The first time I heard this quote from T.K. Coleman was in a podcast. ‘Dreams don’t come true, decisions do’ summarizes the belief that you can dream all you want and have great ideas but it is the decision to take action and to ‘do the thing’ is what makes it all come to pass.
This philosophy has assisted me many times since I first heard it. The biggest dream I have had to date was to build a life in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado and live that life focused on family and the outdoors. Eliot and I first discussed this dream back on a vacation we took, pre-kids and marriage, in New Zealand whilst we were driving around chasing snow. Back then it was just a dream and for a while we didn’t really take any action towards it and then we made a decision that we would ‘do the thing’ and we started taking action. Lots of small and some really big actions and now we are here, two beautiful kids in tow.
People have said to me on many occasions, ‘you are so lucky, I could never do what you and Eliot are doing’. The first thing I usually say is, apart from my privilege, luck had very little to do with it. We worked at it, we planned, we executed and ensured that we had the right team around us to help make it happen. And secondly, I challenge them with ‘why not’? There is very little that could stop you from taking action towards your dreams, it may not be an easy road but surely that makes it all the more worthwhile.
You can’t sit around wishing upon shooting stars, or waiting to blow out your candles on your birthday cake and expect your dreams to fall in your lap. Daydreaming is fun but if you really want to your dreams to become reality, you and only you can make the decision to take action.