How to Make Your Dream Come True

Great Wall, 2010, first week in China

On Monday I showed you 13 photos of proof that it was absolutely worth it to make my dream come true. But how do you actually do it? Do you just wake up one day and you realize you’re living your dream? Well, I’m sorry to say, but it doesn’t happen like that. There are certain steps you need to make and in this blog post I’m gathering all the best advice I’ve found on how to make our dreams come true.

First I would like to start with a personal story, but if you want to get right to the meat, scroll down for tips and links.

We all have dreams, but we’re afraid to act on them

Already back in high school I wanted to go to China for my undergraduate degree and dreamed of moving to China right after graduation, but I didn’t. Why? Because I met a guy and put his needs before my own. I pressed the pause for my dreams just to get cheated on five years later. Well, thanks to that, I had this sense of freedom I’d never had before. After crying my eyes out I realized, that I could do anything I wanted, anywhere in the world. I decided to call my mother.

I called my mother because I wanted her to encourage me to go to China for student exchange. In that critical moment I needed her to tell me “Go, make your dream come true”. And that’s what I did!

Making your dream come true once, doesn’t necessarily mean you know how to do it again

During my first months in China I told people I’m not interested in doing business. I told them that I’m going to move to a small village and write books for living. And what did I do? I let my right foot sink into the pool of business. I started helping my friend with her business, found a client or two more and tought about doing it full-time after graduation. I love helping the few clients I have right now, I’m helping them to make their dreams come true, but there’s something I’m more passionate about my self.

During this Summer I met two very passionate persons who absolutely love what they are doing. One is a teacher at my university, but even during her holiday, she is finding ways to make a difference in the Teaching Chinese as a Second Language field. She is helping out a friend who used to study online business, but is also very interested in teaching foreigners Chinese. He wants to both help us expats to master Chinese, but also educate young teachers on how to teach foreigners. I noticed I could discuss these topics with them for hours and be amazed how similar ideas we have.

Finding the passion already inside you

After meeting them I realized this is what I’ve been doing all the time! My first blog was about helping others to prepare for their university exams and a small book was published based on the blog. I was, and still am, very interested in psychology, learning strategies and education.

After moving to China I started this blog, Living a Dream in China, and started receiving emails from readers who wanted to move to China. They wanted to make their dream come true and asked for my help. I also started How Can I Learn Chinese in order to share my findings among the best tips, tools and apps for learning Chinese.

I noticed that the things I’m ready to stay up late for might just be the things I’m most passionate about: Chinese language, culture and history, blogging and writing, learning and educating my self, and helping others to do the same.

I still don’t know how I’m going to put this all in a package and use it to buy me bread to eat, but I’m certainly going to try!

Spring 2013, moved to a village, still dreaming about writing a book

The most important step

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You have to decide to make your dream true, you have to decide to try your best. Without this decision your dream is just a dream, something you think about before going to sleep and something you will once again putt off when you wake up the next morning.

Sounds simple right? Well, if it was simple everyone would be living their dream lives right now. We all have our excuses. Boyfriends, girlfriends, family, kids, house, mortgage, job, career and so on. But we also only have one chance at life, are you going to let it pass?

Tools to help you get started

I’m not a pro in dream making business, but I’ve been lucky to find useful resources to help me on the journey.

• Just last week I saw a video called How To Get Dreams Out Of Your Head by Darren Rowse and besides having funny pictures from his youth, the speech is very inspirational and offers tips on how to get your dreams out and make them true.
• For 7 steps on the path to your dream, check out a blog post by Pick The Brain. On which step are you at the moment? There are also a lot of other thought provoking content on that blog.
• I’m also reading a book by Henri Junttila, who has the same given name as my little brother. On Find Your Passion: 25 Questions You Must Ask Yourself, Henri helps us to achieve our dream by discovering our passion. I haven’t finished it yet, because I’m trying my best to answer the questions in writing as well as I can.

If you watched that video by Darren, you surely noticed the little assignment he gave for everyone in the audience. To tell someone next to you about your dream and the first step to make it true. This is my first step and it can be yours too, please leave a comment and share your dream with me.

Do you dream of moving to China? Or becoming fluent in Chinese? What is your first step?