January is the month when we celebrate a fresh start, honor Martin Luther King, Jr., and his dreams...and it’s also when we can celebrate our own dreams. The official Make Your Dream Come True Day holiday is January 13, but we believe that any day is the perfect time to embrace the idea of turning your own dreams into reality.
What Is Make Your Dream Come True Day?
As the name suggests, Make Your Dream Come True Day is a January holiday that centers around doing things that you’ve always wanted to do or achieve, but never actually have.
There are a lot of reasons why those dreams might fall by the wayside, and sometimes in life, we find ourselves regretting the things that we never managed to do. By taking advantage of this holiday and trying to make at least some of those dreams come true, you can help ensure that you will have no regrets down the road when you look back on your life.
What Are Your Dreams?
So what are your dreams, anyway?
You’d be surprised at how difficult this question can be to answer at times. A lot of people don’t fully define the things that they would like to do or accomplish, leaving them with somewhat vague goals and no plan for achieving them. If you really want to make your dreams come true, the first thing you need to do is define them.
One good way to do this is to write them down in a list. By writing down each of your aspirations, you essentially capture your dreams by describing them. Even if the initial description is vague, you are naming what you want, and that’s half the battle. From there, you can add specific details until you have a list of well-defined things that you want to do or accomplish. Making a list might not sound like much of an accomplishment, but you’d be surprised at how far ahead that list can put you.
Making Dreams a Reality
Once you have a list of your dreams, you can start mapping out your future.
Look at each item on your list and think about what it would realistically take to accomplish it. Would you need to save money? Would you need to go back to school or take a certification test? Is travel required? Think about as many specific things that you’ll need to make each of your dreams come true and write them down.
As you develop your plans to accomplish different dreams, you may realize that some are closer to becoming reality than you’d initially assumed. Others might take a lot of work, but have aspects that overlap with different dreams. All of this is part of the process of seeing your dreams coming true. The various milestones in your plans can become achievable goals, and you can start working toward achieving those things that started out as little more than vague notions of things you’d like to do.
Documenting the Process
If you gravitate towards photography, you might be a visual learner, and if that’s true, consider making a vision board of your dreams for inspiration. Once you start taking the steps to achieve your goals, though, you should celebrate your success visually as well. You have multiple photo opportunities at each step of the way as you work toward your dreams.
The dreams you work on now can become treasured memories in their own right; photos will give you something to look back on in the future as you reflect on your journey. Perhaps more importantly, the pictures can give you a sense of accountability. They remind you that you’re actively trying to make your dreams come true and serve as proof of how far you’ve come. You can even post them on social media as part of your celebration of #MakeYourDreamComeTrueDay so others can see just what you’ve been up to.
Keep Dreaming
One more thing to keep in mind is how important it is to keep dreaming.
Sometimes, setbacks and negative feelings will make you want to give up on your dreams. You might convince yourself that the goals you’ve set aren’t achievable or that the things you thought you wanted aren’t worth the hassle. This is natural, but it’s also misguided. Your dreams are worth it.
That’s all part of the reason that Make Your Dream Come True Day is important. It’s more than just one of the fun January holidays; it’s also a reminder that dreams are always worth working toward.
Take the time to dream, and take the time to try and make those dreams real. Take pictures, share them with others and remember to have fun doing it all. Once you’ve reached your dream, collect the photos in a Motif photo book so others can enjoy seeing your journey--and so you can flip through it yourself when you want to celebrate how far you’ve come, or remind yourself of the grit and determination you summoned to succeed.
