Debbie Mayo-Smith: How to make your dream come true

Let me share the five step plan I use to turn my dreams into reality. Photo / iStock

We all have dreams. Lose weight. Get fit. Earn more. Spend more time with family. Better work life balance. As the months pass on, so do your resolutions. Sound familiar?

One of my biggest achievements of making 'wishes' happen was when I decided I wanted to become an international motivational speaker. At that itme, I was doing contract marketing work from home, with six small children including twins and triplets.

Let me share the five step plan I use to turn my dreams (which are simply goals without a time frame) into reality.

1. Make sure your goal is something you really, truly want. Not something you think you 'should' be doing. You'll never have the will power to effect change for that.

2. Be specific, make it measurable:

a. I want to lose weight turns into I want to lose 10 kilos.

b. Make more money turns into increase my earning by 10%.

c. Better work/life balance turns into to leave the office at 5:00 two days a week and keep the computer off those nights.

d. Get more fit turns into being able to run 10 kilometers within a specific time.

3. Plan it out.

How are you going to get from A to Z? From your salary now to 10% more? How will you get a new job or free yourself up to have more quality time with family? This takes a bit of planning and research. One kilogram has 39,000 kilojoules.

If you weigh 75 kilos and did a half hour slow swim, you'll burn 750 kilojoules. With this information, you can chart a course of how much exercise to add and food to cut out over a period of time to equal the weight loss you desire.

4. Small bite size pieces.

Now 390,000 kilojoules sounds scary and mind boggling and completely impossible! However, breaking it into small daily bite sized pieces makes it manageable and doable. 3,000 a day over 120 days - four months puts it in an entirely different perspective. Then you simply decide what exercise to increase and food to eliminate daily to achieve it.

5. Finally don't keep it to yourself.

Tell people about it, it helps keep you on track. Also keep the goal in front of you too. Here's what I did to keep it as a constant reminder. I wrote my resolution out on a notepad, took a picture with my phone and set it as my screen saver.

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Debbie Mayo-Smith aka Ms Effective, gives speeches, seminars and trains on sales and personal productivity. Debbie helps you get more done in less time and increase profitability. Sign up for her monthly quick tip newsletter here. To have Debbie speak at your next event or train your team call 64 27 575 5359 or visit her website.