Sitting here this morning doing a mind map about the things that can keep me stuck, I started thinking about my bias for dreaming over action.
I love coming up with ideas. I would be happy sitting in a room for the next ten years with other vision-oriented people scheming and dreaming about how to change the world. It’s fun! And I’m good at it. It’s one of my biggest gifts.
But scheming and dreaming doesn’t do a hell of a lot to actually make a difference, either in my own life or the world around me. Left to my own devices, I would just keep spiraling down the rabbit hole of ideas with nothing much to show for it.
Breathing life into a vision, whether that is the life you want to create for yourself or the change you want to create in the world, requires action.
Do you have enough action in your life? One way to explore that question is looking at your “Dream to Action Ratio.” Think of it this way.
X parts Dream + X parts Action = Realized Vision
If I just did what comes naturally for me, my recipe would probably be 9 parts dream and 1 part action. Not exactly a recipe for success. So I have to be really conscious about how much time I spend with ideation and how much time I spend taking specific, meaningful action towards turning those ideas into reality.
As much as I love dreaming, I suspect a more productive ratio to get to that Realized Vision would be 1 part Dream to 9 parts Action.
And when I say action, I mean action that is clearly moving the needle towards results. It’s easy to get caught up in doing busy work and feel like we’re doing something, when in fact we’re simply shuffling papers from one pile to another.
Someone else, on the other hand, might discover that their Dream to Action Ratio has 1 part dreaming and 100 parts action. Their focus is exclusively about implementing. That’s an incredible gift (I wish I could buy a bottle of it!), but there’s a risk for it to be stale and limiting without the fresh air that dreaming injects into the picture.
How about you? How is your Dream to Action Ratio? Do you need more action? More dreaming?
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This is put so simply, so clearly. It’s math! Thank you for giving me something concrete to set over my dreams and actions to hold myself accountable for my own vision becoming, or not becoming, my reality. I love this, because I can quantify time spent and stop myself from the pull of the rabbit hole to add to the other half of the equation–action!
Thank you.
You’re welcome, Kimberly! Glad it hit the spot for you. Sometimes it’s the simplest ways of thinking about things that have the biggest impact.
One additional idea to add to the mix. You might want to incorporate a regular check-in with yourself to take a look at your Dream to Action Ratio (weekly, for example). Nothing too complex or complicated. Just a quick look at how things stand, and whether or not they’re still in alignment. It’s easy to fall into default mode without thinking about it, and making it a habit to check in on it can safeguard against that.