Tag Archives: Dream

Risking It All

27 Nov

We can do anything we want to do with our lives. We can accomplish monumental tasks, we can plan for success, and we can work to make all our dreams come true. But we can’t DO anything by sitting around thinking about it. We can’t accomplish anything if we’re afraid of the risks and don’t even try. There are risks with everything. What we want might be harder than we first envisioned, it might take longer than we imagined, and despite everything we do, we might fail the first time we try. Sometimes we imagine the risks to be far worse than they turn out to be, but whether real or imagined, we will face them with every endeavor. However, if we’re determined to work on the issue we’ll figure things out as we go. The greatest risk isn’t that things may go wrong. The greatest risk of all is not trying. If we do nothing, we will never succeed at the things we want most. And if we let that happen, if we don’t even try, our lives will never be the lives we desire.

It’s so easy to live in a dream state. We can go through the motions, face our days as they come and just get along. It’s simple and takes very little effort. We can dream of how things could be, we can even spend time planning, but if we do nothing, it means nothing. At some point we have to decide what kind of life we really want. Do we want to take the easy road, play along, go along, and never reach for something more? Or do we want to try, really try, to do the things we dream about? We can do anything we want to. We can make our lives any way we want them to be. But it takes effort. It takes courage, and it takes the willingness to face whatever comes as we move forward. If we aren’t willing to risk whatever it takes to be completely happy, we will never achieve it. We deserve to be happy. We deserve every advantage, but we have to give it to ourselves. We’re the only ones who can make it happen.

What if we try and we fail? What if we get hurt? What if nothing works out the way we thought it would? Can we face that? Of course we can. If we try one way and it fails, we learn what doesn’t work and we can change our plans going forward. Few things are accomplished in the first attempt. But if the first failure ends it for us, if we give up after one loss, we have no chance of success. We don’t have to quit even if everything goes wrong the first time, or the second time, or even if it takes a while to figure it out. We have the stamina and the patience to try again no matter how many times it takes. We can find the way by continuing to go forward. If we keep moving forward step by step, we will find success and achieve the goal.

Today if you’ve been wanting to change something in your life, if you’ve been trying and haven’t yet succeeded, don’t stop. You know more now than you did when you started. You are smarter and more aware of what you need to do. Try again. You will find the answers. There isn’t anything you can’t do. Face whatever risk you must and press forward. The goal is in sight. Keep your focus. You’re almost there.

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Step One

16 Nov

We have a lot of goals in our lives. There are many things we think about, things we want to do, and things we want to achieve. But having a goal is just the first step in accomplishing anything. Thinking about what we want to do is fine, but if we’re serious about achieving it, we have to do more. The famous French writer Antoine de Saint-Exupery said, “A goal without a plan is just a wish.” And that’s true. It’s fun to wish for things but if we want our wishes to become reality, we need to make a plan to accomplish them and then implement it. It takes action to succeed in anything. We can dream and wish and hope for things to happen, but nothing will ever change until we do something to make the change a reality.

When we seriously want something in our lives, we must do what it takes to get it. Sometimes it’s necessary to change what we’re used to or what we’ve been comfortable with.  Maybe we have to give up some free time, or we have to step out of our comfort zone and extend ourselves to those we don’t know. Maybe we have to let go of some long held fear. When what we really want means a great deal to us, we can make those sacrifices. But if we have to do something that scares us, or we’re intimidated by the process needed to get to the goal, it may take more courage than we initially anticipated. And then we’ll have to determine how much we want to succeed. If we really want to go forward, there is nothing that will stand in our way. We will do what it takes, no matter what that entails.

There is nothing we can’t do if we want to badly enough. There is no obstacle so large that it will prevent us from achieving our goal. We can do anything. But we must decide what we really want. They say we always do what we want to do most. That seems evident. If we say we want to change but keep doing the same things, the real truth is that we want things to stay the same. If we really want to change we have to embrace it and do what is needed to make it happen. If we keep doing the same things over and over again, change will never happen. Even if we talk about what we want to do, even if we think about it constantly, even if we dream about it, if we do nothing to change where we are, we will never achieve it.

Today if you’ve been dreaming about a change you want in your life, if you’ve been wishing for it and thinking about it, do one thing that will take you closer to it. Take the first step to start moving forward to the goal, and set a date to accomplish it. Then start doing what is needed to make it a reality. With every step you take you’ll be closer than you were before. You can do anything. Start now. There is nothing that will stop you or stand in your way. You have everything you need to succeed.

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Dream Dream Dream

8 Jul

We all have dreams of things we want to do, places we want to see, and goals we want to accomplish. Sometimes they are big dreams, like opening our own business, and sometimes they are small, like riding on a train. We’re all different, and so are our dreams. Big or small, if we haven’t realized them yet, we think about them from time to time. They wait for us to remember them, and make them come true.

The realities of our lives don’t always allow us to realize our dreams when we want to. Sometimes we don’t have the finances we need, sometimes we aren’t in the right place, and sometimes, we’re just too busy. Life can get complicated and crazy, and we can be overcome with work, family responsibilities, or projects we’re doing. Time gets away from us. We can get so caught up in what we need to do, and what has to be done, that we may forget about the dreams we have outside of the chaos. But then we take a break, we sit down and let our minds drift, and there they are – those things we always said we would do. Those things we really want to do. They’re still there, waiting patiently for us to revisit them. Waiting for us to start.

When we’re ready, we can make a plan to achieve whatever we’ve been dreaming of. We can choose what we really want to do first, and start taking steps to make it to happen. Say we want to travel the world. Instead of having the undefined idea of “the world,” we could begin by picking the first place we would like to visit. Then we could figure out what it would take to get there in resources, and time. And then we could set a date to go. Once we have a plan in place, we can make adjustments if needed, but if we stick to it, we will accomplish our goal, and make that dream a reality.

Dreaming is great. We wonder about things, we imagine how they will go, and it’s exciting to think about them. But at some point we have to decide if we really want to do them or not. If we’ve changed, and really don’t care about a dream we’ve had, we can let it go. But if we really still want it, and it won’t go away, there is no better time than now to begin planning for it.

Today if you’re thinking about something you’ve always wanted to do, take the first step toward making it happen. Do something – research the parameters, make some calls, get information, and begin moving forward. You deserve to have all your dreams come true. But life won’t give them to you. Only you can make them happen. Start now. Set the date. Get ready, and before you know it, you’ll be there. They say that when we’re dying it’s not the things we’ve done that we regret, but the things we didn’t do. Let’s do everything we want to do instead of just dream about them. It’s great to dream. But living the dream is even better. Let’s live all the dreams we can. Today is the best time to start.

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Being a Magician

26 Jun

I recently heard a very distinguished, and professional man speak at a college graduation ceremony. He talked about his life, his accomplishments, and his motivations. He is very successful, and had a lot of stories about his failures, and how he overcame them to get where he is today. And he talked about his father. His father had been an architect – something he didn’t really choose for himself, but something his family wanted him to do. He was a good architect, and devoted to his work, but his entire life he always wanted to be a magician. He would perform magic tricks at every party he was invited to, or hosted. He told his son he was happiest when he was performing magic. The speaker talked about that, and how his father’s eyes would light up whenever he had the chance to perform even the smallest of tricks. Then he encouraged everyone in the audience to do what brought them joy instead of what was expected. “Become magicians!” he said.

As children, we all had dreams of what we would become when we grew up. We dreamed of being race car drivers, dare devils, astronauts, dancers, singers, movie stars, etc. But as we got older, and began to plan our lives, the parameters of those choices came into focus, and perhaps we chose something more settled, or more secure. Being settled, and secure are important, but if we are still dreaming of doing something else, we won’t find happiness. Being happy is something we have to give ourselves. Life won’t bring it to us. It’s our responsibility, so we should do the things that make us happy. Sometimes that means doing something different than we are doing now.

We can try to do anything we dream about. Anything we want to do is possible. The only person stopping us from changing our lives from doing what is expected, into lives we really want to live, is us. We deserve to live the lives we most want for ourselves. Are we doing what we want to do most? Are we happy doing the things we’re doing? If not, and we want to be magicians, we can be magicians. We can change course if we really want to. This life is a precious gift. Every day is precious. If we aren’t happy, we can change things. We can live a life that makes us happy.

Today if you’re feeling unhappy with the choices you’ve made, it’s not too late. You can change your course. You can change anything you like. It may take time, and planning, and you may have to rearrange things, but you can special order a better life for yourself. You can be happy. Once today is gone it will never come back. Make sure you spend it living it the way that makes you happiest. You deserve the very best. Make a plan to get it.

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Not Happening

24 May

There are times in everyone’s life when we want something very much. If it’s something we feel would be good for us, something that would make us happy, something that would make our lives better, we hope for it. We yearn for it, think about it, wait for it, and pray for it. But sometimes the thing we really want doesn’t come. No matter what we do, it’s just not in the cards for us. We try changing the plan, and that doesn’t work. We try changing our focus, and that doesn’t work. No matter what we do, we can’t get to where we want to be.

It’s very hard to accept not being able to have something we want very much. If it’s something we believed we would achieve, it’s very hard to let it go. But this life is full of twists and turns, and sometimes the road doesn’t take us where we thought we were headed. Sometimes the destination isn’t what we planned on.

How can we accept no for an answer? How can we let go of something we want so badly? How do we handle the disappointment? If we’ve done all we could do, and still the plan didn’t work, what do we do now? How do we go forward?

If you hold a baseball in your hand, all five fingers encircling it, you have it securely. You won’t drop it. If you lift one finger, you can still hold it. The same is true if you lift two fingers, even three – you can still hold onto the ball with the remaining two. But once you lift the fourth finger, the ball will teeter and fall. Having a dream we really want is like holding onto the baseball. When we’re trying to adjust to a big change, a big disappointment, it’s like letting the ball fall. It’s not easy to just let the hope go, we’ve held it for too long. But if we lift one finger at a time, just ease into the release, we can let go of the yearning, and the disappointment. One step at at time, we can go on.

We all have things we want in our lives – good things, things we feel we deserve, things that would be beneficial for us. But sometimes the answer is no. Sometimes the timing is wrong. Sometimes what we think is best for us isn’t where life takes us. It’s hard to let go of the desire for something we’ve wanted so badly. We have to accept the disappointment gradually – let the dream go, one finger at a time.

Today if you realize that something you’ve wanted for so long isn’t going to happen, if you are stung with the understanding that it’s just not going to work, it’s okay. It just means the path is a little different than you thought it would be. Good things will still come to you – they’ll just be a a little different than you thought they would be. Life is all about adapting, accepting change, and learning to adjust. Start again. This is just a step. The road is long. There will be more dreams, and many of them will come true.

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