Dreams 2: Dreamers Are The Saviours Of The World

The dreamers are the saviours of the world. As the visible world is sustained by the invisible, so men, through all their trials and sins and sordid vocations, are nourished by the beautiful visions of their solitary dreamers.
Humanity cannot forget its dreams; it cannot let their ideals fade and die; it lives in them; it knows them as their realities which it shall one day see and know.

James Allen (As A Man Thinketh)

Last week I wrote an introduction to the all-important subject of Dreams. Next week I will start to identify my, and your, dreams to begin the process of achieving success.


There are three subjects I would like to cover before we start.



Materialism and Money


Okay, let's get this one out of the way.


Many times in the past I have been told (and I repeated it myself to others) that 'the best things in life are free' and, in theory it is true.


However, after much consideration, I realise in practise that very little in life is truly free. We live in a materialistic society. Later, among my dreams, you will see non-materialistic aims like 'spend more time with my family and friends', hill walking and charity work. These things take time.


We all need money to pay for food, housing, transport and so on and, at present, I work long hours to pay my bills. This means I have very little time to have 'a life'. So I don't have enough time for these non-material activities.


The truth is I have to find enough money so I don't have to attend my job and thus have time to undertake the important things in life.


Don't tell anyone, but another dream is to have a family and, boy, do they take money!


I was once privileged to hear a great speaker, former Vice President of IBM, Bill O'Brien, say it best: "Money is not important, I just put it up there with oxygen."


On the subject of money, I find I am disagreeing with some authors who suggest you should picture the amount of money you want. I realise it is more important to concentrate on what the money would bring you. Seeing yourself with $1 million is not as powerful, in my opinion, as seeing yourself in your $1 million house, for example.


Influential speaker and youth leader, Pat Mesiti, says, "There is something far greater than money - it is purpose."







SNIOP - Negative Thinking


This is a theme that will occur time and time again in these blogs. Other people stuck in the stressful grind of day-to-day life will not understand the idea that your dreams can set you free (I was out during rush hour recently - what a great time to see how the lives of so many are out of control!).


The danger with encouraging your dreams lies in with who you share your vision. I have several 'friends' with who I would never consider discussing the future, as they would only attempt to undermine my efforts. I guess the problem is finding those who would be empathetic - that is the point of this blog, I suppose.


The great teacher, Zig Ziglar coined the expression 'SNIOP' - Susceptible to The Negative Thinking Of Others.


Some years ago I had the honour of hearing a talk by Morris Goodman, the Miracle Man. Morris' story is told within the book and movie 'The Secret'. In short, Morris was desperately injured in a plane crash, died and was revived. Every part of his body was damaged, much beyond repair, but he taught himself to breathe, speak, eat, walk, indeed everything we take for granted. I have a signed copy of his book in front of me here.

The time had come for me to see how intense my belief in myself was. There could be no room for doubt, no hesitation or uncertainty. Not achieving this goal meant not achieving any other goal - ever.

Bob Proctor, a motivational speaker, often came to mind during this trying period. I recalled two phrases that would give me strength to ignore the dire prophecies of my caretakers: 'If you can't see yourself doing something, you will never do it' and 'We cannot outgrow the limits we impose on ourselves until we enlarge our image of ourselves.' If my expectations were going to govern my life, I was going to aim high!

But I not only had to be determined to reach my goals, but I had to ward off the negative anticipations of my doctors. Their desire to avoid fostering any false hope could have killed me. They meant to save me from disappointments. They knew the odds and tried to explain them to me. They wanted me to be realistic. I refused to accept their reality; I was going to create my own.

Zig Ziglar, the motivator who has inspired me more than any other, has a term for this situation, SNIOP'ed. It means to be 'susceptible to the negative influence of other people.' Studies show that other people's negative expectations often become self-fulfilling prophecies - teachers, bosses, spouses, parents, doctors - they can lock you in a cage of limits. If you accept these limits, you'll never go beyond them. But you have the key. Unlock the cage with self-confidence, and you can go a far as you desire.

As Morris indicated, don't be too hard on those who will not understand your dreams - they think they are doing you a favour by preventing you 'getting your expectations too high'. But, as James Allen puts it: "He who cherishes a beautiful vision, a lofty ideal in his heart will one day realise it."






Solitary Meditation


As we head towards identifying our dreams, and then later, our goals in life. I would quickly like to look at the role of solitary thought. Particularly in considering our life's purpose, sitting quietly alone and thinking has a lot to recommend it.

I find I have too little time to stop and consider my life and situation but, when I do, I feel refreshed and ready to face the world. A little gentle music seems to help if you are at home (one piece I love is Elgar's 'Nimrod') but sitting in a tranquil countryside setting is even better, I believe.


James Allen was a great champion of quiet reflection (he used to sit on a headland and stare out to sea):

Meditation is the intense dwelling, in thought, upon an idea or theme, with the object of thoroughly comprehending it, and whatsoever you constantly meditate upon you will not only come to understand, but will grow more and more into its likeness, for it will become incorporated into your very being, will become, in fact, your very self.

(From 'The Way of Peace')

In solitude a man gathers strength to meet the difficulties and temptations of life, knowledge to understand and conquer them, and wisdom to transcend them. As a building is preserved and sustained by virtue of the foundation which is hidden and unobserved, so a man is maintained perpetually in strength and peace by virtue of his lonely hour of intense thought which no eye beholds.

(From 'Byways of Blessedness')

Now if you will take advantage of a quiet hour or two in the early morning or at night, and go away to some solitary spot, or to some room in your house where you know you will be absolutely free from intrusion, and having seated yourself in an easy attitude, you forcibly direct your mind right away from the object of anxiety by dwelling upon something in your life that is pleasing and blissgiving, a calm, reposeful strength will gradually steal into your mind, and your anxiety will pass away.

It may be that you will have to try day after day before you will be able to perfectly calm your mind, but if you persevere you will certainly accomplish it. And the course which is presented to you in that hour of calmness must be carried out.

Be guided absolutely and entirely by the vision of calmness, and not by the shadows of anxiety. The hour of calmness is the illumination and correct judgement.

(From 'The Path of Prosperity')


The ideal is to do this on a daily basis. I certainly think it is worth meditating quietly on identifying your dreams.


And this, at last, is the subject of the next blog. We now get on to the most important job of pinning down our dreams.


Until then, my very best wishes,


Keith



http://www.keithbraithwaite.com/

Dreams 1: Any Dream Will Do

In the last set of blogs, we looked at Fear and how to overcome it. This time, we move on to a study of dreams. I will try to find my dreams and, at the same time, I hope we can identify yours too, your motivation to do better.

In this way we will move from a position of fear to personal power as I have found your dreams are the foundation of success.

Do you feel you don't have a dream? Well, consider this. Every child has a dream - what posters did you have on your wall as a child? What did you want to be? Why is that not your dream now? Or maybe you achieved your dream. Congratulations.

I'll bet you do have a dream now though. Every parent has a dream of helping his or her child grow up in the best way. Every striking building was once a dream, every book was a dream, all those dating websites are full of people who have a dream to find a soul mate, every bored worker has a dream to be free, perhaps lying on a beach somewhere and every athlete has a dream to be world champion. Accept this - there are dreams all around us. Unfortunately it is not fashionable to talk, to think about your dreams.

That idea stops here. Find that dream for it is the fuel that will drive you towards success.

At the beginning of the movie 'Pretty Woman' a man crosses the street shouting: 'What is your dream? What is your dream? This is Hollywood, everyone has a dream.' Sorry, my friend, I believe everyone everywhere has a dream.

I realise everyone needs a desire, a hunger, to move on. This is what I have been lacking in my life. A strong enough dream gives you motivation to overcome any residual fears left we have left.

Last week I attended a business conference for Internet marketers and home business entrepreneurs. I met some highly motivated individuals and noticed (and I don't want to be racist here but the fact cannot be ignored) that nearly all the most motivated were from an immigrant background. Why is this?

The answer, I believe, comes down to hunger. In Britain particularly we have a welfare state, which will pay you if there is no other way for you to make money. Obviously this is marvellous if you are truly unable to earn an income. Unfortunately, we now have reached the position where some families find they are better off not working but living on state benefits. Connected with this is a memory of socialism, which leads to a general discouraging of innovation and wealth. I regret also the rise of the so called 'nanny state' where risk and individual decision-making are actively discouraged.

I have been influenced by this collective negative thinking myself and am appalled by the people I see every day who have no zest or confidence in their lives through being in the same position (or worse). Of course, this has left society exposed to the recession we now find ourselves in.

Billionaire Warren Buffett put it best, I think, when he recently observed "You never know who is swimming naked until the tide goes out."


If you find yourself in a similar position to me, then you might agree we need to re-establish the motivation, the desire of individuals. I now understand this starts with discovering our dreams.



Oh dear, I can hear you say, 'Dreams? We want concrete action to change our lives, not airy fairy dreams.' I know you said that because that is exactly what I said. However, reading and understanding the power of dreams has changed my mind.


I think someone else can explain this better.



The View of Wes Beavis


I turn to Wes Beavis, an Australian singer, speaker and author, writing in his introduction to his entertaining and essential book 'Become the Person You Dream of Being'.


"It seems almost a lifetime ago but I still remember my first grade teacher calling to me from the front of the classroom. It took me a while to register that someone was seeking my attention and of the many words she said to me all I can remember was 'stop dreaming and pay attention.' I did enjoy the occasional journey into the realm of fantasy. To be imagining myself as a fireman fighting the horrendous fire that was threatening the school or a policeman catching the robber was a much more exciting use of my mind at the time. From the tone of my teacher's voice, I got the impression that dreaming was something you were not supposed to do."


"So I grew up thinking that dreaming, apart from when you're sleeping, was an indication of a lazy mind. Try as I did to avoid it, however, I was always drawn to imagine myself in scenarios beyond present reality."


"It was not until years later that I understood the place and power of a dream. When reviewing the great events of my life and development, I discovered that they all began with a dream. The experience where the mind transcends the present and imagines something good becoming reality seemed to be at the start of every one of my noteworthy achievements."


"Somehow, and perhaps mysteriously, dreaming is the first step to releasing reality from the realm of potential. It can unlock desire that has been lying dormant. This dream induced desire can then set you on a course to becoming what you dream of being."


"When you think about your life ask yourself this question 'Is the world seeing the best of me?'"


"Maybe your answer to this is the cause of that niggling frustration that you have been carrying. Deep inside, you know that you have more to offer than what the world is currently seeing."


"Sometimes you catch yourself visualizing being someone greater. Have you noticed that when you come back to reality, the dream leaves you with a gnawing feeling that there is a greater you longing to emerge?"


"Therein lies the power of the dream. It beckons you to consider becoming someone greater. If you have a dream, you are poised for greatness. For the seed of greatness germinate in the dream."


Next week we will continue to look further into the significance of dreams and then start the all-important process of identifying our own dreams.


In the meantime, have a great week. With my greatest wishes,



Keith


http://www.keithbraithwaite.com/