In this episode of Live it, Lead IT! I am going to be talking you through the Disney Strategy, a straightforward, effective tool based on three distinct stages to help you realise your dreams.“The Disney strategy says: Start with the dreamer phase. So dream, dream, dream!” Do you want an average life, or do you want to live your dream life? While it takes courage to reach for the stars, as soon as you start imagining what your ideal life looks like, you can work toward its realization. To achieve that life, you have to start with visualization – you cannot realise what you can’t imagine.So how do you go about dreaming up an image of your ideal life? My best advice to you is to head out into nature, void of any gadgets or other distractions, and let your imagination run wild. Often, when thinking about life goals, people believe that they are undeserving, or that their desires are unrealistic. Put all of these concerns to one side and imagine what you would love to be doing for the next five or ten years. Try to avoid overcompensation, where you only picture having those things that you don’t have now. For instance, time to spend on a beach in an exotic location. Ask yourself if it will really fulfil all your desires.Once you have a clear picture in your head, create a vision board. Preferably using a large sheet of paper, collect images, whether you print them off the internet or cut them out of magazines, to create a visual representation of your dream. Keep it somewhere visible where you can see it often.“The realization phase opens the world of opportunities!”Now that you have created a clear image of your dream life, you will need to start planning how to get from where you are to where you want to be. Treat this as a project plan and break down the steps you need to take you to realise your ideal life into smaller chunks. Don’t overcomplicate it and be sure to write it down.“What will I have when I live in that dream life? Think of the Consequences!”The third and final part of the strategy is to consider the consequences of realising your dream. You will need to ask yourself several questions to assess what the outcomes are of you living your ideal life. These include, ‘What will I have when I live my dream life’, these will include all the positives of you achieving your dream, which might include recognition in your industry or a larger wage; ‘What will I no longer have when I live that dream life’, which might include for example a boss that you need to answer to on the positive side; and ‘What might I miss when I achieve my dream life’, which for example might include less time with friends or loved ones. This latter question asks us to focus on the positive things we have in our current life.“Use Disney’s strategy to make a huge step in your life.”The beauty of the Disney strategy is the simplicity of the three phases. Be sure to spend most of your time focusing on the dream phase and try to expand your horizons as much as possible to ensure you are not limiting your ability to dream. Try reading books or studying others to explore new options. Dedicate a quarter of your time to the realisation phase as this is where you will see how you can move closer to your dream. Finally, spend the rest of your time on the consequences, as the final stage. Use the Disney Strategy to take a massive step in your life in the right direction, and, if you can please share the results with me.Happy dreaming till next time.Stay in lead!Olaf Kapinski