I have learned this at least by my experiment:
that if one advances confidently in the direction of
his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he
has imagined, he will meet with a success
unexpected in common hours.
-
-Henry David Thoreau
Last month, we explored creating your own dreams
instead of the ones that have been pushed onto
you. The next step is to commit yourself to those
dreams by writing them down.
When I do my "Living the A+ Life" workshops, I have
the participants write down their dreams as if they
have already been achieved. It’s always amazing
how much resistance I get to this suggestion. We’ve
been so conditioned to tell the “truth” that we find it
almost impossible to write down goals or dreams in
anything but future tense. “I will make $100,000 this
year,” is easier to write than “I make $100,000
annually.” I asked one participant if she thought God
would punish her for writing something that wasn’t
true yet. We laughed, certain that God would
understand that this was an exercise.
The amazing thing is that what you focus on
expands. The more you concentrate on the dream
being something of the future, the more the universe
works with you to make that true. The dream or
goal always stays in the future. The secret lies in
writing those dreams down as if they are already
happening. Once you accept that, you start to
make them come true.
We do not yet understand how the mind works, but
there is enough research now to believe that when
you “act as if” you are achieving, happy, capable,
your subconscious starts to incorporate those
qualities into your personality. My mother often
reminded me that what you say about yourself
becomes true, even if you are just joking. Your
subconscious doesn’t have much of a sense of humor
and so it doesn’t quite get the “Gee, I’m such a
nitwit,” comment. It actually starts to act on the
comments you make to turn them into reality.
If we write our dreams down, our subconscious – and
the universe – conspire to make these dreams come
true. Even if you can’t quite believe this, you’ll agree
that writing down your dreams gives you a chance to
keep them foremost in your mind.
Think about the major areas of your life: career,
family, spirituality, health, as well as any others that
are important to you. Then write three major goals
for each of those areas.
Here are some of mine – and they are actually
posted on my wall so I won’t forget them.
“I am at my ideal weight.”
“I am connected to my source.”
“I am doing what I was meant to do.”
“I am refreshed and alert when I awake.”
The next step is to write down three or more steps
to make each of those dreams come true. For
instance, on my ideal weight goal, my steps include:
- I visualize myself weighing a healthy 145 pounds.
- I exercise every day – at least 15 minutes of
yoga, stretching, walking, weights, swimming, and/or
biking.
- I keep my sugar intake at a minimum.
Notice that these steps are written in present tense,
and you have only to look at me to know that I don’t
follow these all the time. (A word of warning: word
these carefully. It’s easy to get to a particular
weight if you don’t care about being healthy.)
One of the interesting things that happens is that
you start to achieve the dreams that are most
important to you. The one about “doing what I was
meant to do” has been the one I have spent the
most time on and I am well on my way to achieving
it. (The weight had to wait. But it’s time now to
take care of that one.) We can do everything we
want to with our lives; we just might not be able to
do all of it at the same time.
Act as if you have already achieved these dreams.
Believe that you can do it.
