REACH Your Dreams

BALBOA PRESS

Contents

Prologue...................................xiChapter 1 Introduction.....................1Chapter 2 Release..........................23Chapter 3 Envision.........................57Chapter 4 Act..............................83Chapter 5 Celebrate........................109Chapter 6 Honor............................129Chapter 7 Conclusion.......................151Epilogue...................................159Appendix...................................171Bibliography...............................175Resources..................................179Acknowledgements...........................181

Chapter One

"Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined."

—Henry David Thoreau

The above quote has been my inspiration for many years. These two simple sentences perfectly capture the passion and conviction I feel for the life I want to live — and what I am about to share with you in this book. First, use your imagination to compose the life of your dreams. Then, with unwavering confidence about the life you have imagined, allow it to lead you into action. After all, everything big and small begins as simple figments of imagination on the part of the inspired souls who go confidently in the direction of their dreams. Technological advances and modern-day conveniences all materialize for our edification because, at some point, someone dared to imagine. And, they believed in their dreams so much that not only did they themselves take action, but they were able to mobilize action on the part of many others to help bring their dreams to life on a grand scale. Quite simply, when we combine our imagination with purposeful action, we have the winning recipe for manifesting our dreams, no matter their scale.

I know, many of you are thinking that this is so much easier said than done. If it were so simple, why aren't we all living our dreams right now? Why do some of us feel so bogged down by responsibilities that we either feel that dreaming is frivolous or that we don't know how to dream? Trust me, we all know how to dream, but we have simply forgotten. I stared at the above Thoreau quote for many years to keep myself inspired before I could actually follow the advice. Ironically, when I was a little girl, I loved to imagine things, and spent many hours daydreaming in the privacy of my own mind.

Just ask young children to imagine, and exciting worlds with lively characters are created. Since they have yet to learn to be afraid of failing or to doubt themselves, everything is possible, and the sky is the limit. Of course, we don't have to be children to imagine, and we certainly can get excited about possibilities at any age. However, as adults, we may have to release the fears and self-doubt we have inadvertently accumulated over the course of our lives. We may have to consciously give ourselves full permission to dream, to stay true to our heart's desires, and to take bold action to make them a reality.

Keeping Ourselves Safe vs. Dreaming

From Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, we learn that our most basic human needs have to do with feeling physically and emotionally safe. When we perceive that our core needs are unmet or threatened in any way, all our physical, mental and emotional resources are instinctively directed to achieve or restore a sense of safety. Unless we believe that we are safe at the most fundamental level, it would be challenging for higher-level desires to flourish. Until a solid foundation of security is established in our perceived reality, any inkling of a want — instead of a need — would be over-powered by our survival instincts. As a result, there would be insufficient fuel for the engine of higher-level desires, such as our dreams. What we get are very visceral feelings of I just can't do this.

From my own personal experience, at the lowest points in my life, it was literally a struggle to see even a glimmer of hope, let alone dream. My creative space was totally jammed with fear, and I was completely consumed by being in survival mode. When I got myself sufficiently established and allowed myself to dream, I lacked the confidence to follow through with making my desires a reality. You just read in the Prologue about my challenges in finishing this book, even though it has been a dream of mine for several years. In the end, the good news is that, once the dream was born, there was no denying it. In time, I learned to get out of my own way and surrender to the power of my dream to carry me forward. I finally allowed the calling from deep within to activate the confidence and tenacity within me — which have been there all along waiting to be harvested — to follow the call, to take inspired action to allow this dream to come true.

I want to say to you most emphatically that you, too, can make your dreams come true! I know what torture it is to feel stuck in a life that seems pointless, to feel so blocked that you don't even know what you really want, or to feel scared and powerless to go after what you love. The personal empowerment roadmap in this book — REACH — is intended to help you clear the blocks in your creative energy field, imagine living the life of your dreams, and take confident action in manifesting it.

Remove the Roadblocks and Take Action

Close your eyes and picture in your mind a path in front of you. Where you are standing is where you are in your life right now. Somewhere ahead of you is where you want to be — when your dreams are fulfilled. You may be able to visualize what living your dreams is like, or you may not have a clue, but simply that there has got to be a better life than the one you have right now. While you may be able to picture where you want to be, you cannot see the path ahead to get you there. Instead, from where you stand currently, what is within view may be only the roadblocks keeping you from where you want to go.

The roadblocks you see in your mind's eye are your fears, worries and self-doubt that keep you from going confidently toward where you want to go. These blocks are limiting beliefs you have about yourself that come in as many variations as there are stars in the sky on a clear night. I'm not smart/educated/experienced enough. I'm too old/young for what I want. I have too many responsibilities at this point in my life to do anything different. Who would be interested in what I have to say/create? I honestly don't even know what I want; I just know that I don't want what I have now. These are just some examples that may resonate.

Limiting thoughts and beliefs often disguise themselves as legitimate excuses as to why we are stuck where we are, why it is practically impossible to be, have or do something different, why it is not prudent to change the status quo — a.k.a. our comfort zone — even if we may be miserable in it. Limiting beliefs carry the voice of our otherwise well-meaning ego, whose noble job is to keep us safe. Remember, fundamentally, we need to feel safe before we can do anything else. Because of that job description, our risk-adverse ego continually cautions us against venturing into the uncertainty of going after our dreams. Instead, it urges us to keep the known status quo,...