Dreams and aspirations

Without leaps of imagination, or dreaming,
we lose the excitement of possibilities.
Dreaming, after all, is a form of planning.

Gloria Steinem



Where would I be without my dreams? Where would any of us be? It would be a boring world if we didn't dream as big as we could without imagination and creativity to make life more exciting, fulfilling and all that I can be for who we are as an individual.

It is all about what we do with those dreams and ambitions. We can either be a dreamer or a doer . . . actually a doer is both, first comes the dream, then the doer carries out the dream where the dreamer just dreams about the dream.


We can do whatever we want
 to do with those dreams.

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Dreams and the big picture

"The most pathetic person in the world
 is the person who has sight, but no vision."

Helen Keller

"Far away there in the sunshine are my highest aspirations.
 I may not reach them, but I can look up and see their beauty,
 believe in them, and follow where they lead."

Louisa May Alcott

"The only limits are, as always, those of vision."

James Broughton

What’s the big picture for your life? 

Do you know?

Your mind needs to have a clear and challenging vision,

 a purposeful ideal road map to where you are going.

The concept of "the big picture" reminds me of lyrics

 from the song "Do You Know" by Diana Ross:

Do you know where you're going to

Do you like the things that life is showing you

Where are you going to

Do you know

Do you get

What you're hoping for

When you look behind you

There's no open doors

What are you hoping for

Do you know

Once we were standing still in time

Chasing the fantasies

That filled our minds

You knew how I loved you

But my spirit was free

Laughin' at the questions

That you once asked of me

Do you know where you're going to

Do you like the things that life is showing you

Where are you going to

Do you know

Now looking back at all we've planned

We let so many dreams

Just slip through our hands

Why must we wait so long

Before we'll see

How sad the answers

To those questions can be

Do you know where you're going to

Do you like the things that life is showing you

Where are you going to

Do you know

Do you get

What you're hoping for

When you look behind you

There's no open doors

What are you hoping for

Do you know

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Dreams and moral support

"I am grateful to have the choice over the direction of my life.

I choose to surround myself with only those who believe in me and my dreams."

Source: The Daily Love

It is awesome to have dreams and ambitions.  Not so awesome when you are surrounded by those who try to tear your dreams down for whatever reason.

We must follow our dreams . . . within reason . . . otherwise the question "what if" will be a haunting echo in the night.

Ultimately, the choice is ours.  My worst disasters have come after "the dream" was laughed at and I had to proceed just to prove that I could do it.  My choices were possibly made for the wrong reasons, but the failure was mine.

Understanding that there are people in this world who are fearful of taking a chance, don't believe in innovation or flat out don't believe in your dream should be considered when making the decision to follow your dream.

The concept of a light bulb must have been hilarious back in the day, but Thomas Edison believed in his dream . . . or maybe he surrounded himself with those who gave him lots of moral support to go for it.

Better to surround yourself with people who believe in you, no matter what!

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Who is in control?

"If you're always in a hurry, always trying to get ahead of the other guy, or someone else's performance is what motivates you, then that person is in control of you."

Wayne Dyer

Most of us have role models or those people we admire . . . some of us have even had the awesome experience of having a mentor.  However, there is a fine line between admiration and competition.

True happiness comes from being your authentic self . . . being true to yourself . . . just my opinion.  If you are too busy trying to achieve all that the guy next door has and you can't afford it or attain that level of success, you aren't truly living your life.  It is a set up for failure.  I'm not talking about just settling for whatever comes around . . . go after YOUR dreams, not someone else's dream or reality.

Why can't we just be happy with what we have been blessed with and do the best we can do . . . not worrying about what the other guy has or doesn't have?

Ambition for the right reasons keeps our true dreams and desires alive that will ultimately bring happiness resulting from achievement . . . however, misguided ambitions driven by mere competition can leave us feeling disappointed and empty if it is not a true desire.

One of life's lessons since becoming a widow that absolutely changed the philosophy of my life is to realize that what I do in my life should be done because it is a real desire of my heart, along with the opinion of other people not driving my decisions.  It is my life . . .

We will ultimately be judged by society and our peers no matter what we do . . . don't give them control over your heart's desires.

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Buried dreams or fulfilled visions?

It is important to have a vision

of what we want in life.

More important is to take action

toward getting what we want.

Do you have a dream or a vision for your life?

Do you want fulfilled visions or buried dreams?

As with any journey, you need a map to your destination and a way to get there.  Otherwise you will probably get lost or find yourself stranded along the way, burying  your dream as a result.

It is never too late to dig up those buried dreams . . . take action toward making it happen.  No matter what it is, come up with an action plan and move on it.  It takes one step at a time . . . no matter how small the steps are.

Fuel the way to get to your goal like you put gas in your vehicle to get somewhere.  Just do it . . . put your well thought-out plan into action and make your buried dream a fulfilled vision.

We only have one journey of life . . . live it the way you dream it.

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Listening to Dreams

Your dreams or meditations may give you clues to the rest of your life, and you may feel extremely intuitive today. It could be your subconscious telling you what you need to attend to in your life and trying to point you in the right direction. You might find that by paying attention to the signals you are receiving, you find insights that can help you cope with any questions or issues that might be present in your life today. Perhaps keeping a dream or meditation journal can be a practical way to note the images, symbols, or words that are present in your dreams and meditations. The moment you wake up, try noting what stands out to you the most, going back to it later on. You may notice how the patterns or thoughts that present themselves pan out throughout the rest of the day and relate to the things that actually happen.

Dreams are keys to the parts of ourselves that connect with our spirit. When we dream, we not only process the thoughts, actions, and images we have each day, but we also let go of our rational analytic minds and enter into a deeper state, one that is more closely linked to our higher self.

Source: Daily Om

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In search a dream . . . another meaning of peace

It is about personal freedom . . . the kind that many of us take for granted.  There are civilizations that exist in this world where personal freedom is just a dream.

"We on this continent should never forget that men first crossed the Atlantic not to find soil for their ploughs but to secure liberty for their souls."  

~ Robert J. McCracken

As a grateful American, I admire what my ancestors went through to come to the "new country" . . . packing up all their personal belongings along with a dream of a better life for their family and future generations.  Freedom and opportunity . . . risking everything to set forth into the unknown.  How courageous.  I often wonder if I would go through that extreme for the sake of a dream.

The people of Egypt are weighing heavy on my heart and mind as they enter into the unknown, risking their lives for the dream of freedom and opportunity for themselves, their families and a better life for future generations.  Having many long-time online friends from Egypt, getting to know them through the years and hearing their stories has given me a personal connection to what is going on in their world at this time.  I worry about them and the whole situation makes me sad . . . and I understand their plight . . . they are doing what they have to do.

Peace may or may not come after the storm, but it is a risk they are willing to take.  We will all have taken chances during our lifetime in search of a dream, no matter how big or small.  My prayers are with them . . . and for a peaceful world that we may or may not see in our lifetime.  I pray that we do . . . we are all in God's hands.

The events of the past week have really had me thinking about these friends and what they must be going through at this time.  My fascination with Egypt started as a child when I first discovered the love of books and the library that opened up the world to me . . . and my interest was in the rich history, the artifacts.  It broke my heart when I heard that there was a fire at the Cairo Museum that would potentially destroy treasures of the past.

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Make It Happen

"Some people want it to happen, 

some wish it would happen, 

others make it happen."

Michael Jordan

We all want to live our dream . . . 

but we can’t wish to achieve goals and 

get it done just because we want to. 

It is being passionate about our goals, enabling our minds to motivation and action . . . which means breaking old habits that keep the forward motion of getting things done . . . and never give up trying . . . passion breeds persistence.

One thing is certain . . . the goal must have clarity in order to plan the journey to your dream.  Just like a physical journey, knowing how to get there by using a map is often necessary.  More chances than not, you will get lost without that map . . . lost and wandering in the wilderness of the mind.

When the journey’s path is known, plan the journey, replacing those bad habits that keep you going and making the new way the standard way of operating. 

Procrastination is usually the most difficult bad habit to break . . . it is easy “know” that you will “do it tomorrow.”  This behavior of putting off tasks to a later time is merely a coping mechanism for the anxiety associated with whatever the endeavor is.

The really bad thing about procrastination is that putting something off until a later time makes it easy to continue the bad habit of putting it off.  It is a vicious cycle that must be broken, otherwise, your dream will just be a dream . . . put up in a little box in the corner of your mind.

One of the definitions of passion is being affected by something external and acted upon . . . break the habit of letting procrastination influence the passion of the dream, making incremental changes along the way. 

The journey to your dreams

 starts with one step 

of
forward motion that
leads to the next.

Love this quote ~

"You are never given a wish without being

given the power to make it true.

 You may have to work for it, however."

Richard Bach

Make it happen!

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Freedom and success . . . the other side of fear of failure

Fear of failure . . . despite rational thinking, education, talent and ability . . . makes the exhilaration of victory and success impossible. Fear can cause a potentially successful person to accept mediocrity . . . if you don’t take the risk, you’re guaranteed not to face failure.

The other side of that fear

is freedom and success . . .

Henry Ford stated, “Whether you think you can or you can’t, you’re right.”


Thoughts are powerful and fear is irrational . . . it is the thought of the fear, not the actual experience or “failure,” but the dread it inspires. Obsessive dwelling on the matter reinforces one dark thought after another until success is no longer a reality.


The weight of the dread and fear builds and grows, slowing down progress and cluttering the mind. If the fear is thought of logically, we find they have no rational basis.

Just do it . . .

Smart educated engineers laughed at Henry Ford’s dream of building automobiles, who no doubt perceived him as illiterate and ignorant since he was just an uneducated man with a dream.


Ford was "ignorant" of the fear he overcame due to of his lack of education. His dream was greater than his fear and perceived “limitations” . . . positive thoughts of his dream drove him to success.


How unfortunate would it have been if he let his fear of failure conquer him?


Success is action and bold, courageous movement toward your goals and dreams. Action dispels fear . . . giving fear the time to occupy the thought process is giving it permission to paralyze any efforts and actions, leading to ultimate failure that was feared to begin with. Fear is not rational and is a vicious cycle!


Boldly moving toward your goals a little at a time, embracing the smallest of victories along the way, can start chipping away at that bondage of fear.

Success knows no boundaries!

Understanding how these fears affect us and learning how to cope and manage ourselves in the midst of the fear is one of the most important steps to freedom from fears.


When you miss out on an opportunity due to fear, you will never get that moment back . . . then the floodgates of regrets open up to mingle with the fears.  The pity party is then on its way . . . it is a vicious cycle.


We can’t prevent bad things from happening in our lives, but we can learn how to suppress or eliminate the obsessive focus fear places on us and not live a life of mediocrity with regrets.


We only have one life . . . and we CAN control the quality of that life through our thoughts and attitude.

You can conquer almost any fear if you

will only make up your mind to do so.

For remember, fear doesn’t exist 

anywhere except in the mind. 

~Dale Carnegie~

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Wants, needs and a little faith

In the midst of rough financial times, there is always that little something we want, but don't necessarily need . . . a little treat, a reward for surviving the struggle.

The following article comes from the Guideposts newsletter, which always provides me with a wealth of inspiration along with renewed faith and hope, like a reminder that God never gives us more than we can handle . . . and even the lesson of patience.

I couldn’t afford to buy a little gift for myself. 

But I could dream, couldn't I?

By Vickie Apicella, Port Orange, Florida

I stared longingly at the pair of brown clogs on the department store display rack. They seemed to be calling out my name. I tried to remind myself that I was only here today to buy my mother a special birthday gift. I couldn’t afford anything more. But now, these seemingly perfect brown flats were breaking down my resolve.


I guess you could say I’m a bit of a shop-a-holic, but I hadn’t been able to shop much lately. I’m a teacher, and in this economy, I hadn’t found a summer job. Over the past few months, my already meager savings had dwindled. It was only thanks to my generous parents that I could pay my bills.


Now, with a few weeks of paychecks in the bank and Mom’s birthday coming up, I wanted to show my mom how much I appreciated her help. I’d found a beautiful black sweater that I knew Mom would love and was all set to leave. Then the brown clogs caught my eye. They had a woven pattern on top and I already could picture all the outfits they’d go with.


I had to have them. I tucked the shoes under my arm and made my way towards the cash register. But a guilty feeling washed over me. “God,” I prayed, “I don’t really need these shoes, and I can’t afford to spend the extra money. I can make do with all you have given me.” Sadly, I returned the shoes to their place on the rack, paid for my mother’s present and left.


The next day, I stopped by my friend Terri’s house after work. Just before I was about to say goodbye, Terri stopped me. “I almost forgot,” she said. “I’ve got a box of old stuff I was going to give to a consignment shop, but if there’s anything you’re interested in, you’re more than welcome to help yourself.”


After yesterday’s shopping, I was in no mood to go looking through old clothes. Some consolation prize they would be, I thought. But I took a peek.


There, on top of the pile, was a pair of brand new looking brown clogs, with a woven pattern on top, just like the ones I’d turned down. “They’re too small on me,” Terri said.


I tried them on. Wouldn’t you know it? A perfect fit.


Read more Mysterious Ways stories
from Guideposts

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Optimism and being open to possibilities

The Oxford English Dictionary defines optimism as having "hopefulness and confidence about the future or successful outcome of something; a tendency to take a favorable or hopeful view."

Being open to possibilities is when one expects the best possible outcome from any given situation. Why go into anything, even waking up in the morning contemplating on the newly born day, without the vision that this is gonna be the best day ever. An optimistic mindset can lead to that awesome day . . .

Even when I go into my defeatist mode, feeling beat up, fallen down and momentarily hopeless, I am getting to the point where I can get back to a positive attitude and being open to awesome possibilities that my dreams and visions take me to.

Walt Disney is my greatest hero . . . the ultimate dreamer. His "crazy" dream became a reality that was successful beyond his greatest expectations. I've heard the stories of how many times he "fell down" and got right back up . . .

I absolutely love the following quotes . . .

some from my greatest heroes . . .

they are my inspiration.


"Leaders need to be optimists. Their vision is beyond the present."

Rudy Giuliani


"Become a possibilitarian.
No matter how dark things seem to be or actually are,
raise your sights and see possibilities --
always see them, for they're always there."

Dr. Norman Vincent Peale


"One of the saddest lines in the world is,
'Oh come now - be realistic.'
The best parts of this world were not fashioned by
those who were realistic. They were fashioned by those
who dared to look hard at their wishes and
gave them horses to ride."

Richard Nelson Bolles


"The world would have you agree with its dismal dream
of limitation. But the light would have you soar
like the eagle of your sacred visions."

Alan Cohen


"It's kind of fun to do the impossible."

Walt Disney


"God didn't have time to make a nobody, only a somebody.
I believe that each of us has God-given talents
within us waiting to be brought to fruition."

Mary Kay Ash


"I dreamed impossible dreams.
And the dreams turned out beyond anything
I could possibly imagine.
You know, from my point of view,
I'm the luckiest cat on the planet."

Hugh Hefner

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Follow your dreams

"The only place where your dream becomes
impossible is in your own thinking."

Robert H. Schuller

Like the elephant, we are unconscious of our own strength.

When it comes to understanding the power we have to
make a difference in our own lives, we might as well be asleep.

If you want to make your dreams come true, wake up.

Wake up to your own strength.

Wake up to the role you play in your own destiny.

Wake up to the power you have to choose
what you think, do, and say.

Keith Ellis, from the book, Bootstraps

Never give up your dreams!

Follow That Dream | Elvis Presley

Lyrics

(Words & music by Fred Wise - Ben Weisman)

Follow that dream, I gotta follow that dream
Keep a-movin, move along, keep a moving
I've got to follow that dream wherever that dream may lead
I've got to follow that dream to find the love I need

When your heart gets restless, time to move along
When your heart gets weary, time to sing a song
But when a dream is calling you,
There's just one thing that you can do

Well, you gotta follow that dream wherever that dream may lead
You gotta follow that dream to find the love you need

Keep a-movin, move along, keep a moving

Got to find me someone whose heart is free
Someone to look for my dream with me
And when I find her I may find out
Just what my dreams are all about

I've got to follow that dream wherever that dream may lead
I've got to follow that dream to find the love I need

I've got to follow that dream wherever that dream may lead
I've got to follow that dream to find the love I need

Keep a-movin, move along
Keep a-movin, move along
Keep a-movin, move along

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Endless destination

"Believing in yourself is an endless destination. Believing you have failed is the end of the journey."

Anonymous

MASTIN SAYS:

I know it's not always easy to walk on the path of your dreams. The ups and downs of the journey are a wonderful dance that guide us towards our deepest desires. As far as I can see, one of the main goals of the journey is to not judge a situation as bad or good, but remain detached.

If you are showing up and acting every day towards the greatest good for yourself and others then trust what shows up today. Know that what is placed at your feet is a special, unique experience just for you and on the other side of this experience if a brand new way of seeing the world.


Love the ups.
Love the downs.
It's a journey, this life,
love and savor every moment of it.

Source: The Daily Love

TDL on Twitter

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TDL Founder Mastin Kipp on Twitter

www.Twitter.com/MastinKipp

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