The 30-Minute Practice That Turned My Dreams into Reality

It was June of 2024.
I lay exhausted in my bed.

Three months into living in Bangalore, I already felt drained.

I had moved to this city hoping for a new “space” to grow.
The irony in that sentence couldn’t be heavier.

I was living in a 6X6 room.
Just enough to fit a bed in.
Surrounded by party maniacs who would shout at the top of their lungs all night.

I had slowly given in to the culture.
Living there was perfect heaven for my overworked brain.
Until it wasn’t.

I lost a high-ticket client in early June.
That was the last straw.

I knew I had to move out of that place.
Maybe somewhere I could be more productive and grow.
An apartment?

I suppressed that thought as soon as it came to mind.
Moving into an apartment in Bangalore?
In this economy? With deposits costing more than what most people earn in a year?
Forget it.

I had no option but to think of giving up on this moving-out thing.
Maybe move back home?

I cried myself to sleep that night.

A week later, I was having a random conversation with the girl living next door.
Somehow, the term Dream Diary came up.
An elaborate process was discussed.

The self-help enthusiast in me was desperate to give it a go.

The rules were simple:

Step 1- Take a notebook. Preferably the one you’ll use exclusively as your Dream Diary.

Step 2- Write down 100 dreams. And do it in one sitting.

It sounded fairly easy.
100? I have a thousand dreams!
But somewhere around the middle - I became drained of the obvious ones.

Brain started giving up.
Maybe I didn’t know myself as well as I thought.

The moment I reached 100, I literally took a big breath!
Whewww. I finally had it out of my system.

But this is not where this exercise ended.

Step 3 - The next day, you have to revisit your list.
Go through every individual dream and assign timelines.
Do you want the dream to be completed this year? Next year? Five years later? A decade later?

Step 4 - Reverse Engineer the Process.
Pick the dreams meant for this year. Break them down by month.
Subdivide them into months.

Look at your dreams and ask yourself:

• What needs to happen this month?

• What action can I take right now, today?

• What’s the first step?

Basically, you have to build a process/system around your goal.

The funny thing is, the moment I started focusing on the “how”- things started falling into place.

Two weeks later:
- I found a roommate
- We found a 2BHK apartment in a nice locality - very much within my budget

It was exactly what I had envisioned it to be.
By the end of July, I had moved in.

My dream was a reality now!

Now, let’s be realistic.
Tools like Dream Diary, Vision Board, Manifestation aren’t “Magical”.
Writing your dreams won’t suddenly make them come true.

But it clears the mental fog.
It forces you to face what you actually want.
And once you see it clearly, you can’t unsee it.

That clarity changes how you move.
Because you now don’t have anything left to do but act.

So, if you feel stuck or frustrated, try this:

Take 30 minutes.
Write down 100 dreams.
Break them into actions.

You never know which one might become your reality next month.

P.S.: Writing this newsletter was a dream a month ago. Now it’s all real.
This is my first one - of course I plan on writing more.
But I need your support to grow.

If you liked what you read - please share and subscribe.
And do let me know if you have any feedback/stories to share.

Aiming to keep it real

- Shrishti