Making Your Wishes Come True

We all have wishes, but how can we actual do something about making them a reality.

Wishing for something is a great way to start setting goals and making improvements in your life. Turning wishes into actual goals has two great benefits. You either make a wish come true, or, after doing some research, you realize it’s not something you actually want. In both cases you get to move past the wishes and onto a better life.

Here is the process I use to make wishes come true.

1. Record the Wishes

The first step is listening to yourself. Next time you say or think a phrase like “I wish I could”, “I wish I knew how to” or “I wish I was better at”, stop. Add it to a list of wishes without thinking about it. Zero thinking on the effort required or if it is even possible. Just add it to a list.

(Wunderlist has been great for me but there are thousands of alternatives from online to even a notepad and pen).

2. Pick a Wish and Make a Goal Out of It

Now it’s time to review the list. For most people the best time to do this is either early morning or late night. Mornings are best for me. I usually have more motivation to make changes in my life during the morning when I’m fresh.

Pick an item from the list. I usually pick one at random to stop bias against items I think are too hard or not possible. But something that has been on your mind or something you are extremely motivated about is another great option.

Now it is time to make the wish into a goal. Some wishes are already well aligned with tangible goals, for example “I wish I was good at cooking” or “I wish I was stronger.”

On the other hand, some wishes take a little tuning. For instance “I wish I was taller.” That’s a hard goal to set for most people. Most of these kinds of wishes are backed by an obtainable goal. Why exactly do you wish you were taller? To be better at basketball? To be more attractive for a significant other? These are the actual wishes behind the unobtainable one.

3. Research

It’s time to start researching. There is almost no goal that is good to immediately jump into. For example, if I wanted to learn how to do a handstand, it wouldn’t be very productive to start jumping in the air everyday hoping to become amazing at handstands. It is much better to research the progression and learn from experts about the most effective way to achieve the goal.

Sites like Youtube.com and Skillshare.com are great tools for this. For pretty much every goal there is someone who will explain the progression and effort required each day to reach the end goal.

Sometimes in the research phase though, it is necessary to adjust the goal to better fit your life.

For example, when I was younger, I wished I was a professional swimmer. During this research phase, I came to the conclusion that swimming every day of my life wasn’t really what I wanted. That’s when I changed my goal to “I wish I was a great swimmer.” This does not mean throwing away goals that are to hard, but instead adjusting them to what I really want out of life.

4. Make a Plan, But Start Small. I Mean Really Small

It’s too easy to get excited about trying something new. You plan everything out and dive in head first, just to burn out after a few days and watch that goal float to the wayside.

The key to solving this problem is to avoid basing your plan on how you feel when first starting a goal. The excitement phase doesn’t usually last past the first early morning or late night. The real keys are consistency and small incremental actions.

For example, a recent goal of mine was to develop skills in calisthenics. During the first week, my only goal was to complete 20 pushups a day. A simple goal that can be done in a few minutes. It’s hard to find an excuse not to do something that takes 3 minutes at home, in comparison to getting dressed and driving to the gym, at least at first.

I have found that once I start the minimum, I want to keep going. So that 20 pushups quickly turns into a full workout. The key is no matter what, you must do the daily minimum for your goal. Yet for most days, you will end up doing much more.

As the weeks go on, constantly increment the minimum required per day. As the minimum gets harder, you will not only be building skills but building a habit. Soon it will feel natural to do an extremely intense workout or any other goal you set out to accomplish.

This trick doesn’t just work with intensity, but works with money as well.

For example, if I had a goal to be a better cook. So many of the culinary basics can be learned using a $5 knife and a $10 pan. This means there’s no excuse to get started and work your way up to a full kitchen set when your skills are better and it’s obvious that you will stick with it.

This approach has helped me immensely in achieving my goals and doing things I didn’t think I would ever be able to do. From learning how to handstand to speaking a new language.

I hope these will help you start changing your life one small, incremental step at a time.

Please leave any comments on ways to improve this process or processes that have helped you achieve more in your life.

A special thanks to my friend Katie for helping with editing these articles.

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