What if your dreams starts to feel like a nightmare?

After years of dreaming, scheming, planning and goal-setting you have finally taken the final step in living your dream... be that to open your own business, becoming the professional sportsperson you have always dreamt off or landing your perfect job. You feel like you have finally arrived.

You are happy, you are enthusiastic, your life finally has meaning.

Fast forward to a few years later. Are you still so enthusiastic and happy? Or do you catch yourself complaining, sighing and wondering what went wrong?

Suddenly you wonder if life wasn’t better before you made the big changes... Stop your negative thoughts. It’s just time to reflect again on some basic principles you might have forgotten.

Things to remember when you are living your dream:

1. Life is not just about fun and games.
Your dream job or own business still requires a certain amount of work that you don’t like but have to do. If you have your own business you can feel like you are focussing so much on admin and the general day-to- day management that you don’t get to do that which you really like. That’s where time management comes into play. Plan well and learn how to prioritize.

2. It requires a lot of hard work and dedication.
Living your dream is not always easy. You have to sacrifice on sleep, holidays and abandon any thoughts of living in a comfort zone. Always remember why you are doing this. Go back to your vision, mission statement and goals. Make sure you are still on the right track. Remember, this is your passion. This is what you want to do, no matter what.

3. You have to sell your dream to others.
You cannot survive on your own. For your business to work you have to involve other people, be that as employees, customers or franchisees. It might be that your dream job is just an income or another service for them. Brush up on your people skills. Make sure the people around you understand what it is all about. If you can get them to buy emotionally into your dream, your life will be so much easier.

4. Don’t be too hard on yourself.
Remember life is all about changing and learning. Take on an attitude that I can never know enough about my field. Keep yourself abreast of the
latest developments. Learn, grow and adapt!

5. Call in the experts.
If you are struggling with say your company’s taxes or have problems with the administration side of things to get your dream business off the
ground, spend some money on getting professional help. It will save you a lot of costs and heartache in the long run.

6. Never forget the importance of networking, be that in real life or online.
Whatever your dream, goal or business, there are other people who have already done it. You can learn from them. Join a forum or group on the internet or your profession’s council in real life. Don’t do it alone. Seek advice from your peers and guidance from your mentors.

If none of the above works. If your passion is just not there anymore, then and only then, you should consider that maybe it’s time to move on. Maybe you have accomplished what you have set out to do and maybe it’s time to pass on the baton to someone else and to start working on a new dream, new goals and new objectives.