The Second Pillar: Dreams
What did you dream of being, doing, having when you were growing up? Do you still dream those dreams? Or have they gotten replaced by screaming kids, bills that can't be paid, or parents that need your attention?
Dreams are what make life interesting, fun and exciting. They are what keep you going when obstacles arise on every side. Dreams are the "why" for everything you do. Without a great "why" life loses its sense of purpose.
In Janet's book, The Passion Test: Discovering Your Personal Secrets to Living a Life on Fire , she describes a simple, yet profound method of identifying those things that are most important to you, i.e. your passions. Your passions describe how you choose to live your life.
They are the clues to your dreams. Your dreams describe what you want to end up with, having lived your life in accord with your passions.
To have what you want in your life, requires a clear idea of what you choose to create in your life. You can buy into the limited concepts of what's possible which most people in the world will tell you are true, or you can realize nothing is impossible when you can convince your mind it can be done.
Do you want to have everything you want in your life? Then expand your ideas of what's possible, and clarify what your dreams will look like when they're fully realized. When you know what you want to be,, know what you truly want to have, and what you really want to do, your mind will lead you there. You don't even have to know how you're going to get to your goal or achieve your dream. You just have to be clear about what the dream will look like once it's achieved.
For example, one of our dreams is to create models of ideal community living in at least 100 places around the world. These communities will be designed according to Sthapatya Ved, the ancient science of architecture and design. All the buildings will reflect those ancient principles for building in accord with natural law. The structures will use local, natural, building materials and will use the ancient Vedic science of Jyotish to determine the timing of groundbreaking, building and completion of each building. They will have an abundance of vegetation along with fountains, reflecting pools and ponds or lakes.
There will be common facilities for meditation, recreation, and dining, while still allowing each family to have their own unique space. Gas powered vehicles will be parked on the exterior of these neighborhoods and only electric or pedal powered vehicles will be used within the community. There will be trails through the area for hiking and biking, along with community organic gardens. Each community will be designed to allow families and friends to be together, to eat together and to play together.
This is just the beginning of our vision for this particular dream (we have many!). When we begin to prepare to build each community, this vision will become much more detailed-plans will be drawn in detail, architectural drawings will be made, all the specifics of the dream will be laid out, down to the finest point, before any building even begins.
Having this dream, where do we start? For us, it begins this year with building one home, using all the principles we will eventually use to create these special and unique communities. Going through the process with one home will provide greater clarity to help us define the steps necessary for us to move toward creating our first community. Once we've completed our first community, we will have greater clarity for the building of future communities, and so on.
To live the life you were meant to live, here are the steps:
- Dream your dreams, then describe them on paper in as much detail as you can imagine in this moment. Visualize yourself actually having that thing, experiencing it, seeing it, smelling it, hearing it, touching it, tasting it, get all the senses involved.
- Now, chunk your dream down. What categories of things will have to happen for your dream to become reality? For example, with our dream we have to acquire the knowledge of Sthapathya Ved, identify locations for our communities, create relationships with architects and contractors who can build the kind of buildings we want, identify one or more community planners, create a budget for constructing a community and finance it, acquire the land, obtain any necessary zoning approvals, and so on.
- Take the first step. What can you begin to do now to make your dream a reality? For us, our first step is building one home using all the principles we want to apply to our communities. If you are having trouble chunking your dream down, your first step might be having one or more coaching sessions with Chris and Janet Attwood to get help in doing that. There is always something you can do. Life is about making choices. To realize your dreams, make the choices now to begin manifesting them, no matter how small your initial steps.
- Apply all the pillars of the Parthenon of Success to making your dreams a reality. That means use the principle of giving, get a mentor or mentors, form a team, create alliances, acquire or create the skills, tools and systems you need, and then be sure you put funds aside to generate passive income.
- Persist. Many begin the journey, few finish it. The biggest thing which sets those who are living their dreams apart from those who aren't is they keep going. When they get knocked flat, they pick themselves up (even if it takes a while), dust themselves off and keep going.
- Come back to your description every six months and add more to it. As you live your life, you will gain more clarity, you'll learn new things, you'll discover the pathways which lead to the "chunks" which lead to your dreams. Review regularly, write down what you've learned and expand your dream to reflect your new knowledge. You may find your dreams expand as you increasingly are able to see how they are manifesting.
Follow these steps. They are fool proof, and one day you'll discover that your dreams are no longer dreams. They are your life.
Janet and Chris Attwood run Enlightened Alliances, a marketing company dedicated to creating relationships which improve the world. They work with some of the most successful people in America: Mark Victor Hansen and Jack Canfield of Chicken Soup for the Soul, Robert Allen who has written 5 NY Times best sellers, multimillionaire T. Harv Eker famed for his Millionaire Mind Intensives, Brian Tracy, Bob Proctor, Dr. Pankaj Naram, Rev. Dr. Michael Beckwith, Dr. Deepak Chopra, Jay Abraham and others. Visit
www.thepassiontest.com for more details.
Contact: chrisandjanet@enlightenedalliances.com
