Dreams 3: Unlock Your Cage

In this blog we are going to put in some action. We are going to pin down those dreams.



First of all, you may be confused between the terms 'dream' and 'goal'. My understanding is that dreams are simply what you would like out of life. Goals are the same dreams but with a date of achievement applied. Goals are therefore moving us toward actively achieving those dreams.



We will work on goals and planning next month.


For now, let's have some fun dreaming.


There are six rules to building our dreams:





Rule One: These are YOUR dreams, no one else's.

Let them set their own.

Be selfish just for a moment.

If you are in a relationship I secretly think it is a test of your compatibility if your dreams are complimentary! For now, these are only your dreams and they must not take account of the wishes of other people.

At the same time, there are obviously morals and ethics to be observed! I would hope in any case that negative dreams would not come true!

You may dream of wiping a group of politicians off the face of the earth and, whilst this might be very tempting (VERY tempting sometimes!), I really could not encourage it.

I will tackle the subject of values next time.

No, these must be your dreams only. For some years I have tried to get myself excited about the idea of lying on an exotic beach somewhere or going on a luxury cruise liner, principally because I feel those dreams are expected of me. However, I have come to realise these are not my motivations. Sure, I would like to travel but these dreams do not do it for me. Sorry.

If these types of holiday get YOU excited though, write them down.

Rule Two: Dream Freely.

Never think 'oh, that's silly: I could never do that.' How do you know?

Put it down anyway. If it has half a chance of making you happy, it counts.

I heard an expression once, I do not know where it came from, but it sums this up perfectly:

WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF YOU KNEW YOU COULD NOT FAIL?

Rule Three: Don't worry about how you will achieve your dream.

This will reveal itself to you as you go along.

In the book (and movie)'The Secret' , Rhonda Byrne covers this:

"How it will happen, how the Universe will bring it to you, is not your concern or job. Allow the Universe to do it for you. When you are trying to work out how it will happen, you are emitting a frequency that contains a lack of faith - that you don't believe you have it already. You think you have to do it and you do not believe the Universe will do it for you. The how is not your part in the Creative Process."

The great Jim Rohn writes in his book 'Seven Strategies For Wealth and Happiness':

"Reasons come first, answers second. It seems life has a mysterious quirk of camouflaging the answers in such a way that they become apparent only to those who are inspired enough to look for them - who have reason to look for them."

"When you know what you want and you want it badly enough, you'll find a way to get it. The answers, methods and solutions you need to solve the problems along the way will be revealed to you."

Rule Four: Write them down.

As suggested last time, sit quietly somewhere and dream. Have a pad of paper with you so you can capture these dreams as you think them.

Write them down then move on to the next dreams, confident you are capturing them for you to reflect on later.

This will stop all the dreams getting confused because I hope you will suddenly have a rush of inspiration and the dreams will gush out. Do not lose them (your life depends on them!); capture them before life's petty cares intercede.

Don't write a great long description though or you may stop the flow - just make a note to remind you later. For example, for a holiday to Goa, just write 'Goa' for now.

Rule Five: Touch your dreams.

Why not, over the next few weeks, while you are travelling around, while you are on the Internet, get more information on your dreams. Even touch them, if you can: test-drive that car, visit the house, obtain the holiday brochures and so on. The more details you can get the more you can see yourself realising the dream and we will talk about visualisation later, but if you touch it or find out as much as you can about your dream, the easier it is to see yourself achieving it.

Don't worry about asking: most times a salesman will be delighted to share his time with someone enthusiastic about their dream - his product. And it's fun!

One of my dreams (as you will see shortly) is to own a TVR sports car . I have been in a showroom talking to a TVR salesman who then said 'it's a nice day, why not go for a drive' without any prompting from me. On another occasion, I summoned up the courage to call into the headquarters of Sunseeker powerboats to ask for a brochure. I was amazed when the receptionist said I could have all I wanted. He then explained that another man had been calling in regularly for brochures and details for a few years and, two weeks before my visit, the same man had called in once again and bought a boat for cash.

Rule Six. Dream Big.

This is important and is related to Rule One.

Dream as big as you like. A big dream has more pull: it gives you greater motivation.

David J. Schwartz says in his marvellous book, 'The Magic of Thinking Big':

"So far as success is concerned, people are not measured in inches, or pounds, or academic degrees, or family background; they are measured by the size of their thinking. How big we think determines the size of our accomplishments."

Okay, you will have smaller dreams too. Put them down but make sure you have big dreams too.

I have heard many times of people who have realised their dreams but found it a let down. They had nothing left to pursue.

Many entrepreneurs set up a highly successful business and then yearn for the days when they struggled because at least then they had a purpose - a dream. The joint founder of Coffee Republic, Sahar Hashemi , sold her share of the company for some GBP30 million and decided to retire. She then got bored and looked for new dreams and challenges, ending up starting her own candy producing company. Dame Ellen MacArthur moves from one yachting challenge to another as well as running her own charity.

I hope you never run out of dreams to pursue.

Jim Rohn again:

"You could fall prey to the same thing that happened to some of our early Apollo astronauts. Some of them, upon returning from the moon, experienced deep emotional problems. The reason? Once you have been to the moon, where else do you go?"

So, dream big.

Let's Pin Down Those Dreams

I was lucky to be at a talk given by the entrepreneur Polly Harteis some years ago when she gave a memorable dream building session.

She set out three categories as a framework to identify your dreams and I reproduce the headings she used in a form below:

"You get to choose what you want, but you must get clear about what you want. This is your work. If you're not clear, then the law of attraction cannot bring you what you want. You will be sending out a mixed frequency and you can only attract mixed results. For the first time in your life perhaps, work out what it is you really want. Now that you can have, be, or do anything, and there are no limits, what do you want?"

Rhonda Byrne (The Secret)



1. Have.


Maybe it is a car, or a house, jewellery, a computer, a business, a boat, a new kitchen, clothes, or maybe your own woodland. Could you find the partner of your dreams? Why not? You decide. Be honest.





2. Do.




Perhaps this is a holiday, charity work, give up your job, walk a long distance footpath, visit new places, organise a charity event, learn to race a car or even learn to drive a car. Whatever you want.





3. Become.



This is critical for me. Could you be the best you you can be? Education could be an idea: have you ever wanted to earn a degree? Perhaps you want to progress better in your career and get promotion: well, become better at what you do.


Do you want to improve your relationships? Become the best father, mother, daughter, son, uncle, aunt, grandparent or friend? Do it.





Me, Me, Me


Okay, I will now lay my life on the line. No, really. Here are the dreams I have jotted down after a meditation and brain storming session (whilst listening to Handel's Messiah, incidentally).



You won't understand all of them - but they do mean something to me and, with respect, remember that is what is important.

Conclusion

I hope you had fun dreaming. But I'll bet you haven't finished yet. If you are like me, you will still be adding to your list of dreams for a day or two yet. Suggestions will pop up unexpectedly. Write them down as quickly as possible.

Hopefully, you are now in the zone: ready to receive ideas for dreams. Your subconscious will be working to find them so be aware when they pop up!

To add to the power of your dreams, look at the list soon and decide which dreams are the real burn for you - those that get you most excited. Give them more attention than you give the others.

You should have found the process fun. Maybe you could turn dream building into a fun exercise or discussion with positive friends. Remember to keep away from the subject when with people who will not understand!

How do you feel? If the above exercise worked correctly, you should feel excited and full of optimism for the future.

The book (and movie) 'The Secret' and James Allen both talk about how we attract what we think about. We will talk about this more later on, but in the meantime, keep thinking about those dreams. Keep them in front of you: imagine yourself achieving them, go out and touch them, put up pictures where you can see them, perhaps create a scrapbook of them and you will improve your chances of achieving them.

That is the 'Law of Attraction'.

Well, that was exciting. In the next blog I will look at considering your values and then we will work on another of my weaknesses: setting goals and creating plans.

Until then, my very best wishes for an invigorating week!

Keith

http://www.keithbraithwaite.com/