Daydreaming has gotten a bad rap.

As adults, we certainly are not encouraged to do it. We are taught to believe that if we want to make it in life we need to be focused, driven, and yes, practical.

And even as children arrive in school they are snapped back into reality with comments like, “Davey, pay attention. Stop looking out the window and daydreaming,” or “Daydreaming won’t help you pass the test, Susie. You need to study!”

Unfortunately, once we hit adulthood these beliefs about dreaming becomes entrenched within many of us. Daydreaming becomes as foreign to us as summers off and playing jump rope.

Yet, the people who actually make their ideas of owning their own business come to life are those who have a healthy mix of dreaming and practical planning.

Starting your own business is a serious endeavor. But where do you think the seeds of your business will come from?

They come from you—from your ideas, your desires, and your passions. They come from your dreams.

When you indulge yourself and actually dream of the “whatifs” about starting your business you are letting yourself design what that business will look like and what it will be about.

Your dreaming then becomes the fuel for action. You put yourself in a position of figuring out HOW to make your new business ideas a reality. You plant the seeds now that will help you to discover what it’s practically going to take for you to leave your job and be self-employed.

When your dreams are big enough they act like a magnet and pull you forward. This magnet makes it easier for you to answer the practical business questions:

* What will this business be about?
* How will it make money?
* What is it going to take to make it profitable?
* What resources does it need?

Your dreams become the driving force propelling you and your business forward.

Here is another way of looking at it. In fact, print these “formulas” out and post them where you can see them:

Dreams + Action = Momentum

Momentum + Persistence + Consistency = Progress…or in other words, a Viable Business

Stay in balance. You want to leave your job and start a business? Have you been dreaming enough about it? Have you spent the time envisioning as much detail as you can?

Make sure you have, because if not, you may find it close to impossible to come up with the nuts and bolts of making it a real, viable, and sustainable business.