By Kalyn Wilson

For the young dreamer who doesn’t want to wait until New Years to find a reason to chase their goals…

I know you’ve heard this phrase before – especially if you live on a Nike-crazed campus like mine – but don’t sleep on it just yet. We as 20-somethings are in a crucial time in life, not in a make-it-or-break-it sense, but more in a building-your-life’s-foundation sense.

This is the perfect time to chase dreams and goals because it’s at a low cost considering our singlehood and if we don’t like where things are going, it’s easy to switch things up. However, that doesn’t take away from the reality that what we do now will impact our lifetime!

Let that excite you. If this is such a significant time, you may as well go big or go home! I’m in a space where I am refusing to put my dreams on hold anymore, and I want to encourage you to do the same. Here are some ways from a few experts on how to do so:

• “Be clear about your vision.” -Steve Harvey
  

This doesn’t mean know every exact thing about what you want to do, but be clear about what it is you are trying to accomplish. You’ll find that the “how” is much less important than the “what.”

For instance, to say you want to impact the world through music is a great place to start. Sooner or later, it will be revealed to you if that means by being a music therapist, a music educator, an instrumentalist, a vocalist, working full or part-time on this dream or helping someone else be these things by being an agent.

Once the “what” shows up, the “how” comes, it just takes you thinking deeply about yourself, your passions and your overarching goal.

• “You seldom, if ever, get lucky sitting down.” – Zig Ziglar

This means you’ve got to put in WORK. Of course, on a college campus, everyone is extremely busy and preoccupied, so you know what “work” is. However, are you really putting time towards the things you care about or just the things you “have” to do?

You make time for what matters to you and that is so true. Stop making excuses – or spending all your free time watching Netflix – and do something! Do a little bit every day and you’ll be surprised how far it takes you.

• “Stop obsessing about what you don’t have.” – Kristen Anderson-Lopez

This is a lesson I’m learning right now myself. The term “resourceful” exists for a reason. Where energy goes, energy grows, so if you focus on what you’re missing, that’s what will amplify. However, if you focus on what you do have and make it work, you can end up with a lot more than you’d ever imagined.

• “The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”

An important factor of chasing dreams is actually believing in them. Think about this: if you explain something to someone you’re unsure about, it comes out sound completely different than a topic you know like the back of your hand.

That confidence-level difference plays a huge role in how it comes off to people, and the same holds true for your dreams. You have to believe in them in order for them to actualize strongly like we want them to!

• “Surround yourself with other dreamers.” – Steve Harvey

This is so crucial. Haters can and will bring you down to their level if you let them. But other dreamers…other dreams will have you ready to run in the Olympics! Positive energy is something serious, and if you surround yourself in it all the time, you’ll be full of it yourself. Be rejuvenated and motivated to conquer all the obstacles in the way of your dreams.