Discover Your Dream!
The importance of having a dream cannot be stressed enough. Without a solid, concrete dream, we humans often find ourselves floating in a world of WANTS and WISHES; focusing more on what should have been, rather than what could be. We seem to have lost touch with our deepest dreams. We deny ourselves the time to dream, often seeing it as a luxury we just cannot afford. After all, dreaming does not put food on the table, or shoes on our feet…or does it?
Children are natural dreamers. To a child, the world is a huge oasis of opportunities, a place where anything is possible. The world is our oyster, ready to be harvested and enjoyed. How many of us dreamed of becoming a teacher, a firefighter, a doctor as a young child? How many of us actually followed our dreams into adulthood? Probably very few of us are now doing exactly what we dreamed we’d be ten years ago. Our lives are probably nothing like we imagined they would be when we were growing up. Why?
As we grow and get older, many of us become conditioned to believe that our dreams are mere wishes - things that are impossible to obtain or achieve. We are told to “stop dreaming and get back to work”. Because of this de-conditioning, we have forgotten the impact our dreams can have on our lives. We began to believe that our dreams were something to be hidden, forgotten, and perhaps even ashamed of.
Many of us mistake wishes for dreams. A dream is very different from a wish. A wish is something you hope can happen. A wish is an optimistic desire. It may or may not come true.
A dream, on the other hand, is a pleasant aspiration; something that we believe is possible, that we would like to have happen. When we dream, we visualize the way our lives could be, if only… If only we lost 10 lbs. before our next vacation… If only we could earn $75,000 within the next two years… What would our lives be like? What could we do, or buy, if our dreams came true? Who could we BE?
We have learned to push our dreams out of the way, in the busy-ness of living our lives. However, nothing is achieved without first a dream, a spark of an idea of what could be…
You want to feel inspired by your dream. If you find yourself having a difficult time “feeling” your dream, then perhaps it is not specific enough. What is it about your dream that you find inspiring? How does your dream align with your core values and needs? Does your dream offer you balance in all aspects of your life? Do you need to acquire new skills or take some training to achieve your dream?
Spend some quality time on the exercise below. It may take you a few short hours, or a few long weeks – take whatever time you need to truly get in touch with your innermost dreams. Journal your thoughts and ideas as you ponder your dreams.
Take the time to be completely self-focused and try to find what it is that you truly desire. Don’t worry about what others would say if they only knew your deepest dreams; this is your dream, not theirs. Don’t worry if what you want is different from what you have, it often is. Don’t worry about how you are going to achieve your dream, if you want it badly enough, you will.
Once you have thought about and recorded your responses to the questions below, the next step is to commit your dream to paper. Perhaps even record them, using a tape recorder, so that you can listen to it over and over again, every morning when you first wake up, or evening before you go to bed, in your car, or while quietly meditating.
Homework Week 1:
Write an article about you and your life in about five years from now:
- Perhaps you are being interviewed about the new book you just had published, or the new computer program that you developed to help doctors make better diagnoses…
- Perhaps it is a biography, written by someone who finds you an inspiration for others…
- Perhaps it is a performance review of your past achievements, both personal and in your career, over your past five years…
- Perhaps… you decide!
Clarify YOUR dream by downloading the Discover Your Dream Worksheet
Discover Your Dream Worksheet
Discover Your Dream - pdf version
Download the “Discover Your Dream” worksheet off our web site at www.excelyourbusiness.com.
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