By Monty J. Sharp, Certified Comprehensive Coach. http://www.workteamcoaching.com

When I was much younger, I belonged to a fraternal organization much like Boy Scouts, which taught wilderness survival skills. One of basic skills they taught was how to build a fire. Fires are very useful not only for cooking and warmth, but also for psychological comfort – especially when you’re out in middle of nowhere surrounded by nothing but darkness.

There are three essential elements needed in order to create fire from a bunch of sticks: Heat – either from friction, a spark or a smaller flame, like a match. Fuel – wood or other combustible material. Air – supplied by blowing or fanning to make heat hotter and help spread fire.

All three elements are essential. Take away just one and you have no fire.

Accomplishing a goal or realizing a dream is much like building a fire. There are three essential elements needed in order to create reality from a bunch of dreams or goals. All three are essential. Take away even one, and you have no true realization or accomplishment. They are:

Passion, a plan and pursuit.

Passion is “heat”. It’s that spark or small flame that gets things started. Passion is also what sustains you when things get tough. It’s love of what you’re doing or working towards. It’s vision and motivation that continually draws you forward. Take away passion and there’s no spark to get things off ground or you quickly lose fervor to sustain you on uphill climbs.

The plan is fuel for your goals or dreams. Even if you have lots of sticks for your fire, they have to be assembled in such a way that allows spark to “catch” and begin process of combustion. You simply can’t stick a match under a log and expect it to begin to burn – log is too big. You have to start with much smaller pieces of wood or straw called tinder. Once that begins to burn, you can begin to add increasingly larger pieces slowly until you have a nice warm fire.