Dreams are like flat-packed furniture

Ever been to a furniture store, found the perfect piece of furniture you wanted, bought it and then graciously been presented with your new furniture in a flat-packed box or 3?

With flat-packed furniture:

1. You see how it’s supposed to look,
2. You buy it
3. You have to transport it to where you want it, and
4. Then you unpack and build it

This is a bit like dreams… the things we want to achieve follow pretty much the same steps. So with this in mind, let’s look at some keys to unpacking the dream:

Step 1: See the dream and how it will look in your house

Having an idea is one thing, but getting a clear picture of how it will look is an important next step.

When we buy furniture, we don’t just look at the piece we’re buying, but we buy it with a purpose in mind, to be part of an overall style. Is it adding onto other pieces of furniture that look similar or is it the start of a new look? How big is it? Do we have the space required or will we need to arrange some things first?

So when we see what we want to achieve, we need to see how it will look in our life (how does it fit in my house?). Once we can see it in context, we’re ready to decide if we’re going to buy in.

Step 2: The purchase

You’ve seen the furniture, you know it will look great, you want it, you have the cash and so you buy it!

Likewise with our goals, there comes a point where we need to decide to buy in. It’s not until we buy into or commit to our dream that we take it from the showroom of our mind and begin to move into active steps to make it happen. The buy in phase always starts with an investment of some type. Whether it’s boosting relevant knowledge, buying equipment, committing to a course of study, setting an exercise program, etc., there will be a cost of some type if you’re going to buy into making your dream reality.

Step 3: Taking the dream home

Before you assemble your flat-packed furniture, you need to transport the box to where you want the furniture built (particularly if the assembled piece won’t fit through the doorway of where you want it).

Again, our dreams have a home, a place where they can and should be built. If we either don’t have a place for our dreams or transport our dream to where it can be assembled, we’re just not going to get the result we’re after.

• So if the dream is to write a book – clear a space to write, get the tools in place, create the contacts, allocate time in your schedule to dedicate to the project
• If the dream is to become a great business person – get around other successful business people, start a business and/or work with someone who will coach you to do so
• If the dream is to buy a house – start building the deposit, set the budget, research the market

What if we don’t get the location right?

What happens to indoor furniture if left outside? It will usually get badly weathered, distort and in a short period of time, look a whole lot less desirable then when we saw it in the showroom. In the same way, many dreams get distorted through discouragement, weather damage (aka circumstance damage), etc., because they were never given the chance to be assembled where they’d fit and function. If you wouldn’t assemble a bed outside in a hailstorm and expect it to go well, don’t expect to get away with the wrong environment for your dream to grow either.

4. Unpack it and build it

So you know how it should look, you’ve bought it, you’ve moved it to where it needs to go and yet somehow, you’ve still only got a box… time to get this thing built.

I wonder how many people stop at this point… the amount of unused exercise equipment sitting in our homes is a painful reminder that this all too easily happens (if you don’t have any, just check eBay and see for yourself how much it happens). [oops shouldn’t have mentioned exercise – just lost a few subscribers]

For those who want the dream fulfilled (aka furniture built), this is the best part. This is where the dream can take shape and become reality – just a pity that those boring cardboard boxes look nothing like my new bedroom setting. It’s important at this stage to have the right people in the room, the last thing you want is someone swearing in frustration at you while you build your dream and if that’s…. just don’t be that person. That’s not an injury, that’s a mark of achievement that your dream is taking shape.

It is quite likely that during the building, the instructions won’t make sense, you’ll have to work out how to make all the pieces work together. You may need help, you may need to bring in additional tools and you may even have to de-assemble and reassemble some pieces. But by the time you’ve come this far, you’re so very close to seeing your dream built and established from what once an idea, then an expense and then a box to what is now useful, functional and proof that you can make it happen.

Disclaimer: any inference that flat-packed furniture is in any way as good as or as useful as your dream is rather interesting and makes me want to know what your dream is. Flat-packed furniture is merely 3d jigsaw puzzles for big people, designed by people who speak a different language to you (as evidenced by the instructions) and have a desire to give you opportunities to develop character within the safety of your own home.