How to nurture your dreams

Nearly every day, someone asks me: Is it really possible for me to have my deepest desires and dreams? My answer is always: ABSOLUTELY.

The following ten tenets, when absorbed and applied, will shift the trajectory of your dreams and life. Make them yours.

You are enough.

The starting point for any successful journey is to know that by your very existence, you are enough. There is nothing you must become, change, earn, or deserve.

The past does not equal the future.

When I was a child, people often said history is the greatest predictor of the future. I thank All That Is that I didn’t believe it because if I had, I’d still be subsisting on welfare, watching soap operas, and wondering how to feed my child. The only power our past has over our future is the amount we give it. The past is over. Let it go.

Mistakes and failures are good.

Many of us grow up being chastised, ridiculed, and penalized for our mistakes and failures. In school, we are set up to fail and then punished for it. At home, the things we did wrong stood out and seemed to receive more attention than what we did right. We learned to avoid or reduce the number of mistakes we made. This undermined us later by making us averse to taking risks. Every single successful person I know, from fulfilled domestic goddesses to billionaires, has failed a whole lot on their way to success, and they’re still failing. Mistakes and failures are an inextricable element of success.

Mind your business.

When people criticize or predict your doom, they’re telling you their story, not yours. When I was living in a garage, I dreamt that I was holding a $70,000 check payable to me! I shared this dream with a family member who admonished me to get my head out of my nether regions and accept my reality. They said I would never see such a check and I’d be lucky to find a minimum wage job. That was not my story; it was hers, and it had nothing to do with me. This brings me to my next point:

Keep secrets.

The seed of a dream is a fragile thing. It must be planted in faith, the willingness to take action, patience, and determination. When you share a dream before it’s taken root, you risk its destruction. Be selective about who you share your dreams with, make sure you share only with positive people who love you and want you to succeed. Keeping secrets does not mean you refrain from talking with experts or people who can materially support or point out weaknesses in your ideas. It means protecting yourself from people who will undermine your confidence.

You are the source of your limitations.

This is wonderful news! We often think that the limits we believe we have are real. They are just beliefs, but what we believe becomes true for us. We must constantly endeavor to stretch outside of our beliefs. Affirm this: If other people have been able to overcome (insert your limiting belief here) and achieve what I want, I can, too. If you study people who’ve attained your dreams, you will absolutely discover that they had terrible limitations and beliefs to overcome. You may even realize that you’re way ahead of where they started.

Nothing is against you.

There is no external moody master or mechanism sitting around and deciding how much bad or good you’ll encounter in the world. We live in a friendly universe that organizes around our dominant intention and state of being. Decide that life is for you, nothing is against you, and that everything will turn out. Watch life prove you right. It always proves you right. You can be, do, or have whatever your heart desires. A way exists, and your job is to believe it does and be willing to step outside your comfort zone to create it.

Dream BIG.

Whenever I conceive a new dream, I create a detailed vision of myself having what I want. The act of creating a vision primes your mind to unconsciously gather all information and opportunities in your environment that could lead you to your dreams. What you focus on expands. Set your mind on the trail of your heart’s desires, and like a bloodhound, it will pick up and follow the scent. Make a practice of dreaming bigger. Each day, add to your vision. When I was living in a garage, I first dreamed of having a nice home in a safe community. Then I added an education, a dog, travel, a husband, and a successful business. Hitching my dreams to an ever-expanding vision of success made the first and earliest dreams speed toward me. Within three years, I’d transcended my broke, overweight, uneducated, unemployed, and dependent on government assistance state of being. I was watching my “impossible and unrealistic” dreams blossom.

Don’t worry about the hows focus on the whats.

I love planning, but I’ve spent lots of time with people who take planning so seriously that when they can’t see how something will work out from the very beginning, they call the objective impossible and let it go. This shuts nearly every dream down. Show up, do your best, and let the Universe (God, Spirit, Light) take care of the rest.

Take consistent action.

We live in a physical universe. As such, we create in thought and manifest through action. Take at least one action toward the attainment of your dreams every day. When you’re busy or stressed, make the action small (send an email, gather information, learn about a person doing what you want to do, make a call). Small steps taken consistently over time add up and create substantial results. A side benefit: Taking action toward creating your dreams builds confidence, endurance, and perseverance, the holy grail of success.

~Cynthia