How can you sell your dream to others? Why is a support system important to achieve your goals?
As important as it is to motivate yourself and define the ambitions that drive you, the time will come when you have to rely on other people’s help to move forward. Therefore, a key step to achieving your dream is learning how to sell it to others so you can have supporters.
Below, we’ll look at how to create a support system that will stick with you every step of the way.
Selling Your Dream
You sell yourself to win over supporters, but you need to understand your field so you can identify your potential backers. Just as important is convincing yourself that your dream is something you can make real while also learning to ignore naysayers—or, better yet, prove them wrong.
If you’re aiming to learn how to create a support system, then Arnold Schwarzenegger says you have to learn how to sell it. In this context, “selling” means you should present your dream in a way that encourages others to view it in a positive light so that they’ll be inclined to support you. For instance, if your dream is to be a successful performing musician, you have to sell your dream to your potential bandmates, the owners of the venues you’d like to perform at, and the people you’d like to attend your show—and that’s only just to get started.
(Shortform note: Schwarzenegger uses a broader definition of selling than simply trading goods and services for profit. In To Sell Is Human, Daniel H. Pink expands on this broader view to define sales as “moving” others to exchange intangible yet valuable resources, such as time, attention, or help. To do this, you have to focus your persuasive tactics on your potential supporters’ needs rather than on your own, which Pink says requires a level of humility, curiosity, and emotional intelligence. Done effectively, this can turn selling your own dreams into a form of service in which you identify and fulfill other people’s needs, improve their lives, and inspire change—in other words being useful to others and not just making them useful to you.)
Therefore, find out who your potential backers are. They could range from financial institutions to the people closest to you in life and on whom you might depend for support. To identify these “customers,” Schwarzenegger writes that you must educate yourself about your field and what success within it demands. Avoid guessing which people or organizations might back you—instead, invest time and conduct thorough research. Pay attention to how other people react when you share your aspirations, and use those reactions as cues on how to pitch them the idea of your dream. And never shy away from being true to yourself when sharing your dreams. Your authenticity will resonate with people better than any façade.
(Shortform note: In many fields, the best way to follow Schwarzenegger’s advice is to join a club of experienced hobbyists or a professional organization. Before doing so, however, you should evaluate whether the group is a good fit by talking to some of its members and getting a feel for its culture. Ideally, whatever organization you join will have an onboarding process to help you find a place, let you judge how your skills and values fit in, provide training on how you can be of service, and help you form relationships with established members and fellow newcomers. All of these people could be potential backers whom you can sell on your aspirations as they sell you on theirs.)
Own Your Sales Pitch
Schwarzenegger learned about the need for salesmanship when he first arrived in America and was shocked by the lack of public perception around his beloved sport of bodybuilding. Rather than complain, Schwarzenegger took the public’s ignorance as a challenge and made himself bodybuilding’s ambassador to the masses, highlighting the discipline and artistry of his craft. Slowly but surely, Arnold recast bodybuilding as something aspirational rather than a niche sport to be ridiculed, as it often was by the media in the 1970s. By framing his passion so positively, he built a legion of fans and supporters who helped take the sport mainstream.
(Shortform note: While Schwarzenegger may have been instrumental in popularizing bodybuilding in the ’70s, that wasn’t the sport’s first heyday. The modern concept of bodybuilding began in the late 19th century when figures like Eugene Sandow shifted weightlifting’s focus from a form of entertainment toward health-based physical development. Bodybuilding enjoyed its first “golden age” in the 1930s and ’40s, with the emergence of Muscle Beach in Santa Monica, California, the establishment of bodybuilding competitions, and the rise of bodybuilding champions like Clarence Ross and Steve Reeves, the latter of whom became one of Schwarzenegger’s chief role models and inspirations.)
When it comes to your personal aspirations, the most important person to convince is yourself. This is why Schwarzenegger insists that having a well-defined mental image of your goal is crucial. Sharing this dream with others not only helps you refine your “sales pitch”; it also publicly commits you to fulfill it, fueling your determination and giving you a sense of accountability. Also, instead of framing your dream as a distant possibility, talk about it as an ongoing reality. For instance, don’t say that you want to write a novel—instead, tell people you’re writing a novel. This shift will make your aspirations more real, which will further inspire you to take steps toward them and follow through on all the hard work that entails.
(Shortform note: In addition to reframing your goals as something you’re achieving in the present, psychologists also suggest that it helps to reframe your goals in terms of obstacles you have to overcome. Using a strategy called mental contrasting, you bring together desires and barriers, so that when you imagine your goal, you also identify what stands in your way. Psychologist Gabriele Oettingen developed this idea into the Wish Outcome Obstacle Plan, which helps translate your positive aspirations into achievable goals by addressing the obstacles blocking you. When you focus on your hurdles, you’re not just daydreaming about the finish line but actively navigating the course to get there.)
Silence the Doubters
Schwarzenegger warns that you’ll encounter cynics who doubt your ability to accomplish your goals. Their skepticism, often rooted in their own unrealized ambitions, might undermine your confidence if you let it. Therefore, your options are to disregard their negativity or use it as motivation to prove them wrong. Especially if people underestimate you because some aspect of your story is unique—such as if you’re the first person in your family to go to college—you can stun them with your unwavering dedication and maybe even win them over to your side. Proving people wrong can be its own form of “selling.”
(Shortform note: Though Schwarzenegger recommends either ignoring or one-upping the doubters in your life, there’s another way to address their skepticism. In The Chimp Paradox, Steve Peters suggests that you should base your confidence and sense of motivation on the efforts you make, not the goals you achieve. After all, whether or not you achieve your goals, you have complete control over how much effort you put into them. If you can shift your mindset so that your efforts are what bolsters you, then it’s irrelevant whether other people doubt what you can achieve. Achievement itself is no longer part of your confidence equation.)
