Personal Development Test: Are your Dreams Keeping you up at Night?
Are your plans for the future so much a part of your conscious awareness that they cause you to lose sleep staying up late at night working towards them?
If not, why not?
Now, don't get me wrong. I am not endorsing the concept of working around the clock and not getting enough rest, or about not enjoying your life while you are on the road to goal attainment. 
However, if you are "punching out" at 5:00pm and not putting in the extra effort needed to bring your dreams to reality, are you sure that you are really all that excited about them to begin with?
If you can shut down your desire to work towards your goals just because a standard work day has already elapsed, then you may not be as in tune with your long-term desires as you think you are.
The "extra effort" to capture your dreams may come in many forms, and include any or all of the following:
1) Putting in actual additional hours building your business or laying the groundwork for your future planes.
2) Spending time with your friends and family talking about the beautiful future that you have envisioned, thus continually keeping your excitement level maxed out.
3) Meditating, visualizing, or practicing daily affirmations that keep both your conscious as well as your subconcious mind focused on your most heart-felt desires.
4) Researching or brain-storming new avenues of approach that will either grow your dreams to even larger proportions, or help you find a way to make it all happen sooner, rather than later.
5) Practicing conscious enjoyment of your "off-duty" hours since you have earned them after working diligently towards your dreams. Conscious enjoyment means that you recognize your down time as a well-deserved break, but only a brief respite before tackling the next task on your goal to-do list. It does not mean putting your dreams on a mental shelf.
In the Simply Successful Secrets project, I am asking people to share their daily success habits, and getting enough rest as well as enjoying down-time are part of many people's lists, including mine.
However, when you are truly excited about your future, working towards that future is part of the fun! I remember shortly after telling my wife that I was going to take every Sunday afternoon off, it wasn't long before I found myself working on a Sunday afternoon.
Was it because I am an incurable workaholic? Hardly. Although I do have my workaholic tendencies, the reason why I work most nights and weekends is because I want to.
My dreams for the future are vast, and they include spending A LOT of time not working. However, in order to get to that point, I work my butt off because I choose to, not because I have to. Those are two entirely different concepts.
So, should you donate your pillow to some other needy family member and just give up on getting any sleep or having any fun until you have achieved your dreams? Absolutely not!
However, if your dreams are not filling you with a level of excitement that is so great that you have to keep reminding yourself to live in the now, then you might want to step back and ask yourself if you are really all that excited about your plans.
If you are not, then find out why. Do some soul searching, and don't stop the search until you are so excited about what you find that you, well… you can't sleep at night! 
p.s. – As any good self improvement or personal development writer should do, I am writing from my own experience. I stayed up until 3:00am last night, and then spent another 10 hours straight working after sleeping for less than 5 hours.
Want to know what I am so excited about? My latest chance to share my knowledge with the world via the wonderful blogosphere! Check it out at the link below, be sure to leave comments, subscribe to the RSS feed, and be the same wonderful community member that you have been here at Today is that Day!
Enjoy!
