How To Chase Your Dreams With a Family (Part 2)
I can clearly remember the day I made my first few dollars from my dream. Getting that email from Amazon telling me a stranger bought my book was exciting and scary!
After that first month I got a check from Amazon for $13.54. I was so excited I told my wife I would be quitting the bread world in a few months.
She didn’t see it like I did and we argued for two days over what was smart and what was just plain stupid. Let me say, I let my excitement blind me (duh) and she had to bring me back down to reality.
Over the next few years it took a lot more sales and a better plan to convince her my dream was capable of supporting us. The results were what convinced her that my dream was possible and something she could get behind.
Having said that, there are still times when we argue about what are the next right moves. I tend to want to jump off the cliff without a parachute and hope I land in water, my wife is the sensible one and wants to make sure there is a parachute and a back up one.
If you’re like me or you just want to see some quick results, you’re in the right place. Speaking from experience, rushing generally doesn’t work and could lead to putting your family into a dire situation.
That’s what this series is all about, showing that it’s possible to chase your dreams with a family and talk about how to realistically do it.
Last post we talked about:
Having an emergency fund
Doing extra work to pad that emergency fund or fund that dream
These two steps are the foundation for everything else we’ll talk about, without money and solid back up plan, your dream is going nowhere.
Lets dive into the next steps:
Figure out exactly what your dream is
Wow, I make it sound simple, right? I know figuring out our dream is complicated and can involve years of changing and evolving. However, if you’re going to take a dream chasing journey, you must have some clue where you’re going.
Since this dream will affect your family, you HAVE to have their input. Have some family sessions where you talk through what’s on your mind and heart and get their thoughts, ideas and possible plans.
I’m not asking you to have every single step figured out this very moment, just figure out what’s the overall thing. If you got the main part down, you can start planning, saving, working towards that thing. Take some time with this one.
The key here is to make sure your dream is your dream, not something someone else told you is your dream. That’s where your family will help, they can get real and tell you the truth.
Research that dream thoroughly
The key to success in any dream, family or not, is the planning and research. What’s cool about chasing a dream with a family, is that you can enlist them to help you.
You dream will inevitable involve multiple parts, so you can assign your wife and older children different parts of the research process. The better off you guys can research and figure out the different parts, the better off your execution will be because you’ll be able to focus on the most important things.
Good research means realistic data and the right focus. It’s very easy to go down rabbit holes when you’re researching. The key is to focus on what will best get you closer to your dream, not something that looks interesting.
I talked about Chris Brogan in the last post because the simple math method he uses is gold. Make sure your research is in-depth but try to simplify it as much as possible.
Start off with a general plan and as you take action and figure some things out, get more specific. It may sound cheesy but have family meetings and discuss where things are at. The more informed and a part of process your family is, the better. They’ll be your biggest cheerleaders.
Take an action step
We’re at the second post now and if you haven’t gotten your family involved in your dream yet, it’s time. The action step is simple: if you already haven’t, really explain your dream to your family.
I’m not talking about the surface answer, really tell them the details and your vision. If you’ve already done this, update your family where your dream is at and ask them for ideas on how to get closer to the goal.
Does your family really know what your dream is? Are they behind you? How are they involved?
