I remember getting an idea and getting all excited about it. I had a couple things I could do right away, but also had to write down or sketch out the special parts about the idea. I’m not sure how I’m going to do this, but it is going to be good!!! I got started right away, I had to! I know I should have waited and planned it out more, but I couldn’t wait. This could be something as simple as making a sandwich or playing a joke on a friend to as complicated as a 5 year goal to build a business or raise a family. This is a little more than a wish, or a like. There has some action that I just have to do and special to me stuff!
Could these be the making of a “Dream habit machine”? I have done pretty good with the sandwiches, but not so good on the 5 to 10 year Dreams. I must be missing some stuff. My wife and I have thrown parties and dinners, Ok here! I’ve done back yard and mini construction projects that lasted a few weeks, ok, here. Longer term, seemed not to have too many unknowns and variables. I was a general contractor and the decisions, planning and cost before even starting a 3-6 month project was amazing. No wonder I never got past a few weeks. How do you decide on all the details.
The one nice thing about a general contractor is you hire other people to do the job. You just set it up and supervise and make sure it gets done as contracted (and a little better). There are always challenges and changes, but for the most part, it holds to the original plans. Getting this up-front part right is important. Once you get that approve, there is a commitment to that end. There is a schedule and things to do. Things are checked and progress noted. Checks are paid upon completions of parts and updates are sent to the owners. These things just have to be done. They just do.
For me to personally commit to building something is a challenge. If I didn’t have work, I’m looking to rest and take time off. Scheduling a personal project, is vague and I’d be hard pressed to tell you what and when I’m doing things. Bring a dream in to existent for me, doesn’t look too good. What am I committed to creating next week, next month, next year? >> How would I know? It all depends. >>> It depends on what? >>> I’m caught! >> My commitment!
Wait, remember all that cost, time and decisions. I don’t have time dig into all that for a small project. Life changes and I may want something different then. Oh, I’ve got more excuses, but I thought I should stop here. My “Dream for longer than a week machine” has the up front part missing for sure. I’m used to just doing what I do. If I had a committed plan, I’d have to follow it. What if I didn’t like it or couldn’t do it? Here I go again with excuses. My apologies. I definitely need to get a more than a week Dream machine made.
I wonder what the school I went to was committed to putting out? What about our children’s school. What are they committed to? Is that the Dream you have for your children? What kind of habit machines will you or your children end up with after they finish school? Will they have a Dream machine that works past a week? How about a month or year Dream machine? Those are big commitments.
Dreams commitments aren’t hard, when you are excited and full of energy! Oh, that’s another reason I haven’t gone for those bigger Dreams. I’m all excited and the next thing you know, I’m not as excited. I don’t have the “hold the excitement for my dream” machine. There are so many other distracting things to do anyway. Yikes, I have to stop with these excuses. Ok, keeping me excited needs to be added to my machine. I hope your excuse machine isn’t as good as mine.
When I get excited about a project, I get totally involved and I hate being interrupted to do chores, family stuff, go to work or to do anything else. My wife is polite about it, but reminds me I have other responsibilities. Some people throw themselves into their work and lose their families and any real friends. I was watching a TV series and it was about a cop who had made his work, his life. He slept it, breathed it, ate it and he was very good at it. One person on the program commented they didn’t want to end up like that. They asked what can I do? Their supervisor said something to the nature I eat, breath and live my job when I’m here, but when I leave here and go home I eat breath and live my family or whatever else I’m doing. How do you do it, the person asked. You just have to find a way (a machine), you can. You’ve got to complete it somehow and leave work at work. You just have to find a way. I didn’t have that give it all, then stop and complete machine. But here I go again with excuses.
I’ve always thought I wasn’t very good at thinking 3 or 4 moves ahead like they do in chess. I mean so much is unknown. How can you plan for the unknown? As I start studying habit machines and how habitual we are, it’s easier to see, there are limited sets of possibilities. Is your day like a chess game, unpredictable? Write down what happens in an average day for you at a certain time. Of course how it exactly goes is unknown, but use what you know and see if you can predict a few things. Go for the little wins and keep playing with this for a few days. Now, push it a little and see how much you can predict. When we give evaluations of students or employee, we predict a couple of scenarios, depending on their actions. Do that for yourself, but also interject some control and see if you can drive a result. Of course you can. Now just move this to days, weeks, months, years. Hey, it is easier to predict if you interject some driving control. Commit and drive and see how far you can make your predictions work. Add excitement and, ….. I think we have a Dream habit machine.
My wife throws amazing family get togethers. She knows her family, the food, the events, the timing and what she wants. She makes a list or two or three. One for me and what I’m to do or get. She plans the food, the tables, the settings, who will bring what and then she calls them to set it in motion. She doesn’t tell them to bring anything, she doesn’t exactly ask, she talks and they are involved and it just happens. No, not by accident, but because she and they are creatures of habit, it just happens as she wants it to. Crazy? It’s like she gets this crazy idea in her head, and me and everybody else get involved and it happens.
She’s like that with kids. She knows kids in general, and each of her students uniquely and it just all comes together. She knows what she wants and has certain routines, but there is always that magic, that makes it special. It’s like she gets to write her own story, but is surprised and excited by it too!
I remember some of the buildings I built as a general contractor were sort of boring on paper, but when they were built and came to life, they were amazing. It’s like it’s black and white, but when it gets built, it’s like a game of chance where we’ve stacked the odds, but winning and getting the score is so neat! If a basketball player shoots and his shooting average is 90% , when he scores it is exciting. I’m struggling here, but when you bring something to life, it’s magical. It just is! Are you starting to get this. Start with anything you can bring to life and when you do, there is Magic! Go from 10 minutes, to a day, a week, a month, a year and keep building the machine. There you go! Start building your Dream habit machine!
Hey, put a couple of these week long dreams together in a bigger dream. I could do it like Roger Bannister when he broke the 4 min mile. He trained by running a series of shorter distances at the 4 min pace with just a short rest between them. Then he started combining them into longer distances, but maintaining the 4 min pace. If he had to he dropped back and trained more at the short distances, but he was always trying to combine them and lengthen his 4 min pace.
You could train with the one week long goals and give it the dream passion, energy and go for it! You’ve got to go for it at the 4 min pace or “Dream” passion. Then combine a couple one week goals, but maintaining the dream passion, energy and go for it! Dropping back or breaking it back down, if you need to train more, but always maintaining the dream passion, energy and go for it! Keep combining and training and soon you will have built the month, quarter, half year, year, 2 year, 5 year Dream machine. Do the Roger Bannister thing and break your 4 minute mile. You will be amazed at all the little habit machines you build along the way.
When we set the goal to land a man on the moon. You might have predicted enormous number of inventions would come out of it, but I didn’t. We now look at all the inventions, products, ideas that came out of setting a goal to put a man on the moon, and we are amazed. A goal acted upon with the dream passion, energy and go for it, gives birth to so many wonderful things, besides the Dream itself. Start small, train and build your dream machine, combine and combine and be amazed! Love your little dreams and never let them stop growing! Its a training, a building of a wonderful habit machine.
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