Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Sean O'Leary has published two short story collections, My Town and Walking. He is a regular contributor of short fiction to Quadrant, FourW and other literary magazines. He has twice been shortlisted for the Booranga Prize for fiction in 2015 and 2016. His short story 'Fremantle' was shortlisted for the Daylesford 'Words in Winter Award' in 2018. His novella Drifting was the winner of the Busybird Publishing 'Great Novella Search 2016' and published in 2017. His article about being a writer with schizophrenia was published on the Writers Victoria website in December 2018. His essay on what it has meant to him to be edited by Les Murray at Quadrant was published in Quadrant online in January 2019. His interviews with crime fiction writers appear in UK magazine Crime Time. He supports Melbourne Football club and believes test cricket is the greatest game of all.

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Want YOUR DREAMS

Balboa Press

Chapter One

Make sure your dreams are desirable to YOU. They may evolve in the future, but whatever they are now; own them or change them to ones you can own. It is very important to decide your dreams. Choose your dreams regardless of scope, likelihood, opinions of others and especially regardless of any limiting thoughts of your own, if you have any about them. The first important thing is that they are what YOU want. Examine them and ask yourself, "What if ...?" Write them down on paper or on a computer and look at them in "black and white." Decide which ones are really for you.

Don't compare your dreams to other people's dreams in a negative or competitive context. The future is open for anyone to mold. One of the beauties of life is in its diversity. Different people often want different things. No one's dream is better than another's; your dreams are your dreams and another's are another's. You take on now, what you can take on now. At some point in the future, your viewpoints may expand and you can reassess what you want to take on at that time. For now, they're your dreams and there is no comparison required.

Don't belittle your dreams if they don't seem as great as others' and don't aggrandize them if they seem greater. Big and small; it's just not part of the equation. "Desirable to ME" or "Not desirable to ME" is the only fundamental comparison involved. Just recognize that they are "MY dreams" and that "I want them."

Don't adopt dreams because of peer pressure or keeping up with your neighbour. Really consult with yourself as the final say in the matter. Be true to your integrity on this point. That your peers or neighbours may look at you in a better light as a result of you accomplishing your dreams, is merely a pleasing side dish at the pot-luck you're creating to nourish your soul.

A great phenomenon of life is the core similarity we find in the people we meet. Different people sometimes want the same things we want. Dreaming of things that others may want can still be YOUR dreams. Adopting another's dream in a joint effort can still be considered YOUR dream. Sometimes joint dreams have a better chance of realization, simply because they are generally more out in the open, resulting in them being better defined than if they were more loosely bouncing around inside our heads.

Be healthfully selfish in making sure your dreams are going to result in you having what you want. YOU are important here. Others do come into play, but we're talking about YOUR dreams.

That being said, it is beneficial to align your dreams so that everyone involved gains in some way as a result of their accomplishment. Keep your dreams compassionate in this way and spread the wealth, so to speak. On the one extreme; living alone with loads of stuff, accomplishments, no friends and scads of enemies is not a pretty picture. On the other end, living with loved ones, with loads of stuff, accomplishments and scads of friends would be more appealing to the common core I know we share as humans and spiritual beings. The specific dream is not in question here, just that there are some common end results that will go along with any dream well chosen. Increased personal well-being and increased well-being of your relationships with loved ones and friends are your primary indicators. In fact, they are mutually inclusive.

Keep in mind that you may find yourself with ill-chosen friends or relationships that might be shed in the pursuit of dreams and life improvement. However, you can expect to encounter new friends and relationships that are more aligned with the well-being of all concerned.

Here are some important points to consider in relation to how you envision your path to and arrival at your dreams' fruition:

• Life is to be lived and enjoyed.

• The pursuit of dreams is the activity that brings the real joy of life.

• Your dreams are not an end in themselves.

• The accomplishing of your dreams are stepping stones to new levels of existence.

• The final accomplishment of a dream is an ideal launching-point to an even happier you.

• A dream that ends in you not having to do anything else in life is a dead-end dream; life is for the living, fun is to be had, there can always be an enjoyable game afoot!

• Consider, recognize and intend that once your current dream is accomplished, you will want to adopt others; and that you will progressively find yourself in a better position to do so.

Change is inevitable, so you may as well change for the better. And you may as well choose change that is enjoyable to go through. However, don't let your dreams shed a negative context on your current life in the sense that you are dreaming yourself "out" of something bad. Dream yourself "in" to something improved. This is a vital nuance of thought! It may seem like six of one and half a dozen of the other. It may seem like an irresolvable dilemma. But it is very important that you understand and apply this point when it comes to establishing your dreams. Any negative built into a dream siphons off its power at the source.

Recognize the good things in your current life and align your dreams as an improvement on them; not as replacements of unwanted things. Keep your focus on the improvement in its own right and not on any comparison to some undesirable present condition. Again, this is a vital nuance of thought. There may not seem to be any difference; but there is a world of difference! This requires focus, especially if you have a tendency towards pessimism. Consider yourself as a young horse, with plenty of horsepower who just needs to be tugged in the right direction, for long enough, until you finally go in that direction as a natural occurrence or from only a slight nudge.

Now, what I have to say next might seem like a contradiction of the above, but bear with me. If it weren't for your current circumstances (good and bad), the dreams of what you now want would hold no desire for you. I repeat; if it weren't for your current circumstances, the dreams of what you now want would hold no desire for you. Meaning, unwanted conditions do influence the direction of what you now find that you want; and the good things you have in your life influence it also. Less of the bad is an inevitable by-product of following your dreams to more of the good. Following dreams to less of the bad things has a negative or subtractive result; nothing really gained just something removed. Most important to recognize is that the good things in your life are the yardstick against which you will be measuring your success. The accomplishment of a dream towards more of something that you are now aware of as good, results in something gained and something added to your life. More of the good things, yeah!

Your dreams are a logical and natural progression from where you are now to an improved state of existence. Wherever you are now in your life is your only frame of reference to determine what you would like to experience in the future. Except for the common thread of love and friendship in all our hearts; the direction of your dreams will be as individual as you are and as individual as the circumstances you experience in the world around you. They are your path to get deeper into the activity and joys of life; they are your path to realizing your creative influence on the future.

Your...