I remember in primary school when I was playing on the swings with friends without a care in the world, all that mattered to me back then was how far I could reach on the monkey bars without falling off (five bars was my highest if my memory serves me correctly). As it was towards the end of the year, we had just seen our new teachers for the following year, and we were pretty excited about growing up. My cousin, who was a year older than me (and I guess still is a year older than me) approached me on the swings and exclaimed, “How fast has the year gone?!" I had just finished grade 3.

Fast forward several years and I have seen things I never would have dreamt of seeing, I have been places I never would have dreamt of being, and I have accomplished things I never would have dreamt of achieving. I look back and I know if I had the choice I would not change anything about my past, all the ups and especially the downs. But I know that there are still things I want to see, places I want to be, things I want to accomplish in the future.

What do you want to accomplish in the future? Where do you want to visit? What do you want to do? What do you want out of your career? How much life do you want in your life?

Here are some suggestions on how you can stay focused on your dreams and how you pack more life into your life:

Define your goal:

Would you get onto a car and just start driving without knowing what your destination would be? Would you start walking around without knowing where you were going, or why you were walking? No. Why would you want to move around aimlessly, not knowing when you would reach your destination because you don’t have one, when you could be doing something constructive with your time, like moving towards your dreams?

Would you be happy with a life that had no destination and no purpose? You need to define your goals and drive towards them. Don’t walk around life aimlessly, without direction and without purpose. Discover your purpose now.

Turn negatives into positives:

One of the key factors that holds most people back from achievement is the opinions of others. These can be destructively negative and can prevent you from progressing towards your goals, but only if you allow it to do so. If you believe in your goals, and want to accomplish them bad enough, you will use these negative words as motivation. Use it as the fuel for the fire that burns inside you to prove them wrong. Prove the doubters wrong, and show them what is possible. Don’t let anybody ever try to take your dreams away from you.

Believe In Yourself:

Regardless of how big or small your goal is, if you don’t believe in your own ability to achieve it, you will not achieve it. If it’s something you have yet to accomplish, but others have in the past, believe that it is also possible for you to accomplish, because after all if anybody can do it, so can you.

Live in the present, not the past, but be conscious of the future:

Do not dwell on past successes and minor setbacks. Be inspired by previous successes, and be motivated to learn from and rectify the mishaps, but take action in the present to accomplish your goals in the future. The past has passed, and nothing can alter what has already passed, so there is no point in dwelling. You need to learn from the past, in order to shape the future.

Only do things that will move you closer to your dreams:

Once you have a purpose and goals to work towards everything you do will either move you closer to your goals, or move you away from your goals. The more actions you take that move you towards your goals the quicker you will achieve your dreams. If one of your goals is to play in the British Open of golf next year, what actions will move you towards that goal; training and improving your game every day, or watching the latest episode of Greenlandish Idol (I’m sure it exists) every day of the week? Before you take any action that you are not sure will move you towards or away form you goals, ask this simple question; will this action move me closer to my goals? If it will, by all means take the action; if it will not, do not take that action, instead find another action that will move you closer to where you want to be.

Have the courage to go get it:

Most people never achieve their goals because they make excuses until the cows come home. I don’t have enough time. I don’t have enough money. I don’t know enough. I can’t right now. I’m busy. I’m tired. Enough of the baloney! People make excuses because they are afraid; they are afraid of failure, afraid of embarrassment, afraid of rejection, afraid of isolation…just plain afraid to go get it. It takes some intestinal fortitude to go against the grain and strive towards a goal that only you believe in. But the one who dares to dream and dares to give it everything they have to achieve it, will be the one who succeeds.

This is your life. Only you can live it, why not live the life that you desire, rather than allowing others to influence how you live? There is no practice run for this game called life; this is it. We only get one shot, one shot, and that’s it; take advantage of everything you have and make that shot count. If you have a dream, an all encompassing desire to succeed, hold onto it with all your might, strive towards it, and never let anybody take your dream away.