Many people have dreams and some translate these into reality. Such people sometimes go through the stages of aiming to dream, do and deliver.
Looking back on your life, when have you focused on achieving a deliverable dream? You may have been aiming to climb a mountain, get a job, publish a book, complete a project or do another activity.
What research did you do before starting the journey? What did you do to increase the chances of success? How did you do your best to achieve the goal? What happened as a result of taking these steps?
People have dreams all the time. They may dream of winning the lottery, being happy, doing rewarding work, being famous or reaching another goal.
Some people explore many options and then focus on achieving a deliverable dream. Let’s explore this theme.
Dream
Imagine that there are several goals you want to achieve. You may want to be a caring parent, improve your wellbeing, pursue a stimulating project or do another activity.
Considering all the things you want to do, you may want to focus on one specific goal. Bearing in mind what you can control, you may then aim to take the following steps:
To clarify the real results you want to achieve – this is the dream;
To rate the chance of success and how you can improve the chances of achieving the dream;
To clarify the results you believe it is possible to achieve and how you can do your best to achieve the dream.
It can be useful vital to the potential challenges. Bearing these things in mind, clarify the results you believe it is possible to achieve. You can then settle on the key strategies you can follow to achieve the picture of success.
Different people do such due diligence in different ways. Some use the following framework.
Do
Imagine that you have done all your planning. You will then swing into action. When doing this it can be useful:
To keep following your chosen strategies and get some early successes – this helps to build confidence and momentum;
To keep maintaining high standards – this involves following good habits and doing the right things in the right way every day;
To keep reading reality and seeing what is happening – this involves building on what is working and focusing on areas for improvement.
You can aim to keep doing your best each day and encourage yourself on the journey. Different people do this in different ways. One approach is:
To clarify the successes you have achieved that day;
To clarify the specific things you want to do the next day and the successes you want to achieve;
To clarify how doing these will contribute towards achieving the long-term picture of success.
Different people work towards different goals. They may aim to help themselves, help other people or do both. They may do this as individuals or when working with other people. Let’s look at one example.
Penny Brohn created a remarkable legacy. She helped to give birth to The Bristol Cancer Help Centre. The work done there has helped many people to develop their inner strength and improve the quality of their lives. It is now called Penny Brohn Cancer Care.
As Dr Rosy Thomson says in her book Loving Medicine, the Centre was born out of pain. Penny discovered a cancerous lump on her left breast in the autumn of 1979. An operation under local anaesthetic produced bruising, bleeding and left part of the lump behind.
Doctors advised an immediate mastectomy, but she felt that full recovery depended on more than amputating her breast. Penny became convinced that her illness was the result of her lifestyle. It was a disease of her whole being, rather than being confined to any single part of her body.
Penny eventually met Pat Pilkington, Canon Chris Pilkington and Alec Forbes, a physician. The four people combined their talents to open the Centre in 1980. The Centre was then based on three key ideas.
The body, mind, emotions and spirit are interrelated … The improvement in the health of any of these will improve the health of the whole person … The belief that where there’s a will there’s a way.
These ideas were translated into certain guiding principles. These included the following.
The Centre believes in a holistic philosophy.
The Centre encourages patients to assume some responsibility for their own health.
The Centre teaches and practises a lifestyle designed to prevent cancer occurring or recurring.
The Centre educates and informs patients about safe and gentle therapies they can use to counteract disease and enhance health.
The Centre is a non-profit-making organisation that is available to everyone.
Holistic meant what it said. Far from turning on conventional medicine, the staff encouraged people to participate in choosing their own particular treatment.
While inviting patients to adopt a healthy lifestyle, diet and attitude, they did not rule out the benefits of radiotherapy and chemotherapy. Penny wrote:
We encourage patients to pack up their own individual processes and techniques: we help them to make sense of what they are doing; we stand by them whatever they do.
The Centre attracted national attention and moved into a new building at Grove House, which formally opened in 1983 by the Prince of Wales.
Penny’s health was also improving at the time. During the 1980s she and the team provided inspiration for cancer sufferers across the world. Then came an enormous setback.
The Lancet published a report sponsored by two cancer charities. It said some patients who attended the Centre for treatment were twice as likely to die prematurely from the disease.
Penny, the Centre’s team and the patients who had been interviewed threw themselves into refuting the report, which was eventually proved to be erroneous. This resulted in a public apology.
Penny Brohn Cancer Care moved to new premises in 2006 and continues to help people to change the way they live with cancer. It provides them with practical tools they can use to regain control of their lives.
The aim is to enable people to live well with and beyond cancer. This includes providing a combination of physical, emotional and spiritual support. It comprises a range of complementary therapies, lifestyle information and self-help techniques.
Penny Brohn lived many years beyond the initial prognosis. During the 1990s, however, she suffered a spinal bone tumour. After deciding to have conventional surgery, she continued to work but also spent lots of time in Crete.
She lived there until her death in 1999, twenty years after the original diagnosis. Penny left a positive legacy.
Deliver
Imagine that you are working towards your chosen goal. Bearing in mind what you can control, you can keep doing your best. You can maintain perspective and aim:
To recognise your achievements so far and then focus on the next steps towards achieving the goal;
To, when facing certain issues, buy time to think, explore your options and find solutions to challenges;
To follow your successful pattern for finishing and do your best to achieve the deliverable dream.
Different people work towards achieving different dreams. Today there are many websites, articles and books that describe the specific steps that people have taken to deliver certain dreams. Let’s look at one example.
Jack Sim takes a pride in being known as Mr. Toilet, he is committed to providing sustainable sanitation for people around the world.
Jack founded the World Toilet Organization. Here is some background about him and the organisation taken directly from its website.
Jack Sim, Mr. Toilet, has broken thetaboo on sanitation and brought issues about toilets and hygiene out into the open. After attaining financial independence as a businessman in Singapore by 40, Jack decided to devote the rest of his life to development work in line with his motto:
“Live a useful life.”
In 1998, Jack established the Restroom Association of Singapore (RAS) whose mission is to raise the standards of public toilets and address the issues of poor toilet design, inadequate building codes and poorly trained cleaners.
As Jack began his work, he realized there were organizations similar to this in other countries and without any central governing body.
Soon thereafter, he founded the World Toilet Organization (WTO) in 2001. Since 2001, Jack has been involved in sustainable sanitation efforts all over the world.
Let’s return to your own life and work. Looking ahead, can you think of a situation where you may want to do your best to achieve a deliverable dream?
What may be the goal you want to achieve? How can you do to increase the chances of success? How can you then do your best to achieve the goal? What will be the benefits of taking these steps?
If you wish, try tackling the exercise on this theme. This invites you to complete the following sentences.
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