Dreaming Big

**This blog was originally published on iB-LIEVE's Blog. (www.GOiBELIEVE.com/blog)**

SMALL STEPS

Within the last week, many of my iB teammates blogged about the great importance of breaking down goals into manageable steps. I couldn’t agree more! From their points of view, it’s clear - creating smaller goals is essential to realizing our biggest goals and dreams. That’s the truth! I believe that our dreams can only be realized if we break them down and work towards actualizing them in smaller bits and pieces. But let me focus your attention on another aspect of goal setting; an aspect that I believe plays a particularly important role in my life as a leader.

Big dreams

I believe that one of the most important facets of leadership is to dream big and pursue the loftiest of goals. In my work mentoring and engaging with students, I have come to realize that it is essential to maintain focus on what I am ultimately working towards every step of the way. I believe good leaders dream big at one time or another, but great leaders reignite that dream at every possible moment to keep it in mind and use it as fuel.

In my experience

My life pursuit (aka my vocation and my calling) is to create a leadership institute in Nicaragua. I do have doubts because this is an incredibly lofty and distant goal. It’s easy to just dream about future aspirations. Especially ones, like mine, that take a decade (literally) of planning. It’s the type of dream that would be completely understandable if I let it slip away. But I don’t. I keep it in the front and center of my mind no matter how impossible or lofty it may feel to me or seem to others. Bottom line, it’s easy to give up, forget, or lose inspiration when we don’t take responsibility for our dreams. That’s why I hold myself accountable in even the most trivial tasks. I make them compelling because I know that in some way they are steps along the path to my ultimate dream. In fact, the last time I was in Nicaragua (this past winter), we mapped out the plan year by year. We outlined everything that needs to happen in order to begin classes in the fall of 2020. This year I will start my PhD and register the institute as an educational organization.

Advice for the leader in you

Here are some questions that I ask myself to help me keep the dream alive in my everyday work:

• What am I pursuing? What is my dream(s)?
• For small and big decisions along the way: Do the choices I make help me get closer to realizing my dream(s)?
• If not now, then when? Don’t hesitate. If it's really a dream of yours, make it compelling - want it more than anything else!
• Find mentors to ask the BIG questions. I’d love to help, reach out and let me know what you’re dreaming about!