13 Key Differences Between Dreamers and Doers

When people first learn that I’m a professional traveler, their jaws drop faster than a nineties cartoon. I have managed to raise an eyebrow or two about my “career.”

It’s not a “project,” it’s a career.

People ask, so how did you trade corporate Los Angeles for a one-way ticket to Australia? How did you make a career out of travel? How do you write for so many online publications and get featured in Forbes?

Freelancing can be suicidal, and making sacrifices to travel in your twenties can be unsettling… but how cool is not settling?

I wanted to see the world and be my own boss, so I went for it!

I’ve had the privilege of meeting other people who have taken similar paths in making their dreams into goals in travel, social media, journalism, and through UCLA. Whether your goals are geared towards fitness, law school, med school, or entrepreneurship, this is what we all have in common.

1. We take calculated risks.

If you aren’t willing to try something different, something out of your norm, you won’t get past ordinary. 

Key the strategy: don’t “leap” … “step” out of your comfort zone… put some thought into how, and like Nike just do it!2. We identify our strengths… and our weaknesses.

Everyone has talent. What’s yours? Leverage it.

What’s your weakness? Kanye’s is clearly his ego, yours might be a lack of experience in an area that will compliment what you’re already doing, or you may be lacking the tools you need to move forward. 

Self-evaluation is the key to staying confident during rejection and failure. It’s the only way to grow.

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3. We make changes.

Can you identify a single company or personality that doesn’t make changes and continues to be successful?

Think Apple. Think Miley Cyrus… okay stop thinking about Miley Cyrus, but a quick cultural case study proves for a demand of ever-going evolution.

Transformations can be for the better or for the worse, but a plateau means you aren’t growing. Not growing? Not living.

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4. We seek guidance.

Homework doesn’t end in uni, it just takes on a new model. Instead of a grade, you get real life, tangible results (in or against your favor).

Google it.

Find an online tutorial.

Reach out to mentors.

Follow… study… experts. 

Take a specialty course.

5. We make lists and timelines. 

Find a task management routine that works for you. I get a little gratification in checking off my spreadsheets. I set goals and I push harder to achieve them within a certain time frame.

Numbers and categories are good in any form measuring of productivity.

6. We practice discipline.

Sometimes we don’t want to do something, but we have to. So we do it. And we can’t just do it sometimes, we have to do it regularly. Aristotle said it himself,

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”

7. We prioritize.

Beyonce only gets twenty-four hours in her day. Prioritizing is knowing what we have to do for what we want.

We consider the scale of what we are willing to not have in exchange for it.

In short, we make sacrifices.

8. We see what we can do for other people.

If you don’t have anything to offer, people aren’t going to want to work with you or help you. I don’t reach out to anyone if I don’t have something to offer, even if of little value, I do what I can.

In travel, maybe that means staying at someone’s home, but making dinner or buying drinks. In business, it means you create something to offer if you have to. 

If you can develop genuine and mutually beneficial long-term relationships, you’re going to be alright :)

9.  We stand up for ourselves… and others. 

When I was in seventh grade getting bullied, my mother told me “if you let someone slap you, people will stand in line to slap you.”

Although I hope I never get in a fist fight, this rule of thumb applies to business, school, training, and freelancing.

Don’t put up with anyone’s sh*t. Don’t let people take advantage of you. 

Achievement is about growth, and if you let people push you down, you cannot grow. However,

10. We Ask

Because the worse thing that can happen is that someone will say no, leaving us back where we started.

11. We take care of ourselves

Happy people do better work. Healthy people do better work. If we aren’t physically, mentally, and spiritually adept than we can’t focus on our goals.

12. We don’t give up.

Cliche as is, we know that our goals may not be all rainbows and unicorns, but they are worth it. 

13. We love it.

That passion doh. 

Do you agree? Did I miss anything?

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