Do You Dare To Dream?

You hear me talk a lot about following our dreams – and yet I know it can feel unrealistic to many of us to even think in this way.

What I know, from working with many clients over the years, is that everyone has a dream.

Usually, it’s been tucked away somewhere – because we’re not used to thinking about being able to have what we want, or because we believe that it’s just not possible for us.

I’m here to tell you that anything is possible for you when you believe it is.

Achieving your dream is 20% talent & hard work and 80% belief.

My son’s dream, since he was fourteen years old, was to be an actor – and yet, when he announced this at school, the negativity that flowed from teachers and friends was astounding. Nobody doubted his talent, but, because they perceive acting as a tough path, they would tell him to have a Plan B – a Business degree, for example, that he could fall back on if he wasn’t successful. He didn’t want a Plan B – he knew what he wanted and he was determined to achieve it. Against massive odds (200 applicants for every one place), he got into his first choice Drama School, first time. This was because he was very clear on the details of his dream and he believed (with help from his in-house Career Coach, when times were hard) that it was possible for him. Don’t be at all surprised when you see David on the big screen in a few years’ time – because he believes he can do that too!

One of my clients, Alison, came to me because she felt completely stuck in her life and this made her very, very unhappy.

Alison was getting no satisfaction from the job she was doing – in her words, it just didn’t provide her with ‘meaning and purpose’ – and yet she couldn’t see any way to break out of it, mainly because she’d left school at 16, with few qualifications. On top of this, her relationship had become very stale and unfulfilling, but she shared a flat with her boyfriend and believed that she couldn’t afford to rent somewhere on her own. So she stayed and they were both utterly miserable.

She insisted that she didn’t have a dream – if she had a dream, she said, it would be so much easier to know what to do. But, believing as I do that we all have dreams to follow and a purpose to fulfil, I dug deeper. Alison eventually admitted that she had had a dream, but she’d left it behind because she believed it was impossible for her. Her dream was to join the Army as an Officer – but, of course, she’d left school without the qualifications she needed to even apply, so she’d tried to forget it, even though it regularly came back into her thoughts.

With my support and total belief in her resourcefulness & talent, Alison managed to persuade her employer to allow her to study, one day per week, for the qualifications she needed – even though they were completely unrelated to her job. She joined the Army Reserves, to make sure that the Army would be the right next step for her, and she found the courage to end her relationship. She even succeeded in arranging her finances so that she could afford to buy a flat on her own – something she thought she’d never be able to do. Now, she’s well on the way to applying for Sandhurst and her life has simply taken off. Her dream is now in sight and it’s completely achievable.

Often, when we follow the Dream path, things don’t quite turn out as we expected – they actually turn out better – but unless we take the first step, we’ll never know what and who we could have been.

We’re here for a very short time – 29,000 days or so (a heartbeat really) – and life is meant to be lived to the full. Don’t live with regret for what you didn’t do or try – your dreams are there to be followed, fulfilled and experienced.

And really, what’s the worst that could happen if you take one small step towards your dream?  And what’s the very BEST?

David and Alison are following their dreams – and so can you.

So, what is your dream and what’s the very first, small step you can take towards making it an exciting reality?