Awhile back I was at a writing conference hanging out with a group of friends. I happened to catch a fragment of a sentence one my friends asked another: “What are your hopes and dreams?”
That caught my attention for a couple of reasons.
First, hopes and dreams are the things that keep you going. They’re the fuel that powers your jet engine (or your go-cart, if you’re not a high-flier).
Second, the writer who asked the question IS a high-flier. He’s won some major awards and has been on the New York Times bestseller list a few times.
If you’re a beginning writer, one of your hopes and dreams is probably to get published someday. Once you get published, one of your hopes and dreams is probably to hit a bestseller list somewhere or to win an award. (Generally, the folks on the bestseller lists are dreaming about winning an award, whereas the award-winners are all longing desperately for bestseller status. Everybody wants whatever they don’t have.)
Hopes and dreams come in all flavors and sizes. Maybe you’d love to shave off a few pounds (or add them in strategic locations). Maybe the thing you long for is a fatter bank account. Maybe you just wanna be a rock star. Whatever. Your hopes and dreams are yours, and you don’t have to explain them to anybody or justify them.
The one thing you should try to do with your hopes and dreams is to achieve them. And that is most likely to happen when you know what they are and when you regularly remind yourself about them.
Typically, those pesky hopes and dreams are of three main types:
* Something you want to HAVE
* Something you want to DO
* Something you want to BE
I find it useful to keep a “Hopes and Dreams” file. (Actually, it’s about a dozen different files, covering all areas of my life.) When I think of another thing that I want to have or do or be, I write it on a sheet of paper and stick it in the appropriate file.
Of course, files are useless by themselves. The point is that when you’ve got it written down, it becomes a little more real. If you review your Hopes and Dreams files regularly (say once every week or once every month), at some point, you’re going to commit to one of them.
Understand that many of your Hopes and Dreams are going to lie fallow for years, maybe decades. Many of them will NEVER happen. You can’t do everything, be everything, or have everything that you want. There just isn’t time, energy, or money enough for them all. But when you want something bad enough, eventually you commit to it.
At that point, it becomes a project that you can move to its own project file and start working on. This is actually not very hard. Just ask yourself: “What’s the next action I should take to get this or have this or be this?” If you don’t know the answer to that question, look it up or ask somebody.
Then go do it.
Hopes and dreams never materialize unless you take action. You can’t achieve all of your hopes and dreams in this life, but . . . there’s a good chance that you can achieve some of them — those that are most important to you.
That’s what the Hopes and Dreams file is for — to remind you of what you want, to help you decide what you want most, and to motivate you to take action to achieve it.
I love this idea. I am a very list-making type of person anyway. Anything important must be written down, and I have started to write down goals. But never occured to me to label some of the long-term goals as “hopes and dreams” which is far more enticing.
Hi Randy, one of my hopes is to become a published author and then to be able to build a career that will financially support myself and my family.
Part of that process is learning as much about writing as I can and that’s where your book, “Writing Fiction for Dummies” is proving to be invaluable.
There is a sequence here; the be/do/have aspirations are interdependent. Often they are worked back and forth until they align.
Have: I want to sell 5,000 copies of a novel.
Do (what I have to do to get this): Write and promote
Be (what identity/viewpoint I need to be able to Do): a skilled, creative writer able to promote/market.
Work it back and forth several times. How you’ve got something workable.
Just one more thing . . . sometimes the hopes and dreams of man don’t translate to the hopes and dreams God has planned for him. I think it’s of major importance to seek the specifics of the Lord’s direction for these things. He’s the master Doorman as in opening and closing them. Man can do amazing things–some people possess major determination and skills to accomplish so many things. Ultimately, without God’s hand in them they can prove to be somewhat disenchanting or unfulfilling when achieved without Him. (JMO)
I think I am going to get a bit more serious about my Hopes and Dreams folder. I normally write down random lists in journals etc but I think I need to make amore permanent place for this.
My dream right now is to finish editing my novel and then get it printed, then follow some of the tips I have found on this website (Thanks Dr. Randy) and to have a novel published one day.
(Starting snowflake method today as part of editing and that should get the holes in my novel filled up…after some hard work)
Simpleology has the dreamweaver area in the program where you can keep your dreams, then if you move them to the long term goal, you can set up steps you need to accomplish it.
Funny how often life gets in the way of even thinking about hopes and dreams. Thanks for reminding me that I even have some.
Yeah I’ve always found that writing stuff down helps–maybe that’s why I like writing. Focusing your goals is a good idea–thanks for the reminder that everyone can achieve their dreams.
Maybe I’ll suggest this in my blog for young writers, writebig.wordpress.com. Thanks for the ideas Mr. Ingermanson.
I’ve found that making a list of my hopes and dreams really is useful, not only is it a reminder of where I want to go, surprisingly sometimes I realize after reading it that I’ve accomplished one of the goals without noticing.
Hello Randy,
I have finished two books and I am ready to query them. They are not related to each other in any way.
Can (and should) I query them together?
Randy sez: Absolutely not. Query them as individual projects.
I know if I put something in a file somewhere it will be lost or forgotten. As a visual learner and organizer instead I have just opened my journal to the back page and written Hopes and Dreams. So now I have a page to go to to write stuff down and reflect. When I’ve finished this journal and move on to the next this page will be a keeper that gets tranferred. Brilliant idea, Randy, thanks.
My hope is to be published, and to be able to write full time. Right now I keep my dreams in my head, but writing them down does seem like a good idea.
I often buy art and pictures that remind me of my hopes and dreams and hang them around the house. That way when I get a glimps of them, I remember my goal.