DREAMING OUT LOUD

There is no time like the present for working on a plan for your future. In fact, I believe that the sooner you put yourself into your plans, the better. In other words, the sooner you determine what you want to be ‘when you grow up’, the better.

Most of us can remember what we loved to do as children and some of the games and ‘make belief’ characters we played and admired. We also usually had an answer for what we wanted to do when we grew up. 

Some of us had a very definite idea about what we wanted from life and this actually never changed. Because of this many of us realized these early dreams. Others of us ended up doing other things, either because our needs and wants changed or out of necessity to earn a living and make a life for ourselves.

I think however, that wherever we are at in our lives, it is a good idea to think about where we really want to be now and in the future. Let’s be honest, most of us have a ‘Wish List’. 

With a win of the proverbial ‘Million Dollars’ most of us have a dozen or more things we can think of to do with ‘all of that money’. However, aside from ‘winning the lottery’, how much of what we dream about can we hope to achieve, should that lottery win not happen? This is an important question.

Stepping back from the fantasy, how can we make some, or all, of our dreams a reality? From within my own frustration and the work in progress that is my life, I’d say quite a lot of it.

To begin with you have to look at your dreams and think about what they are, particularly which are most important to you. Although you can spend a bit of time thinking about this, most of us know what we want the most. Where we get stuck is in trying to figure out how to get it.

I think the best place to start is to ‘dream out loud’. In other words, let your ‘secret’ dream out into your life. This is the scary part. It is actually what is making your dreams impossible. Fear. 

It will take both courage and determination to finally put your dream out there so you, and people around you can hear about and see it. Whether this means writing it down, or gets a little farther by telling your friends and family what you’ve always wanted, you are actually taking the crucial first step in making your dream possible.

Your fear is what is holding you back, far more than what your dream actually is. I am pretty sure that what you dream about isn’t as crazy as you fear it is. Guess what, you’ll never know, if you keep it a secret!

By letting your dreams out, you confirm that you want something beyond what you have now. You may have a few ideas about how to realize your dreams. Why not take them out for a ride and see where you can put them in your life?

As you do this, you may notice those around you start to feel ready to trust you with their own dreams which they have also been keeping secret and unspoken.

You and those around you might be surprised to find that what you want and what they want is either not so far apart, or quite as impossible as you imagined it might be.

This exchange can help you both, to suggest practical ways and encourage and help each other to move your life closer to what you want it to be. You might suddenly find you have the encouragement and support of those around you in finding practical ways to make your dreams a reality.

Most importantly, your own actions, will have taken the first steps in redirecting your life toward making your dreams possible for you to achieve. I’d say your success is more likely than some secret wishes based on some ‘miracle’ windfall to do it for you.