Live Your Dreams
Are you living your dreams?
If the answer is no, then I ask “why not?” Life is short, and you never know when it will come to an end. Do you really want to have more woulda-coulda-shoulda’s at the end of your life then you have accomplishments?
Do you really want to say that you lived a life of unfulfilled dreams? But “hold it!” you say. “I’m waiting for the perfect time” or “I’m waiting for perfect circumstances”. You know the truth: all this waiting is an excuse not to go out and try.
Or, maybe it’s not that you are “waiting” per se, but rather that you are afraid.So, what are you afraid of? Are you afraid of making a mistake, or of making a wrong choice, or that you may not be good enough? And what if the people around you laugh at your dreams, or don’t support you? And what happens if you do end up living your dreams? Are you afraid that once you get there that you’ll have to live them? Meaning that what you’ve been talking about for so long will now come to fruition and you might not have what it takes to actually live inside the dream?
Fear is the number one reason that people do not live their dreams. Fear holds us all back, sometimes paralyzing us, preventing us from moving forward.
When you look back at your life, what do you want it to be about? Do you want to say, “I could have” or “I did”? The choice is yours, you actually get to decide.
So how do you get past your fears so you can live your dreams? Follow These Easy Steps:
1. Acknowledge That You Have Dreams: I meet so many people who say that they don’t have dreams or they can’t remember what they are. they have given up on them. But you know what? You know what your dreams are, you really do. You’ve just pushed them down so deep that it might take some time to bring them to the surface again. Let them out, you are worth it.
2. Write Down Your Dreams: How can you live your dreams if you can’t see what they are? Write them down. Don’t judge your dreams or wonder “how?” Get out a pen and paper and just do it! It is actually quite theraputic to write your dreams – once you get started you’ll see what I mean. Write to your hearts content!
3. Break Your Dreams Into Small Steps: it is said that a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step – so too with everything else in life all you have to do is take the first step. It doesn’t have to be large one. It just has to get you moving. Small steps will get you to your dreams. Until, one day, you realize that you are there.
4. Face The Barriers That Are Keeping You From Living Your Dreams: What’s keeping you from living your dreams? Not enough money or time? Too many responsibilities? Look for ways to overcome them. There will always be reasons not to work towards your dreams. It’s up to you if you want to give into these reasons or not.
5. Find People Who Will Support You: They should be people who love you and will cheer you on as you move toward your dreams. Tell them how much you love and appreciate them. You do not want to live your dreams by yourself. 6. Pat Yourself On The Back For Your Successes (Even if They Are Small): You deserve it! The fun part of living your dreams isn’t just the ending – enjoy the journey as well.
7. Recognize That Fear Will Not Go Away: There are times when you will wonder if you have what it takes to fulfill your dreams or if you deserve to live them. Fear is a normal part of human nature, so get used to it. If you just accept that fear is a natural part of the process then you don’t have to spend time worrying about it when it happens – you’ll know just what to do. The only way past fear is through it and not around it. You can do it!
My greatest advice to you is to feel the fear and live your dreams inspite of it! There are no guarantees, but the rewards are plentiful if you believe in yourself and keep on moving forward. No one is going to live your dreams for you. It’s up to you to create your own life. Why not have that life filled with dreams.
A Has Was Once An Are
“I’d rather be a could-be if I cannot be an are; because a could-be is a maybe who is reaching for a star. I’d rather be a has-been than a might-have-been, by far; for a might-have-been has never been, but a has was once an are.”
-Milton Berle
Oh, that we would all do what we want to do or even dream about. I have often looked back on my life and wondered why I did or didn’t do a certain thing. Although I’m afraid, most of the time I am wondering to myself why I didn’t do a certain thing.
It’s not that I didn’t want to do it, or that I wasn’t capable of doing it, but that I just didn’t do it. The many things that I could have done, or should have done, or might have done just keep piling up. And when I look back I get sick to my stomach just to think about it. I hate the “I could have” or “I should have” thoughts.
Go to any health club and ask one of the trainers what the busiest time of year is, they will all tell you that the busiest time of year is January. Why? Because everyone is making a New Year’s resolutions to get fit and trim. They go religiously to the Gym on the first of the year and start fresh to get fit and trim. They do it with all the vim and vigor of a fresh new start. They try with all their might to keep to it, only to fall back to the old habits by February. Another “would have” “could Have”.
One year I said to myself that I would record an album for that year. I sing, many people have asked me over the years when I was going to or if I was ever going to record an album. They’d surely buy it if I did. Well that year came and went and NO album. Funny thing is, not even a single song was recorded.
I have so many excuses why it didn’t happen – but who cares about why it didn’t happen. The fact is it didn’t happen. I can’t go back and make it happen – into the past that is. I could have made it happen then but I can’t go back and make it happen in the past now. I can only be in charge of what happens in my life now.
That’s just the point – your now’s create your futures. Your has was once an are. And only you can decide what your has-beens or was’s were/are. Understand? Only you can choose. Only you.
And along with that if you are not happy with what is – you must recognize it was you who chose you to be right there. Only you. Play the blame game. Go ahead and point your finger at someone else for your discontent. Go right ahead, but no matter how much blaming and finger pointing you do – the truth is still the truth. You chose – only you!
Get it? Got it! Good!
12 Powerful Anti-Procrastination Tools You Can Use Everyday
The standard for success has always been in having a vision that compels you to succeed. Staying in action, moving forward, is the key in accomplishing all your goals.
Finding the tools to put meaning and purpose in your life, developing a vision, and becoming highly motivated to keep you moving forward can lead you towards a successful and fulfilling life.
Here are 12 anti-procrastination tools that can bring you to that success:
1. Recognizing opposition and learning to overcome it can make your vision a reality. The individual who is extremely motivated and successful is that way because of a clear and precise vision.
2. Recognize your freedom to choose. With that free will choose only those things that will bring you closer to your vision and eliminate from your life all things that deter you from it.
3. People who develop a vision control their own life and destiny. With no vision, your life and destiny are controlled by outside forces.
4. You must change your thinking habits in order to change your life, and you change your habits by keeping the desired results in sight. FOCUS – Follow One Course Until Successful.
5. Develop a major goal, but take a specified path to get there. You’ll have many smaller goals to reach before you get to the final result.
By learning to accomplish these smaller goals, you’ll be motivated to take on the larger challenges.
6. Get into the habit of finishing what you start. An unfinished project is of no value. Leaving things unfinished is a habit that must be changed. When you start something commit to finish it – no matter what.
7. Find support through friends, acquaintances, and co-workers. If you surround yourself with motivated visionary people you will naturally develop the attributes that helped them get that way.
Mutual interests and like-minded associations can be excellent anti-procrastination tools. Good friends help you get moving.
8. Believe it or not, another anti-procrastination tool is failure. Failure teaches you to keep trying until you get it right. No one ever became successful without prior failures.
Failure is a by-product of imagination and creativity. It challenges you to take risks and teaches you to keep trying until you get it right.
9. The fear of failure is a common factor among those who procrastinate. If you want to succeed in reaching your goals, you must be willing to take a risk and lose.
Many people trade joy, satisfaction, and fulfillment for a job that is considered conventional and safe.
The unfulfilling job is not the failure; not pursuing your dreams is the real failure. Developing a vision requires conquering your fears and finding motivation from within.
10. The power of your dreams is the primary factor in becoming motivated. Productivity will be the result of developing habits and attitudes that keep you on the right track.
11. Overcoming and changing bad habits and replacing them with good habits of focusing on your specific goals, you will build momentum to accomplish your goals even when you wish you could quit when times get tough.
12. By identifying the behaviors that you need to change, developing a vision of what you would like to achieve, and striving to attain that goal, you will become a naturally motivated, highly efficient, productive person.
Do not let fear of failure stop you from having the freedom to choose the lifestyle and destiny you desire.
True creation is not only a learned skill; it is developed due to a need or desire to make your dreams a reality.
If you want to be a true creator, you must identify your goals and set out on an unwavering path to achieve them.
Overcoming procrastination is perhaps one of the most important steps you can take to improve your life and become the motivated, successful person you are capable of being.
You have to let go of your old personality and ways of doing things to change, quit procrastinating and get motivated!
You already know what procrastination and low motivation is costing you. And you know deep down that nothing is going to change for the better until you do.
How to be Perpetually Enthusiastic Forever
When you are motivated you approach your tasks with enthusiasm. What is enthusiasm? The Greek meaning of the word means to be inspired by a god.
en – in, or possessed
theos – god
en+theos = inspired, possessed by a god
Can you imagine if you were always doing things that were inspired by a god? Think you’d ever want to do things any other way?
Take the converse: A lack of enthusiasm can make everything seem like hard work. You will feel like your driving force has gone and you just can’t be bothered to do what you need to; so you procrastinate.
Sometimes you don’t want to do anything at all when you lack enthusiasm. This feeling can hold you back and stop you achieving your best, which in turn lowers your enthusiasm even further.
Excuses are Like Noses
With a lack of enthusiasm it’s easy to come up with excuses for not getting done with what you need to do. But this just increases the problem as you dig yourself deeper into a pit of lethargy.
Why do you suffer from a lack of enthusiasm? It may be that you lack confidence so you don’t feel that you will do well at something.
It is far easier to explain it away to yourself with the excuse that you didn’t try because had you tried you might have failed. A lack off effort is way easier to bear in oneself than a lack of ability or possibility of failure.
Ability to Make It Happen
Perhaps it is not ability you lack, or feel you lack; perhaps you don’t have enough interest in the project at hand to really put your full effort into it.
Maybe you don’t perceive the task ahead as very important; many of us would lack enthusiasm to do something which we considered to be pointless or at least that there are far more important things to do.
If there is no incentive for you to do something, then very often you will lack enthusiasm to do it. That could be as simply solved as you needing to look a little deeper into the project to understand it better.
Beyond Lazy
Many people are just plain lazy. More likely, though, procrastination and putting things off has just become a habit for you; reinforced each time you do it – so it gets easier each time.
If you are scared about what people might say about your efforts you may lack enthusiasm to complete a task and have it open to scrutiny. If you are stressed or nervous about tackling something, that saps your enthusiasm to begin it.
Search Within
All of these reasons can lead to a lack of motivation and enthusiasm, but it is important to recognize that they are only excuses which you make to yourself to stop yourself from action.
You can learn to overcome any of these reasons for a lack of enthusiasm if you recognize them within yourself; like with all problems, you need to recognize them before you can change them. Only then can you learn to think differently and re-discover your enthusiasm.
Decide to be Enthusiastic
It is much easier to become enthusiastic and motivated again if you are able to decide what is important to you in your life. This can be little things that you enjoy doing every day or it can be long-term plans you have.
If something is important to you, it is much easier to maintain the enthusiasm needed to complete the task.
It may be that you are motivated by extrinsic rewards or by intrinsic satisfaction; you will need to think about what works for you, so that you are receiving some pleasure feel inspired and get things done. That is where your enthusiasm lies – in the inspiration from a god.
Creators Don’t Set Goals
Creators dream and most of them dream big, really big. In fact creators aren’t afraid to dream enormous dreams. They know that dreams are the seeds of what will eventually become their creations.
One thing though that creators don’t do is set goals. Now before you go off thinking that I am a complete fool in saying this, please give me a chance to explain myself.
You have no doubt searched many self development products throughout the years, and probably would agree that almost every single one of them in one way or another talks about goal setting. Am I right? Many of those self development products are tremendously powerful self development tools. I’m not writing this to disagree with goal setting. There are many great things to be said about goal setting.
Recently I read an article in the Early to Rise newsletter written by Michael Masterson which spoke of setting goals. It spoke of a study that was done by the Harvard Business School.
Harvard Business School did a study on the financial status of its students 10 years after graduation and found that:
- As many as 27 percent of them needed financial assistance.
- A whopping 60 percent of them were living paycheck to paycheck.
- A mere 10 percent of them were living comfortably.
- And only 3 percent of them were financially independent.
The study also looked at goal setting and found these interesting correlations:
- The 27 percent that needed financial assistance had absolutely no goal-setting processes in their lives.
- The 60 percent that were living paycheck to paycheck had basic survival goals (such as managing to live paycheck to paycheck).
- The 10 percent that were living comfortably had general goals. They thought they knew where they were going to be in the next five years.
- The 3 percent that were financially independent had written out their goals and the steps required to reach those goals.
Pretty powerful statistics in favor of goal setting wouldn’t you agree? Like I said I am not writing this article to disagree with goal setting. It’s just that for creators goals are too weak, too wimpy. Goals give too much wiggle room. Goals don’t carry enough umph to propel a true creator to the completion of their creation.
Creators create – plain and simple. It works like this: A creator dreams of what he would love to create, and then something almost magical occurs. The creator begins to love the creation. There begins to be a burning desire inside the creator to see the creation live. The creator will stop at nothing to bring the creation into existence. The creator begins to create. As the momentum increases the creators desire to see the creation exist increases as well. Passion, diligence, even obsession begin to drive the creator forward.
So you see goals are simply too weak to push the creator towards the creation. So what do creators do if they don’t set goals? How do creators ever accomplish anything of any significance if they don’t have goals to push them along?
I hope that I can explain the answers to those very important questions. Creators don’t have goals to push them along; instead creators have the creation that is pulling them towards its completion.
It’s kind of like this: Imagine a mountain climber trying to scale the side of a mountain. Below the climber is a goal that is trying to push the climber up the rock wall. Above however is a creation that has lowered a sturdy rope called structure (in later article I’ll describe what structure has to do with creating) that is pulling with great force. Which do you think will have more success in fulfilling its purpose, the goal or the creation? Which do you think is in a better position to bring the climber to its desired destiny?
As I hope you can see, goals simply aren’t powerful enough. And they are positioned in such a way that they cannot make use of powerful tools like passion, diligence, and even obsession. Creators create creations because they are driven towards and pulled by the creation itself.
The power to create is immensely more powerful then goals can or ever will be. In a further article I will explain why this is so. Come back soon to learn just how powerful this power is.
