All About Stop Dreaming Start Action

I called to give a full explanation and the right of the Stop Dreaming Start Action. Because I see from SEO Contest participants Joko Susilo Stop Dreaming Start Action, there is no article that really complete. Let me try to give a full discussion.


The Basic Concept of Dreams
There are innumerable theories of dream function (Dallett, 1973). All of them are highly speculative and difficult to refute in a definitive way, and they therefore linger despite a lack of evidence for any of them. This situation also provides a fertile terrain for new and unlikely theories based on analogies drawn from each development or discovery in other areas of research. This search for a function seems necessary and sensible to most people, but it rests on the false "adaptationist" assumption that "all the things that have form have function" (Thompson, 2000, p. 1014). In fact, many structures and processes persist even though they have no function, and dreaming may be one of them (Flanagan, 1995; Flanagan, 2000a).

Aside from Freud's guardian-of-sleep theory and Jung's compensatory theory, which we have refuted elsewhere, the most prominent theory of dream function is that dreams provide solutions to current problems, especially emotional problems (Barrett, 1993; Greenberg, Katz, Schwartz, & Pearlman, 1992; Greenberg & Pearlman, 1993). In one variant, Fiss (1993) suggests that dreams are especially good at registering subtle internal and external signals that often go undetected in waking life, making them potentially useful for picking up early signs of physical illness.

There are many empirical findings about dreams that do not fit well with any problem-solving theory. To begin with, the idea that dreams have a purpose originated at a time when it was thought that people rarely dream. In that context, it was plausible to believe that the occasional recalled dream could be a reaction to a specific event or emotional problem. But if most adults dream at least four to six times per night, then most people are recalling less than 1 percent of their dreams. Even the best dream recallers only remember a few percent of their dreams. This lack of recall suggests that dreams in general are not an evolutionary adaptation to provide information or insight to people when they are awake.
(Literature : Antrobus, J. (1993). Dreaming: Could we do without it? In A. Moffitt, M. Kramer, & R. Hoffmann (Eds.), The Functions of Dreaming (pp. 549-558). Albany, NY: State University of New York Press. Barrett, D. (1993). The "committee of sleep": A study of dream incubation for problem solving. Dreaming, 3, 115-122.)

Dream to Action

What is it that separates those who dream and talk about big things from those that actually take action towards achieving it? I think this problem could be considered one of the fundamental problems with most self-help, personal improvement or goal-setting, in that most people dream big and know what to do but then they never do it!

Most of what I have seen to resolve this problem involves various motivational techniques. The hope is, I guess, that if you get yourself pumped up enough you will cross a threshold and start taking action. Some techniques, such as goal-setting, emphasize creating clarity and precision to turn those dreams into action. While many of these skills can be effective in turning dreams into action, I think they avoid the real reason why crossing the threshold from dreams to action is so difficult.

The Problem

I believe that the fundamental reason why turning dreams into consistent and directed action is actually rather simple. The process of dreaming up your goals is completely different then actually taking action towards them. In fact, the two activities aren’t even close. It is because these activities are, in essence, so completely different from each other that is the real reason why it is so hard to turn a dream into action, because it is like turning lead into gold.

Dreams VS Action

This distinction is highlighted again when we examine why so many people can buy tons of self-help books and then make little or no consistent changes in their lives. The answer is simple. Reading self-help books is a completely different activity than pursuing personal development. Generally if someone says they are interested in personal development it means they like reading self-help books, it doesn’t mean that they enjoy actually pursuing the personal development they read about.

A great analogy of this phenomena I heard from financial blogger Ramit Sethi. Ramit pointed out that many people like going to a Footlocker, trying on and purchasing a nice pair of running shoes, and then never end up running in them. The reason isn’t that hard to understand. Buying running shoes is a completely different activity from running. Even though they seem related in terms of their context, the emotions, actions and skills involved in each of them are so different you might as well be comparing doing an exam to lovemaking.

Just because something has a similar context, doesn’t mean it is the same experience. Researching the gladiatorial fights of ancient Rome and studying the culture isn’t the same as having hungry lions and barbarians with battle axes killing you in front of an audience. In our minds we may sort the two activities of being a similar context, but actually experiencing each event separately would tell us that the experience is completely different.

So this is why turning dreams into action is so difficult. The activity of imagining feeling thin, fit and healthy is nowhere close to staring at the clock on the treadmill as seconds slowly tick away, drenched in sweat feeling like your lungs are on fire. Imagining owning your own business and being a successful entrepreneur would be nowhere similar to the day to day tasks of keeping your organization afloat.

Dreaming can occasionally create action because of the sheer motivation it creates. If you get enough positive energy worked up from dreaming big you may temporarily start taking action. But unfortunately this motivation is only temporary, so unless you do something to make that action consistent, you will likely slide back to where you started. Because of these occasional leaps from dreaming to action I think some people have falsely assumed that dreaming is related to taking action. If you need to have a huge boost of motivation every time you take action, I promise you it will be incredibly difficult to be consistent or stable enough to produce the action necessary to achieve the dreams you want.

Most self-help authors approach the dreaming to action gap as if it were a natural and logical shift. This isn’t true at all. There is a gaping chasm between dreaming and actually taking action and until you have successfully built a bridge, you have a long way to jump and an even longer descent if you fail.

The Solution

If there is such a gap between dreaming and action, what really separates the people that dream big and realize it from those who never make that bridge? What separates those people who buy the self-help books and those that actually use that information in creating a greater life? Unfortunately the answer is neither simple or easy, which probably explains why self-help books are so popular and inspiring success stories so rare. But, I believe that if you are willing you can transform yourself from a simple dreamer to a dreamer and achiever.

Start Action
To go from where you currently are in your life, to where you desire to be in the future, requires that you have goals.

Depending on how big your goals are, will determine how much you grow to feel motivated to achieve them.

Your future is the continuous manifestation of what you are planning to do!

In other words, what you plan today, determines what you are going to do tomorrow!

Your goals must be achievable and reachable; and with this in mind, they must be scheduled in a plan to the point where you conjure up enough emotion inside of you that drives you achieving them!

To start moving things forward with more passion, imagine yourself 5 years from now...

What would you like to achieve? What would you like to manifest for yourself? After you create success, how will you help the people around you?

This requires you to make a 'present' decision, in this very moment - to take action!

Your daily actions are governed by your everyday decisions!

Can you remember a time when you got fed up with something and you decided 'enough was enough' and it pushed you to create success??

Start thinking about what you want to create, and then think about what will happen if you don't create it; what would be the ultimate price if you don't take action?

Will you be poor for the rest of your life? Will you be overweight? Will you never find the relationship of your dreams because you didn't take action?

Get fed up with your life right now (no matter how good it may seem) and decide to raise your standards for yourself, and TAKE ACTION DAILY to improve the quality of your life!

Remember; the word 'decision' in it's original Latin form means to 'cut off from', this means you cut off from any other impossibility of making your dreams REAL!

This all starts with you taking a single step forward!

Have you ever climbed up a ladder? You realize that your goal is to reach the top, and you do this one foot at a time, one step at a time, until you can see the heights of your potential!

You should be excited about each consecutive step you take (no matter how small) because each step determines your ultimate destiny!

If you are a sales man, realize that with each and every knock of a door, there's a new opportunity to close a better deal...

With every sentence you write in a book, creates more chapters that lead up to getting your book published.

With every press up and sit up you do - constantly builds upon more muscle - allowing you to lift heavier weights with greater strength!

Remember: The journey of 1000 miles starts off with a single step! Each small action you take will determine the type of life you are GOING to be living!

The future is what you are pursuing, it is the constant 'unfolding' of actions that your going to take today, and also the actions your going to be taking tomorrow... into the future!

You should be very interested in your future, because you are going to spend the rest of your life there!

The Energy Behind Action
Many people think motivation is just an emotion, or a thought. Its not! Motivation is the energy behind action.

No motivation and your actions are empty; without substance. However, if you add motivation to your actions, they become powerful and effective.

Motivation is the sister of intent, and together, they make us effective or ineffective people.

How is Motivation Energy?

Motivation begins with a thought or a desire. These thoughts or desires have real energy within them, and they energize whatever they touch. If these are in conversation, they energize your speech and the hearing of those that listen to them. This is a fact.

Every good salesman knows he cannot sell anything unless he is motivated and believes what he is doing is also good for those who buy. If the salesman is not “sold”, he will never sell. Being sold is his motivation energizing his thoughts, speech and finally actions.

The fact that motivation is energy is seen most easily in those people whose task it is, to convince others. You simply cannot convince others unless you are convinced. You cannot be convinced unless you are motivated.

Motivation Dispels Procrastination

Putting things off; a common human trait, is also a cause of a great many human ills and unhappy situations. If you are motivated, however, you “just do it” as the slogan goes, and step by step you eventually progress.

Do not procrastinate. If you do, you’re ideas, your thoughts become impotent, and you become impotent with them.

How to Become Motivated

There is an old prayer, where a saint is walking along with road in his bare feet, his shoes long ruined and discarded. He prayed for shoes. Just then he saw a man without feet! He withdrew his prayer, and thanked God for all his blessings.

You need no more to become motivated than to realize if you are reasonably healthy, and have the basics of life, you are more than well off. Your motivation then should be to be better in what you do, how you look, what you say, and most of all, how you are.

One needs no more than to realize most of the people in the world do not have the basics of life, yet they survive. If you ponded that thought, your motivation comes of itself.

Turning Motivation into Action

This is the easiest part of the discussion. One turns motivation into action by setting goals. Your goals must be somehow realistic, and somehow achievable. They should be (in part anyway) achievable in a reasonable amount of time. Motivation somehow needs some reward, like a horse needing a bit of sugar after working a while.

Your actions, now charged with motivation, and having a destination (goal) are the stuff that built empires. The stuff that put man on the moon, and every other wonderful achievement in man’s history.

You can apply these simple facts in your life, and you will see it improve for the better, no matter what. You must be motivated, and your motivation will energize your actions. An action, energized by motivation, and having a goal has a very large chance of success, regardless of its magnitude.

7 Ways to Grow the Stop Dreaming Start Action

1. Go Stop Dreaming Start Action with Don’t wait until conditions are perfect – If you’re waiting to start until conditions are perfect, you probably never will. There will always be something that isn’t quite right. Either the timing is off, the market is down, or there’s too much competition. In the real world there is no perfect time to start. You have to take action and deal with problems as they arise. The best time to start was last year. The second best time is right now.



2. Go Stop Dreaming Start Action with Be a doer - Practice doing things rather than thinking about them. Do you want to start exercising? Do you have a great idea to pitch your boss? Do it today. The longer an idea sits in your head without being acted on, the weaker it becomes. After a few days the details gets hazy. After a week it’s forgotten completely. By becoming a doer you’ll get more done and stimulate new ideas in the process.



3. Go Stop Dreaming Start Action with Remember that ideas alone don’t bring success – Ideas are important, but they’re only valuable after they’ve been implemented. One average idea that’s been put into action is more valuable than a dozen brilliant ideas that you’re saving for “some other day” or the “right opportunity”. If you have an idea the you really believe in, do something about it. Unless you take action it will never go anywhere.



4. Go Stop Dreaming Start Action with Use action to cure fear – Have you ever noticed that the most difficult part of public speaking is waiting for your turn to speak? Even professional speakers and actors experience pre-performance anxiety. Once they get started the fear disappears. Action is the best cure for fear. The most difficult time to take action is the very first time. After the ball is rolling, you’ll build confidence and things will keep getting easier. Kill fear by taking action and build on that confidence.



5. Go Stop Dreaming Start Action with Start your creative engine mechanically – One of the biggest misconceptions about creative work is that it can only be done when inspiration strikes. If you wait for inspiration to slap you in the face, your work sessions will be few and far between. Instead of waiting, start your creative motor mechanically. If you need to write something, force yourself to sit down and write. Put pen to paper. Brainstorm. Doodle. By moving your hands you’ll stimulate the flow of ideas and inspire yourself.
   


6. Go Stop Dreaming Start Action with Live in the present - Focus on what you can do in the present moment. Don’t worry about what you should have done last week or what you might be able to do tomorrow. The only time you can affect is the present. If you speculate too much about the past or the future you won’t get anything done. Tomorrow or next week frequently turns into never.



7. Go Stop Dreaming Start Action with Get down to business immediately – It’s common practice for people to socialize and make small talk at the beginning of meetings. The same is true for individual workers. How often do you check email or RSS feeds before doing any real work? These distractions will cost you serious time if you don’t bypass them and get down to business immediately. By becoming someone who gets to the point you’ll be more productive and people will look to you as a leader.

It takes courage to take action without instructions from the person in charge. Perhaps that’s why initiative is a rare quality that’s coveted by managers and executives everywhere. Seize the initiative. When you have a good idea, start implementing it without being told. Once people see you’re serious about getting things done they’ll want to join in. The people at the top don’t have anyone telling them what to do. If you want to join them, you should get used to acting independently.
Ok all Contestants, Go Stop Dreaming Start Action!