Do you have a dream? If you do, what does it look like? Is it one you've had since childhood, or is it a new dream? How often do you think about this dream? Have you envisioned how it will play out and all of the details that will go into it? Do you have multiple dreams for yourself? Have you taken steps to bring that dream to fruition? Did you have some dreams that have come true? Have you given up on some of your dreams? Are you living the life that you pictured for yourself?
I think a lot of us started out with a lot of dreams...big dreams, but sometimes it can seem as though life has a way of keeping us from accomplishing these big dreams. Or is it that we too keep ourselves from accomplishing our dreams? How often do we really go for our dreams versus settling in for what seems safe or ordinary? I could be wrong, but I think there comes a time where we think to ourselves...that's good enough, it's not quite what I had dreamed of, but it's good enough. Or, I have a comfortable life, a comfortable existence and that's good enough, or who am I to aspire to anything greater? Or, life's just too busy, I have kids now, a mortgage, a job, commitments, I don't have the time or energy, let alone the money to pursue my dream.
Do you see yourself in any of these examples? It's not that there's necessarily anything wrong with being comfortable, but what if we each aspired to have an extraordinary life, not an ordinary life? How would the world change? How would we change? What would it look like? What would it teach future generations?
Kris Carr, author and wellness activist, in one of her workshops said, "Your soul is expansive and it craves uncertainty. In the uncertainty lies the possibilities. Have an extraordinary life, not an ordinary life. Change your mind about yourself. We have more power than what we know and exercise. Get deeper into your vision. Dream big, manifest big, but recognize that it may come in a different package than what you envisioned once in a while." I get that, I think my soul is expansive and craves the unknown, has a desire for infinite possibilities.
It can be scary to own our own power, to actually follow through on our true potential. A lot of times we let our ego and fear get the better of us. But what if we were brave enough to not settle and to dream? To know our gifts, our strengths, to be clear about our vision and to not hold ourselves back. I think we also often tell ourselves that we can't possibly act on our dreams because we don't know enough yet, or we don't have enough experience. So guess what?...experts did not start out as experts, they started out as beginners, as apprentices and they became experts. What if we just get started and learn more as we go, become experts along the way? What if we just started where we are and go from there?
I can already hear my own brain saying...yikes that means you are probably going to have some rough spots along the way or even fail. How many of us play it safe to avoid failure? I know I have been guilty of that a lot in my lifetime. Can we give ourselves a pass on our own self-judgment if we fail? Are we brave enough to see it as a learning opportunity and not as a failure? We've all heard the stories of successful people who failed multiple times before accomplishing their dream. Why is this so hard to do? What are we afraid of? Who's opinion of us matters anyway?
What if we dreamed and dreamed big? What if we gave our dream some legs and began acting on it? Do an exercise with me...sit down with a loved one that you trust and each of you for a few minutes tell the other several "imagine if" and "I dream that" statements. Don't hold back, be authentic, be bold, be brave, be creative, let it flow, whatever comes to mind just keep imaging and dreaming. Have it be personal or about how you dream or imagine the world or your community to be. Give it as much detail as you can.
Imagine if I did the Tough Mudder, I dream that there are neighborhood health and wellness centers and less doctor offices, imagine if kids were taught and practiced meditation in school, I dream that my kids will grow up to be dreamers, imagine if I were a motivational spiritual teacher with my own blog :) These are/were some of mine, what do yours look like? Who knows maybe you'll learn something about yourself or something about your loved one that you were unaware of.
This is an exercise we sometimes do in the mastermind meeting and meditation class that I attend. It's a beautiful way to tap into our dreams. I think anytime you take a moment to put awareness to your desires, your dreams, and then verbalize them you are taking a big step toward acting them out. Each day take small right steps toward your dreams.
I once saw an interview with Steve Harvey where he said, "Surround yourself with dreamers. Surround yourself with like-minded people. Stop telling your dreams to small-minded people." Keep around you people who love and support you and your dreams. People who challenge you to be all that you can be and more. People who will encourage you even when you may fail. People who are also dreamers and who are aspiring to lead an extraordinary life. Live BIG, live interesting, live extraordinary, create magic. Why not? The world needs ordinary people leading extraordinary lives.
RSS Feed
