer and entrepreneur, it’s the same passion and the same dream viewed in another way.
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