A Recipe for YOUR DREAMS!
March 1, 2010
Monday Message from Margo 3-1-2010
“What is not started today is never finished tomorrow.”
~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
You hear it all the time, “Life is short, so you should live it fully”. For some people that means keeping the keg going, or grabbing as much money and fame as they can squeeze into every one of life’s transactions. Regardless of whether or not life is really “short”, the fact that we are here, that we are alive, and that we are cognitively aware, is a huge signal that at the very least, we should be living lives of purpose and meaning, not just running after the green stuff, the skirts, youth, and all of the other misleading bells, whistles, and detours this earthly existence can offer.
Since you have the opportunity—and somewhere deep down, the desire—
why not spend your life doing the things you are really passionate about, the things you dreamed about doing, and doing them in the way you dreamed about being? It’s a good idea, but first you have to get still for a bit, and allow your personal desires to resurface. You may even have to conjure up a few from scratch, and that’s o.k. No matter what you are doing now, you can and should re-ignite with the passionate desires that once motivated you to see life as an exciting and rich experience. No matter where you are currently, you CAN live your life based on your deepest desires, and you CAN find, develop, and then live, your dreams.
That’s what I want to talk to you about—your dreams. There are two kinds of
dreams: those you encounter while you are fast asleep, and those you bring into play while you are wide awake. For the rest of this message, I’d like to visit with you about the second kind, those you activate when you are awake—the ones you have total control over authoring and bringing to some type of fruition.
Dreams can be fantastic, fabulous, or even a little freaky! Dreams are more thanhopes, because you play a crucial role in fulfilling them. They are not left to chance. Dreams have the element of creation and animation built right into them. Dreaming is something you do, something you engage in, and something you are involved with. When you dream, you are first daring to believe that you can have more, then you are suggesting to yourself ways to create that. On top of that, the very act of dreaming fuels you to take the actions necessary to actualize what you know you want.
Dreaming is exciting because it stirs up your passions, and convinces you that what you desire is worth going after.
Dreams are dynamic, not static. They are moving, developing, unwinding, unfolding, and even changing as you go towards them with the determination to see them take shape. Dreams become realities through a structured process of applying yourself and your resources towards them in a “take action” manner.
That’s what it is all about, taking action. Here is a DREAM RECIPE that you can follow to create a delicious dish of your very own dreams, those that will feed you with more excitement, more meaning, and more personal passion going forward. Living your dreams actually forces all of the energy fields surrounding them to make more room for more dreams. It is a
contagious and exhilarating process. It touches the lives of others, too. To live your deepest desires—your dreams—is to live divine.
As you create, plan, and actualize your dreams, remember this:
It is not so much the exact and perfectly literal expression of a dream that is important— although with proper planning you will see many of your dreams almost perfectly come to pass. It is the act of being present with your dreams that is the powerful part, because going towards your dreams leads you to your true destiny. Your true destiny is where the magic begins.
DREAM RECIPE
1. Pretend for a moment that you have no constraints, that YOU (not a false you) can have anything that you want, and that you can be anyone that you desire.
2. Think about what you would do in life (with your minutes, days, weeks, months, and years) if no matter what you did, you received the exact same financial reward and the exact same praise from others for doing it (so the motive is not money, recognition, or fame).
3. Get clear about your personal dreams. Jot down eight dreams you would like to see come to pass in your life over the next one to five years (or even a few years longer if need be). Include ONLY things you are passionate about—that excite you, thrill you, or invigorate you in some meaningful way (leave the other, less exciting ideas for another day).
4. Prioritize your dreams. Go back and circle from the above list, the four dreams that are the absolute most important to you AT THIS TIME IN YOUR LIFE (they may all be equally important, but which one are MOST important now. For example, you could want to have a child and also want to get a masters degree so you can teach, but the degree may be most important AT THIS TIME IN YOUR LIFE, leaving the plans for building a family for a later time).
5. Plan for fueling your way to your dreams. Dreams take resources, which may include money, time, collaboration with specific people, trading favors, or a combination. Get out four pieces of paper, and on each piece write out one of the four dreams you circled above. Then in the space below each dream, give a rough estimate of how much time you need to accomplish the dream, what some of the needed resources will be, and what some of the potential challenges you might face will be. Also include—and this is very important—what personal value each dream will help you to live out. Do this for all four. Next, get a little more specific about the action steps you will have to take to realize each dream. The more specific you are, the more likely your dreams will actually take form in “real life”.
6. Pick one of the four dreams to focus on NOW. You probably won’t be able to focus well on more than one dream at a time, so pick one of the four—the one that seems the most feasible at this time based on the resources needed, the obstacles you may face, and the value the dream will help you to live out. You can still make steps towards the other dreams as you focus mainly on one (for example, if one of the dreams is to write a book and another is to go back to college, you can begin writing the rough outline for your book during the same time you save money for your coming education).
7. Take at least one action step toward your focus dream within the next 36 hours. Anyone can write down a dream, but only those who take action bit-by-bit to accomplish them will get to live them out, and share the fruits of those dreams with others (the best part). Let’s say that your dream is to own a retail shop in Aspen, Colorado and you currently live in another state. An easy and first step could be to get online and start checking rental property rates and real estate prices for commercial properties in Aspen or you could find out what types of licenses or permits are need to do business in the state of Colorado.
8. Each week, purpose to take another step toward actualizing your current focus dream. Make the commitment to yourself to make realizing your dreams, one at a time, a lifestyle. Always be working on a dream you are passionate about and one you know is good and healthy for you and others. In the same way you decide to be a healthy eater by making many smart choices each day, allow every day to move you closer to living out your destiny. Make experiencing your dreams a lifestyle. 
Dreams are not hard to attain, but doing so does take consistent effort over acertain period of time. Most people do not believe they are worth the investment and the steady, regular, continual effort. Believe me, you absolutely, positively ARE!
Have a Wildly Dreamy Week,
Margo
Filed under: Change and Transition, Goal Setting, Ideas and Innovation, Monday Message from Margo, Personal Development, Power and Influence, Time Management
