Keep your dreams-they’re richer far/Than the facts discovered are.
Do not seek all things to touch;/Do not want to know too much.
Growing old, still play the child;/Keep some glory undefiled.
What if clouds are mist and air? /Still see ships sailing there.
What would life be if we knew /Only those things which are true?
If the things of bad and good /Were by all men understood.
Nature’s hills and brooks and springs /Would be catalogued as things.
Keep your dreams, for in them lies /Joy denied to men grown wise.
Still build castles in the air! /Still see white ships sailing there!
Still have something to pursue/Something that you wish you knew.Edgar A. Guest, poet.
Why are people such jerks sometimes?
One of my favorite clients was almost derailed from pursuing an industry he wants to pursue by a negative person who told him he couldn’t get into it. Another wants to quit the corporate rat race and go be a massage therapist…only to hear discouraging things.
These men are highly accomplished. The fact is, they can do anything they want to do, and have in the past. But negative people are derailing them. And why? Because they listen to these jerks!
Look, opinions are like rectums. Everyone has one and most of them stink. No one has a crystal ball to be able to predict what will happen in the future. But I can say this: Those who pursue their dreams, do the work, operate with humility, and stay the course normally achieve them. But most people get discouraged or sell out.
No one says that achieving your dreams will be easy. There will be heartbreak and setbacks along the way to achieving what you dream of. Not everyone will make it the whole way. But won’t life be better working for something rather than selling out and settling into a rut?
If there is something you want to do, there are several important steps.
1). Be clear about what you want to achieve. Those who are moving in a clear and single-minded direction are much more likely to achieve their dreams than those who are just vaguely daydreaming now and then. Obtain a career coach, life coach or transition coach to help you clarify this if you do not already have clarity.
2). Vision this. Spend at least 20 minutes a day daydreaming and visioning your dream.
3). See yourself achieving your dream. When you’re daydreaming, try to feel the way you’ll feel when you’ve achieved your dream. See yourself in it. See yourself wildly successful.
4). Clear the decks of naysayers. Get rid of negative people around you! If a friend or family member is negative on your dream…dump `em. If it is your spouse or someone else you have a special relationship with, throw a temper tantrum and tell them to stop shooting down your dreams. If they won’t comply….well, you have some decisions to make, don’t you? No one has the right to shoot down your dreams, though certain relationships may well give you different dreams.
5). Stay the course. No one says it will be easy. Once you’ve set a course to achieve your dreams, stick with it. Don’t let temporary setbacks derail you from your dream. Remember the Japanese proverb, “Fall seven times, get up eight.“ You’re not a failure until you quit trying.
6). Enlist positive others. Find some folks that you can share your dream with, and hang out with them almost exclusively. The synergy created will help your dream come about more rapidly.
7). Act. You can daydream all you want. Daydreaming is helpful in visioning your dream. But it is useless without getting up off your dead butt and doing things to make your dream come about.
8). Pursue many ways of achieving your dream. Sometimes, people get all excited when they think they see a way to make their dream happen, then disappointed when it doesn’t work out. Have several avenues to success. Don’t stop working on all of the others just because one pops up. Keep working the several avenues to reach your dream until it is actually achieved.
9). Support the dreams of others. If you’re a naysayer, you are derailing the dreams of others, and what you do in negativity normally comes back on you. Shut your mouth and support others in their dreams, whether you think they can achieve them or not. How do you know? Rather than being negative, be positive and supportive of others who have a dream. This will assist your dream in coming to life.
10). Pay it forward. Help others who are trying to achieve a dream. Know that someday this will come back to you ten fold and a hundred fold. Stay in the flow of life. Don’t hoard. Be generous.
These are the ways of achieving what you dream of achieving. Don’t let anyone derail you from your dreams. They are more important than most people who come and go in your life, as they are the expression of the center and foundation of who you are. By achieving your dreams, you are truly expressing joy and gratitude to the Universe for having “wonderously made” you.
J.