To Make the Dream Happen - Go Backwards!

If you have a BIG DREAM whatever it is... maybe to make movies, or save the world through important documentaries or to write the million dollar screenplay, it is always seems easy at first. The dreaming part is really fun - imagining yourself receiving the Oscar, or riding in the Rolls, or directing Tom Hanks. But once you start down the road of making that dream come true - reality hits. It's going to take work.  Probably a lot of work.  Most people have to make money while waiting for their dream to come true.  There are mortgages to pay and lights to keep on and food to put on the table.  So your dream has to be woven into the texture of your current life.  What does that look like?  Maybe it's writing your script early in the morning or late at night. Maybe it's trying to squeeze in a meeting a week with people that are already in the business.  But you are the one that has to set the goal and then figure out the steps to achieving it.  And if you break that huge dream down into tiny steps it can be achieved.

I start by writing my goal down on some paper and then go backwards.  If my goal is to sell my screenplay these might be the steps in reverse:

10. Sell screenplay for $$$$
9. Agent negotiates deal
8. Agent sends screenplay out to buyers
7. Agent gets final draft of screenplay
6. Rewrite of screenplay based on Agent suggestions
5. Give agent screenplay
4. Get agent
3. Write screenplay while working at my day job and sending letters out to agents
2.  Get a day job that will pay my bills while I pursue my dream
1. Dream about selling a screenplay

Now obviously there could be dozens of steps in between these steps.  Like taking a class in writing. Or moving to Los Angeles.  And the steps would be different for directing or acting or producing but hopefully you get the idea.  List your goal and then all the steps to reach it and then go in reverse. Once you have done that try to guess at how much time it would take to do each step.  And then to make this really happen - now put those steps on a calendar.  This brings the dream into the real world. You aren't just thinking about it, you are giving yourself mini goals and a time period to achieve them.  Whew. Sounds like work. It is work.  But climbing a mountain takes work.  Standing in the valley and gazing at the peak won't get you there. You have to start climbing!