Jason Villasoto

My wife June and I were having our usual coffee today, and I had an epiphany. These moments almost always happen while I’m endulging in my favourite (yes its spelled right…I’m Canadian, eh) beverage with my beautiful wife. We were discussing our polar opposite ways of tackling our goals. Although our goals have always been very much aligned, we have very different approaches in achieving these goals. I know many of you can relate to our situation. I’ve always been the big dreamer and my wife is the down-to-earth practicalist. This post is for the dreamers like me.

I learned today that there are really two ways of doing things. The Top-Down approach and the Bottom-Up approach. Although both are widely used, I usually subscribe to the Top-Down theory. This is when you aim for the moon in the hopes of reaching the top of the building. The Bottom-Up approach is quite the opposite. It’s more like laying bricks until you reach the top of the building. This means focusing on completing each step in its natural order. My method is usually the faster and sexier of the two. It’s the creative, inspirational, cover-of-time-magazine kinda stuff.

My wife, however, opts for the Bottom-Up approach in almost everything she does. And, Guess what? My wife succeeds in almost everything she does. My wife is ruthlessly efficient, deadly effective, and relaxed while doing it. While I’m frantically inventing new ways to slingshot myself to the moon, she’s calmly laying the foundation for guaranteed success. Now, I know that most of us dreamers think laying bricks is about as exciting as well….laying bricks, but I’ve watched so many people (including myself) fall short of reaching the top of the building just because they were too busy dreaming about the moon.

My suggestion (to myself as well as you) is that we spend more time on building our dreams, and less time dreaming. I really do mean building. I think many of us lose sight of the simple fact that it takes bricks to build a building and that every outcome we desire requires a specific set of competencies and action steps (or bricks) that require our time and energy. There are no shortcuts. If we focus on the individual actions we need to take, the rest of it takes care of itself.

In David Allen’s book Getting Things Done, he challenges us to think of the very next action step that needs to be taken in order to move forward on a project. I believe this approach can be applied to just about every facet of our lives. I know that many of you are thinking, “Well, I’m just a big-picture kind of person”, and many more follow the mantra, “Don’t sweat the small stuff”. I make that same mistake. I was taught at a very young age that I should “Think Big” and not let little details scare me away from my dreams. You can call it goal-setting, dream-building, or writing a mission-statement, but for many people, focusing on these (non)activities achieves the same outcome: wasted time and energy.

Don’t get me wrong, I think goal-setting is important. There are many people who’s expectations for themselves are too low, and need to recognize their great potential. But as I get older, I’m starting to understand that I’m the last person who needs to be spending more time dreaming big dreams. You see, I do it automatically. It comes so naturally to me that I can never turn it off. I dream by default. If you let me dream up what I want in my life, I’ll go to town. My dreams are as big as they get, but the real challenge is in making those dreams a reality.

I know many of you are just like me and you think that those “other people” just have small dreams. You see, it’s not that they aren’t big-picture kind of people, it’s that they’re smart enough to know that it takes inspiration, an idea, a plan of action, brushes, paint, a canvas, talent, energy, and time in order to paint that big-picture. They know what’s needed and they systematically take the necessary steps toward their goals. They don’t allow the allure of the dream to cloud their daily actions. They’re realistic in their expectations, but they never place a ceiling on how high they can achieve.

Trust in the process, lay those bricks, and build great buildings. Thanks hon.