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How To Go From Being A Dreamer To A High Achiever



We’ve all got something we want to achieve in our life, but why do many of us never smash our goals to pieces? Why do we talk for years about what we’d like to bring to fruition and then never take action?

The answer to these two questions is that we’re stuck in a pattern of dreaming. Dreaming feels good and it doesn’t require us to do any work. We can romanticize for years and think about all the nice feelings that our dream could bring us.

Screw pretend feelings, I want the real feelings that you get from living your life’s purpose and succeeding at your goals! I want everyone reading this to go from being a dreamer to a high achiever.

First, you need to know what dreamers do and then I’ll talk about what high achievers do differently.

Dreamers talk a lot

Lot’s of talking and not much action. There is lot’s of “I should do this” or “I am going to do that.” High achievers just take action and apologize for their stuff ups later.

Dreamers over plan

Ever met a dude who has three degrees, and is in their thirties and still studying? They’re lost in the planning and knowledge stage and haven’t yet moved to the “It’s time to take freaking action and get on with the job stage.”

Planning can drown you in fear of how something may work out. The truth is no one really knows for sure whether your plan will unfold the way you want it to. It doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have one; it just means you shouldn’t waste years on figuring out what you’re going to do and how.

You’ll figure things out along the way and your plan will need to change to adapt to your learning’s consistently.

Dreamer’s waffle on when they communicate

That’s because they are not sure what they stand for, what their goals are and who their audience is. When you know what you want and the goals you want to achieve, you get very good at being able to communicate in a straightforward, succinct and clear manner. Get to the point.

Dreamers chop and change

That’s not to say you can’t make changes, but dreamers always seem to have a new idea or goal every week. They chop and change more than they change their underwear. At some point, you need to get clear and commit to focusing on a small number of goals.

“Dabbling leads to mediocrity. Focus leads to mastery”

Dreamers talk but they don’t listen

The keys to their dream are in the listening, but they stand in their own way. When you hear what people have to say, you learn a hell of a lot. None of us know everything which means we need to listen to those who have the knowledge we seek.

Listening is a skill and it’s something high achievers do very well. It’s also about listening and then filtering out what is not relevant to your specific goals. Blindly listening and applying everything you’re told will see you move away from your vision, and towards something you don’t want.

Here’s what high achievers do:

High achievers follow their passion

Unlike dreamers, high achievers base their entire life around a passion. They don’t dabble in things that they’re not passionate about as a way to try and impress others or create wealth (even though it may take years). High achievers know that their passion is the only thing that will drive them forward when they suffer a setback.

High achievers know that it’s so easy to lose the game when you don’t have passion to keep you going.

“Passion is what get’s you started and it’s what will keep you going. Without passion, your goals become unfulfilled dreams. You give up without knowing why”

High achievers also know that your passion can take time to find. They try lots of different pursuits until they find something that does the following:

– Lights them up
– Is something they would do for free if they had to
– Is something that can serve others
– Is something that can get them out of bed in the morning

High achievers take action before they lose a thought

In this new age where we have an intention span that’s less than a gold fish, high achievers know that they have to take action before they lose a thought. It might be an idea they had that they email to themselves straight away.

It might be making a phone call after hearing something that aligns with their vision. It might be signing up for a program because it has the content they have been missing. To sum up, it’s the following:

Taking action in the moment rather than saying I’ll look at that tomorrow.

It’s a subtle difference and it’s the single biggest thing that sets apart dreamers, from achievers.

High achievers ask for help

Nothing worth achieving can be done by yourself. Even if it’s only having someone tell you what they did to achieve a similar goal, you must have other people on your journey. This requires you to be strong and not be afraid to ask for help. Asking for help doesn’t make you weak; it makes you a high achiever.

“Stick to what you know best and don’t try and be the ‘Eddie Expert’ of everything”

High achievers know their strengths and they exploit them

Out of all the tools you have at your disposal, you’ll suck at most of them. You don’t need every single tool in existence to bring your goals to life; you only need a few. Hitting your head against the wall trying to improve your weaknesses is time-consuming.

High achievers prefer to focus their energy on the things that they are good at so they can reach a level of mastery that puts them in the top 1% of their field. It’s a different way of thinking and I’ve seen it work for me firsthand.

High achievers pursue happiness and fulfillment above all else

The reason why you want to achieve your goals is the part you must figure out. Dreamers don’t know why they want to achieve a goal or they are copying someone else’s definition of success.

High achievers have worked out their why and it’s always tied to a sense of fulfillment which produces happiness. Chasing fulfillment is much more powerful than chasing a goal. Goals provide you with a strategy and a game plan for achieving success, but they are not what high achievers think about as the end result.

High achievers know the power of their thoughts

Primarily because they are masters of their own mind. At some point they have become curious at how their mind works and probably read at least one book on psychology. Before saying what’s on their mind, they think first.

Before any major decision, they weigh up the positives and the negatives. They then use their intuition and experience to execute with a high level of faith.

You could say that high achievers are obsessed with keeping their mindset in line. They reward themselves for keeping their mind in control. They may even celebrate this weird achievement.

“A positive mindset is what allows them to go from dreaming to achieving. It’s the secret sauce in their burrito. It’s the yummy melted cheese on top of their nachos”

High achievers don’t outsource the blame

That’s because they know that they are in control of every little thing that happens. Their dream is won or lost because of them, not some catastrophic event that they didn’t see coming. A disastrous event can wipe out your dream. The lessons you get from this failure allow you to come back ten times harder, so it’s no excuse, only a blessing.

High achievers rise early

4 am to be exact. Just kidding! They do, however, rise early. While everyone is wasting away their life sleeping because they’ve overdosed on the many indulgences that society can shoot at us like an out of control fire hose, high achievers are rising early and working while the world sleeps.

By the time everyone else wakes, high achievers have already achieved more than most people will get done in a day. There’s something so beautiful about waking up while the city sleeps. It’s a strange kind of peace that helps you see your dream in the flesh rather than imagine it for eternity.

High achievers don’t give up

It ain’t all lolly pops and meat pies. High achievers expect roadblocks. They expect the worst kind of stuff ups imaginable. They go to F Up nights and think of what could potentially happen to them. Because they’re prepared, setbacks don’t faze them

Expecting the unexpected stops you from giving up when times get tough (and they will). Knowing that your setbacks are not unique to you helps stop you from getting romantic. You stop telling stories of hard luck because you know luck has nothing to do with it.





  1. Happy Sunday Quotes

    Jan 22, 2019 at 8:21 pm

    This aritcle was more like a motivational speech. Loved it!

  2. arjun

    May 25, 2018 at 12:27 am

    Impressive article, thanks for sharing.

  3. Martin

    Feb 19, 2018 at 8:48 am

    Hi TIM, Straight to the Face of Dreamers. I have to say that this post clears the difference of Dreamers and Achievers because the majority of people don’t differentiate between both.

  4. Ruben

    Aug 4, 2017 at 8:31 am

    Regarding “High achievers rise early”
    I find this statement to be generic or wishful of a high achiever
    and not the actual doing of high achievers … IMO
    Most successful Computer/Electrical engineers do not rise early and actually
    work late nights sometimes through the night … In that case whether they are high achievers or not they are still doers . I honestly think that there needs to be a good balance between the two . A high achiever can not be successful without having a Good Dream .

  5. Trey James

    Aug 3, 2017 at 9:42 pm

    Being a high achiever and the doer is so important. In my opinion, it’s the only thing that guarantees results. You can read books all day long but only when you take action you achieve something.

    So, being a high achiever instead of a dreamer is crucial. Thank you for the comprehensive article.

  6. Nick Fuller

    Aug 3, 2017 at 12:28 am

    Well written article. Great way to justify the differences in being a ‘doer’ or a ‘high achiever’. I can definitely relate to both of these traits and will look to make myself into more of a high achiever.
    Great work!

  7. Matthew

    Aug 2, 2017 at 5:43 pm

    Good job comparing and contrasting dreamers and doers … I still need to work on a few areas myself!

  8. Tim

    Aug 2, 2017 at 1:31 pm

    Nice post. I think you point out some important aspects with saying that high achievers don’t life the commond standard. They rise up early and hustle. Still they manage to be balanced because they know the need of balance to hustle again and again. Keep up your work!

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