Turning Dreams Into Reality: The 7 Lessons I’ve Learned


“Shared By Carla”

In 1995, I was engaged to a guy who wasn’t very nice. I believe that every person comes into your life for a reason, though, and his reason had to do with introducing me to Laguna Beach. He brought me to the Surf & Sand Resort on New Year’s Eve 1995, and on New Year’s Day, I wrote a “resolution” that I would eventually move to Laguna Beach. Even in that short, overnight visit, I knew I’d come home.

The first action to take when you’ve pictured your dream: Record it in writing.

Five years later, a big company transferred me to San Diego to help them revamp a large website. It was a three-year contract, but eight months later, having completed the assignment, I turned in my resignation to skip back across the line to entrepreneurship. On my way from the office to my house, I called Bob Proctor to tell him the news. He asked my plans, and I said, “I’m not sure, but I’m not ready to move back to Denver yet.”

“Where do you want to live?” he asked

“Well, I’d LOVE to live in Laguna Beach, but it’s SO expensive.”

…Silence greeted me on the other side. I knew I had just said the worst possible thing to the man who preaches that nothing is impossible unless YOU make it so. Finally, he said, “Diane.”

I winced, waiting.

“I want you to drive to Laguna Beach right now. Find one of those places where you can rent a mailbox and start forwarding your mail. Today.”

So, I did.

The other thing I’ve learned about having a dream: ACT on the darn thing, even in just a small way, as if you EXPECT it to happen.

Two weeks later an email arrived in my “in” box from someone I had absolutely no connection to. Completely out of the blue. They were renting their cottage in Laguna Beach for the winter.

Three weeks later, I was a resident of Laguna Beach.

In the years that have followed, Laguna Beach has continually proven a magical “vortex” for me. When I needed to find a larger home for me and my beloved Merlin (a Great Pyrenees), the dream happened in the form of a tiny “For Rent” sign next to a mailbox.

(Next hint on fulfilling a dream: Actively look in all the usual places, but be open to it showing up in an unexpected way.)

When I decided it was time to move to the beach, I had my famous Bob Proctor Goal Card written out and was searching fruitlessly for months. One evening, a friend and I trotted down to my favorite beach for a picnic and, having no knowledge of my search for a beach condo, he looked up at the condo complex looming above us and said, “Wouldn’t it be awesome to live in THAT place?”

I couldn’t believe I had never noticed this place before. With the image of that condo complex in my head, I revised my Goal Card that night.

(Another lesson learned: Slight revisions to the dream are OK. Dropping the dream completely, not OK.)

The next morning, I called the management, asking if rentals were available. She assured me no new rentals had opened up there for years. Two DAYS later, I saw a new, tiny “For Rent” sign on the side of the highway and knew it would lead me to that very same complex. It did, and I was moving into this magnificent place weeks later.

The magic continued again when I decided it was time to move above into the penthouse.

The magic continued again when, in 2008, I decided to start writing a blog – LagunaBeachBest.com – and, in mere months, I had collected thousands of subscribed readers. Two years later, having written hundreds of blog entries, I announced that I was going to create the first “travel guide” for Laguna Beach and call it Laguna Beach’s Best.

So, here’s one problem with having a dream: When you talk OUT LOUD about acting on your dream, eventually every friend who’s heard you drone on and on about your PLAN to act on your dream begins to ask you for an ETA.

Initially, my announcement had been met with raucous approval from friends far and wide. After all, how hard could this be? Since 1989, I’ve been writing, editing and finishing books for budding authors and famous people. Since 1995 – eighteen years – I’ve had an agency of genius talents helping me do everything else for books, from cover design and layout to websites and marketing materials. Piece of cake.

For two years, I TALKED and PLANNED and TALKED some more … And, by Christmas last year, my raucous supporters were beginning to turn on me. The question, “When’s the book going to be done?” began to pepper me like those “mine-mine-mine” seagulls in the movie, Finding Nemo.

In March this year, I reluctantly pulled up to the “Book Starting Line.” I rallied a single troop – Patti Knoles – the most patient, amazing book designer in the universe. She readily agreed and vroomed up next to me, tires smoking, engine gunning, grinning over at me. What could I do? I couldn’t back down now. She was already asking for the back cover copy, for criminy’s sake.

That’s when the terrible realization about having a dream hit me …

Once you make your “Declaration of the Dream,” God/the angels/the Universe are going to be peeling rubber ahead of you, halfway to the first turn while you’re still idling at the START line. The Universe is like that – it’s not much for excuses when it’s time to lock and load a dream you keep blabbering on about.

Granted, you have every right to TRY to put a governor on that Universe. Over the last few months, I tried a few tactics (aka: excuses) of my own … I was too busy with my clients to work on my own stuff … travel guides require so much fact checking … I had to re-take larger photos of many of the entities … the print bids were ghastly sums.

At that last excuse, I sent an email to Patti. This was costing too much money, I didn’t have it in the coffers, and we should just shelve the book until 2014.

I pictured her sitting there at her computer, halfway through the design of the book with the biggest sections still looming. She could have said to herself, “Good. I’m tired of this book. Good decision.”

I waited on the other side, computer humming, watching my email, wondering how long it would be before she would respond. Three minutes later, she wrote, “I’m going to keep working on the book. It’s a great book, Diane. It’ll work out.”

The most important fact I learned that very moment about dreams: When you see someone faltering on their dream, believe in it for them.

I remember years ago, when I had talked about reaching what appeared to be an unfathomable dream, Bob Proctor told me, “Diane, if you don’t believe in this dream of yours, I’ll believe in it for you.”

For years, I’ve told client after client the same. They hit that Terror Barrier; they hit that fear, and they start to back away, scrabbling back to what they know, what’s comfortable. Who needs a dream anyway? And I tell them that I believe, that my team believes, and we always bring that person through to the other side.

One person believed in my dream more than I did at that moment. And at that very moment, everything changed.

Two questions I leave you with:

1.     What are you doing to act on your dream?

2.     Whose dream can you believe in today?

What you do – or don’t do – will change everything.

 

By Diane Armitage

I learned a ton from Jeff Herring in his “Repurposing Power Secrets” course. If you see writing articles in your future Repurposing Power Secrets Course in your future check him out, he really is a good teacher. ==>http://justclicknow.ca/17aUpYD

The Toughest Question You Have To Answer


“Shared By Carla”

Inside of all of us there is a battle being waged.

On one side, there are the defenders of our comfort zone. For each of us the definition of the comfort zone will be quite different. For you, it might be a $75,000 a year job at a major corporation that has traversed the rough waters of the economic crises. You don’t dare risk losing that job, your mind says to itself. Let’s just sit tight until things return to normal, and then we can think about going out on your own.

On the attacking front, however, is your Big Self (a fantastic phrase I first heard from my friend and mentor, Matt Furey). Despite the fact that your Big Self is trying to break down the doors of your Comfort Zone fortress and smash its walls, the Big Self is actually the good guy in this battle. Your Big Self represents what you could truly accomplish in life.

So it goes. Day in and day out, the Big Self wakes up strong and mighty, and might make a little progress, particularly if you participate in an early morning Big Thinking session.

But then the real world gets in the way, delivering reinforcements to the frontlines of the Comfort Zone defenders. These reinforcements come in the way of excuses, negative naysayers, fear, lack of self-confidence or self-control, and the bad habits we’ve built up over our four to five decades of life.

At the end of the day, the battle is much like those waged on the fields of France in World War I. A lot of carnage on both sides for inches gained and subsequently lost.

And that is why you are in the same spot today as you were twelve months ago, only just a year older.

Today I’ll show you how to break through the stalemate.

But it will only work if you are willing to set down your weapons and stop protecting yourself for a while. Call a truce on the battlefield. Have each side bring out its best thinkers and have them work together as one on this big thinking exercise.

Recently I made this same challenge to over 150 personal trainers on the final day of my Turbulence Training Summit. Over the course of two days, my guest experts and I had stood and delivered complete blueprints to becoming better trainers and for getting more clients.

But this being the 3rd year for the annual event, I knew that many people in the audience would go home, let life get in the way, and return for the 4th TT Summit next year without having made any significant changes.

I wasn’t going to let that happen again, and I won’t let that happen to you.

That meant I had to challenge the attendees. I had to show them exactly how to make the mental changes that would allow their Big Self to win the battle.

After I summarized the best moments of the weekend, I paused for dramatic effect, made eye contact with as many people in the room that dared to look at me, and asked, “Are you really living as your Big Self? Are you being the Limitless Leaders that I know you can be? Or are you letting Little Limitations hold you back from greatness?”

These were tough questions. They are tough on the ego.

No one, particularly relatively successful people, wants to feel like a disappointment. But we need to be honest. Are we doing all we can with what we have been blessed with in life?

And we have one of my mentors, Dan Kennedy, to thank for this. You see, several years ago I attended one of Kennedy’s seminars just outside of Cleveland, Ohio. He covered the topic of internal resistance – something I know is holding back many readers.

Dan said, “The failure to act is much more often the product of inner, emotional resistance than external resistance. To move forward you must give up your story, whether it is excuses about your childhood, lack of education, your ‘bad luck’, your unsupportive family, your low metabolism, where you live, etc., etc.”

It’s time to give up your excuses. It’s time to overcome your natural inclinations of holding back and staying in your comfort zone. It’s time to Man-Up.

It’s harsh, but true. As Kennedy explained, what separates the leaders from the strugglers is often confidence and follow-through, both of which can be derailed by internal resistance. That’s when he taught me “The Exercise”.

Answering these questions is tough on the Ego, but the answers could change your life (if you take action on them). Take the following mental challenge:

1) Ask yourself “The Question”:

“Where you would like to be and have known you would like to be but aren’t?”

2) Be brutally specific and honest.

3) Now list why you are NOT there.

4) Next, identify the changes you need to make.

5) Then take massive action!

Don’t let another year go by stuck in the same place!

You must identify the causes of your internal resistance. Ask yourself “Why?” you want something but refuse to act in congruence with achieving it.

Either say “no” to achievement OR dig in and get to the bottom of the persistent incongruence between what you say and what you do. It is OK to admit you are not willing to pay the price – and by doing so, that will stop self-sabotage. Once you know the enemy, then you can work on overcoming it.

Listen, I know Kennedy can be a little gruff and grumpy, but he speaks the truth and has your best interests at heart. In fact, it’s almost like he’s channeling the wise philosophers of Ancient Greece. I’m currently re-reading a book called, “The Art of Living”, which is a translation of teachings from the Stoic philosopher, Epictetus. In it, I discovered this wisdom:

“Now is the time to get serious about living your ideals. Once you have determined the spiritual principles you wish to exemplify, abide by these rules as if they were laws, as if it were indeed sinful to compromise them. Don’t mind if others don’t share your convictions. How long can you afford to put off who you really want to be? Your nobler self cannot wait any longer. Put your principles into practice – now. Stop the excuses and the procrastination. This is your life! You aren’t a child anymore. The sooner you set yourself to your spiritual program, the happier you will be. The longer you wait, the more you’ll be vulnerable to mediocrity and feel filled with shame and regret, because you know you are capable of better. From this instant on, vow to stop disappointing yourself. Separate yourself from the mob. Decide to be extraordinary and do what you n eed to do – now.”

Take the challenges set forth by Kennedy and Epictetus.

Identify what is holding you back.

Release the brakes.

Become the Big Self and Limitless Leader that I know you can be.

Overcome your obstacles. Defeat your internal resistance. Never give up on what is important to you. So much can be accomplished with a long-term vision and resilience to short term setbacks. If you persist and never give in, you WILL succeed. You can have the life of your dreams while helping and transforming the lives of millions.

Get out there and take action today. Throw the rock of helping into the pond of transformation and watch as the ripples take shape.

Change a life today – starting with yours.

 

By Craig Ballantyne

I learned a ton from Jeff Herring in his “Profitable Content Creation Templates 5.0 SP” course. If you see writing articles in your future Profitable Content Creation Templates 5.0 SP Course in your future check him out, he really is a good teacher. ==>http://justclicknow.ca/1eSIeHO

Are You A Pink Elephant?


“Shared By Carla”

Once upon a time a pink elephant was born. He was so clearly different from the rest that soon the grey elephants started to distance themselves and ignore him. The little pink elephant felt very sad and rejected. He realized that in order to fit in with the rest of the herd he had to be just like them. So, he covered himself with mud and dirt until he became a dirty grey. Throughout the years he kept covering himself and hiding behind the dirt.

Then one day, rain began pouring down and washed away all the mud and dirt from his body. He was pink again! The grey elephants turned and started laughing at the sight of his obvious pinkness. As the laughter grew louder he realized that he was trying to fit into a group that would never understand him. He knew that he was different and that he needed to find a group of pink elephants just like him, where he would be accepted and learn to love himself as he was.

Imagine yourself as an “Elephant”, the largest land animal on earth. An elephant is too massive to miss. It has an enormous amount of power. If you were a “Pink Elephant” when you were born, then you are different from most of the people around you. People will think that you are a bit strange when they meet you and because of this you may try to hide your true self. You try as hard as possible to fit in, but people always notice you. Sometimes you will be admired for being different, but often you will be ridiculed. Then, you have one of two choices to make. Either you gather your strength and are proud that you are Pink or you try to convince everyone that you are exactly like them. Most choose the second option. It seems easier to just fit in.

The truth is that it doesn’t matter that people will laugh at you, think that you are weird, or feel your dreams seem totally unattainable – You must not listen to them. They are too entrenched in the limited herd mentality to see the greater possibilities that are available.

I travel around the world and teach (hidden) Pink Elephants to become themselves. I bring them together and show them that they are not alone. They come alive in the presence of others just like them. Keep in mind that all the great inventors and innovators were Pink Elephants. It takes a unique person to get to the moon, be a music icon or create personal computers. The herd is always afraid of new ideas, but unabashed “Pink Elephants” are never stopped. Pink Elephants live in a world of possibilities, not fear.

So start a Pink Elephant group in your community today and see your world change!

“What is different about you is what makes you special.”

 

By Bernard Hiller

I learned a ton from Jeff Herring in his “Profitable Content Creation Templates 5.0 FP” course. If you see writing articles in your future Profitable Content Creation Templates 5.0 FP Course in your future check him out, he really is a good teacher. ==>http://justclicknow.ca/17VLDAt

Using All Your Strength


“Shared By Carla”

A young boy was walking with his father along a country road. When they came across a very large tree branch the boy asked, “Do you think I could move that branch?”

His father answered, “If you use all your strength, I’m sure you can.”

So the boy tried mightily to lift, pull and push the branch but he couldn’t move it. Discouraged he said, “Dad, you were wrong. I can’t do it.”

His dad said, “Try again.” This time, as the boy struggled with the branch his father joined him and together they pushed the branch aside.

“Son,” the father said, “the first time you didn’t use all your strength. You didn’t ask me to help.”

This is an important lesson. There are many things we can’t do alone, but that doesn’t mean we can’t get them done. We all are surrounded by resources that can be mobilized to help us achieve our goals including family, friends and faith. Sometimes we fail to ask for help because of pride or stubbornness. Sometimes we think it’s a sign of weakness to admit we need a hand. And sometimes we don’t even think about asking for help. Whatever the reason, it’s a waste.

It’s important that we learn to use all our strength; this includes inner resources such as discipline, courage and even love. But it also includes outer resources. Just as we should be willing to help others we should be willing to ask the help of others. It’s one of the great things about being human.

By Michael Josephson

I learned a ton from Jeff Herring in his “Profitable Content Creation Templates 5.0 (SP paypal)” course. If you see writing articles in your future Profitable Content Creation Templates 5.0 (SP paypal) Course in your future check him out, he really is a good teacher. ==>http://justclicknow.ca/168iqVJ

The Subtlety of Language

“Shared By Carla”

I have found that sometimes the subtle difference in our attitude, which of course can make a major difference in our future, can be as simple as the language we use. The difference in even how you talk to yourself or others. Consciously making a decision to quit saying what you don’t want and to start saying what you do want. I call that faith. Believing the best, hoping for the best and moving toward the best.

A few examples could be, instead of saying “What if somebody doesn’t respond?” you start saying, “What if they do respond?” Instead of saying “What if someone says no?” you say “What if they say yes?” Instead of ‘What if they start and quit?” you say ‘What if they start and stay?” Or instead of “What if it doesn’t work out?” you say “What if it does work out?” And the list goes on and on.

I found that when you start thinking and saying what you really want then your mind automatically shifts and pulls you in that direction. And sometimes it can be that simple, just a little twist in vocabulary that illustrates your attitude and philosophy.

Our language can also affect how others perform and behave around us. A teenager says to a parent, “I need $10.” If the parent learns to say, “That kind of language doesn’t work here. We’ve got plenty of money, but that’s not how you get $10,” then you teach your teenager how to ask, “How can I earn $10?”

That is the magic of words. There is plenty of money here. There is money for everybody, but you just have to learn the magic words to get them—for everything you could possibly want, if you just learn the philosophy. How could I earn $10? Because you can’t go to the soil and say, “Give me a harvest.” You know the soil smiles and says, “Who is this clown that brings me his need and brings me no seed.” And if you said to the soil, “I’ve got this seed and if I planted it, would you work while I sleep?” the soil says, “No problem. Give me the seed. Go to sleep and I’ll be working while you’re sleeping.”

If you just understand these simple principles, teaching them to a teenager (or adult) is sometimes just a matter of language. It’s like an investment account instead of a savings account. Simple language, but so important. It is easy to stumble through almost a lifetime and not learn some of these simplicities. Then you have to put up with all the lack and all the challenges that don’t work out simply from not reading the book, not listening to the tape, not sitting in the class, not studying your language and not being willing to search so you can then find.

But here is the great news: You can start this process anytime. For me it was at age 25. At 25 I’m broke. Six years later I’m a millionaire. Somebody says, “What kind of revolution, what kind of change, what kind of thinking, what kind of magic had to happen? Was it you?” And I say, “No. Any person, any six years, 36 to 42, 50 to 56. Whatever six years; whatever few years you go on an intensive, accelerated personal-development curve, learning curve, application curve, and learning the disciplines.” Now, it might not take the same amount of time, but I’m telling you the same changes and the same rewards in some different fashion are available for those who pay that six–year price. And you might find that whether it’s in the beginning to help get you started, or in the middle to keep you on track, that your language can have a great impact on your attitude, actions and results.

By Jim Rohn

I learned a ton from Jeff Herring in his “Profitable Content Creation Templates 5.0 (FP paypal)” course. If you see writing articles in your future Profitable Content Creation Templates 5.0 (FP paypal) Course in your future check him out, he really is a good teacher. ==>http://justclicknow.ca/1aXeGal

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