Do you have dreams that you never do anything about? Would you like to make some of them come true? I love day dreaming and here’s how I turn those crazy ideas into dreams that come true..
Day dreaming about the future is a simple pleasure. I do it often and I love it. But I rarely stop at the thought of ‘one day I’ll do that’. Instead I decide when I’d like the dream to come true and then I work backwards.
Working backwards to turn a dream into an actionable goal is sometimes called reverse engineering. In 2009, I learnt of reverse engineering my dreams from business coach Cameron Herold. Cameron coached me to understand how choosing big but achievable steps along the way would help me focus and bring my goals to life.
I now use reverse engineering all the time. I’m currently planning out the next five years of both my business and personal dreams. It’s both exhilarating and scary to think what I am planning to achieve between now and 2016.
At The Physio Co, we used reverse engineering to create our Painted Picture of 2012. That vision, created in 2009, described how we planned to grow from a small team delivering 40,000 physiotherapy visits in 2009 to a much larger team delivering 100,000 memorable visits in 2012. The TPC team at the time thought I was nuts! But, by setting the dream and working backwards I’m excited to say that by 31 December 2011 (this year), The Physio Co is on track to deliver 100,000 visits in one calendar year. It’s likely we will achieve that massive goal more than 12 months early!
Reverse engineering works. Dream big and work backwards. You’ll be amazed at what you can achieve.