4 Steps to Make Your Dreams Come True (And Your Biggest Enemy).

Follow these 4 steps to make your dreams come to reality — and become aware of what is the biggest enemy in your way.

Photo by Grant Ritchie on Unsplash

We have been manipulated, by agents of all sorts, to be on the chase for constant dopamine. Hit after hit. Like a smoker who can’t live with a cigarette, though we seek for that dopamine that we are craving in different ways.

Ways in which we unnoticeably look for quick dopamine:

• Getting on TikTok every couple of minutes even though we have things to do.
• Checking our phones every minute.
• Binge eating.

This shows us something very simple yet hard to catch: we want everything to be instantaneous, as most things are nowadays.

Why do people quit pursuing their dreams? Because they take time and effort.

You won’t become the best writer in the world after a week. You won’t become a superstar footballer after your first game, same as you won’t be the best driver after your first ride around the block. What is the common denominator? You need to practice, practice, practice mundanely until you achieve mastery.

This requires a level of self-transformation and focus on your vision that not everyone has.

Since the process of working for your dreams takes time and effort, you won’t always get cheap, quick dopamine. The process may be boring, stressing, and sometimes painful. It takes strenght and determination to resist what I call the pull of the immediate.

This is your biggest enemy in the road to achieving your dreams.

I have found 4 steps that work for me to pull away from it:

1. Develop a vision of your ideal self. No restraints. What does your heart tell you? What is the absolute best version you can ideally be?
2. Develop an antivision of your ideal self. Create a persona of yourself that is even painful to think about. What is the version of yourself that you would hate to become in the future? Again, no restraints in painting this picture.
3. Think: What would your ideal version do? Grab a piece of paper and a pen, or open your notes app, and write down what your ideal persona would do day to day — with a high level of detail.
4. Keep it present. Everytime you are lazy about something, or you don’t know whether to do this or that, think to yourself: What would the ideal version of myself do? And just do it.

In this way, I’ve been able to consistently work on my dreams, every day, putting up a better fight to the pull of the immediate, and I think everyone should at least try it.