LIVE YOUR DREAM LIFE NOW SESSION 8

This is our last session of the Live Your Dream Life NOW workshop series. I hope you've discovered new insights into your authentic dreams and are NOW living, out of your values and priorities and your "whys", an authentic version of your dream life. The goal of this workshop is to not put off living your dreams for "some day".

Let's review a couple of ways we mentioned of doing that:

1) Discover the "whys" of your dreams and recognize whether you might ALREADY be living a version of your dream  life without realizing it.


A few years ago after putting this workshop together with a friend, I went through the series myself and found out, much to my surprise, that I was already living some of my dreams without realizing it! 

 One of my dreams was to live in a house in the country so our the kids and grandkids could explore and enjoy nature. I had a picture of it in my mind that didn't fit the picture of where I was living. Upon discovering the "whys" of this dream  I realized I was already living the "whys" but it was in slightly different circumstances than I had envisioned in my mind. I know, I'm living in a mansion and not realizing it wasn't a part of my dream life! What was I thinking?! But because the house was situated in the city, it somewhat escaped me that I could fulfill my dream image here. Also, we don't own the house we're living in as it is an historical mansion that is owned by the city. Previously we had built and lived in our own home for 13 years. Here we direct the activities that happen and live in the west wing of the house. But we DO have lovely large living quarters. So I looked back at my "whys" and re-discovered the following:

We were surrounded by 11 acres of grounds and woods. We've seen countless wildlife while living here including deer, raccoon, fox, opossum, eagles, "resident" owls, and more. There are trees to climb, caves, a "repunzel" tower to explore,  two ponds with frogs leaping about, trails through the woods, two handmade stone steps to the lower gardens that one big snowy winter our kids and grandkids turned into bobsled trails for sledding.  And when there isn't enough snow for bobsledding on the steps, there is an old unused three block long driveway through the woods that is perfect for sledding. This winter my husband took our 4 year old grandson sledding there and they went FAST! But looking up at the three block long hike back up, my husband decided to use his cell phone and call me for a ride back up the hill! There was a street that paralleled  the driveway so I could drive down  the long street and pick him up at the bottom. I obliged, not wanting him to have a heart attack and we did this a few more times much to the laughter of others much younger who were walking back up the hill. We also have a golf cart that we use to get around the grounds and enjoy giving our grandkids rides as well. Despite the fact that we don't OWN this home we live in and it's in the middle of the city, I had failed to realize that if fulfilled the "whys" of my desires. As it turned out this was MORE than what my dreams had envisioned. And I had overlooked it as my DREAM HOUSE!

Your circumstances are going to be different but if you take stock of something that you already have that fulfills the "why" you can begin to appreciate it even more than you may already have.


2) Creatively consider how you might fulfill the "whys" of your dream life in NEW ways that you might not have considered before.

You might recall the story I told of how one of my dreams was to take our family on a vacation to Disney World. But while waiting for us to have the money to make this trip, the "why" of my dream was realized by taking the family on a less expensive and shorter trip. I truly felt that we were living my dream life while doing this before ever taking that trip to Disney World. We DID, however, make it to Disney World 5 years down the road.

3) Let Go of your original dream when something bigger and better comes along.

There will be times when something is presented to you that is far beyond what you ever thought about or imagined. Jump on those opportunities! Hold your dreams lightly so you're ready to let go when these opportunities come along!

4) Enjoy the journey.

Remember to enjoy your journey by being optimistic, living in the moment, living with gratitude, being intentional and focused, being the producer of your thought life, seeing life as an adventure, and giving of yourself to others.

5) And finally, when you're ready to move forward to your bigger dream life, make sure it fits in with your values and priorities and "whys".

There will be some BIG dreams that are still lingering in the back of your mind that won't go away. Like my trip to Disney World.  Don't give up. Find ways to make it happen.

I have another workshop that will show you steps to take to achieve those BIGGER DREAMS down the road.  I'll post those sessions sometime this summer! Stay tuned!

In the meantime, thanks for joining me on the journey and ......