5 Reasons Your Dream Is Important

Since 1978, my life has been airports, airplanes, taxis, hotels, do my presentation and then, back in the taxi, back to the airport, another plane and another city. So many people say to me, “I would love to have your life,” and I think, “Yeah, you would like to have it until you had to do it.”

Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE what I do. There is nothing I would rather be doing than sharing my research and insights with audiences all over the world. I love reaching out to people from all walks of life and helping them understand, “There is more to your life than what you have experienced up until now. There is an adventure waiting for you!” What I do is a calling. It is a crusade that brings me happiness, fulfillment and abundance. It is not something just anyone can do. You have to feel from the inside-out that this is the life you were put on this earth to live – and I believe that!

People ask me constantly, “Why do you do this?”

My response is, “This is my purpose in life!”

I get some strange looks when I say that. So many people just settle into their life. Are they happy? NO! But they feel safe in the routine they have created for their life. The concept of feeling safe is such an interesting emotional process. I believe God put us on this earth for growth, for adventure, to have a life where each day is an experience of improvement. For so many that is such a foreign concept. They don’t realize without risk, adventure, and seeking ways to improve, they are actually trapped in their Circle of Sameness. In that Circle, they may feel ok, but most don’t feel fulfilled. They just exist in their day and create a routine of existence.

So many have told me, “It’s ok for now. Someday, I will have time for the life I really want.”

I listen and know inside it’s a story without a path to achievement. They are designing the life they will have with the behavior they are practicing in their life today.

Other times when people ask me, “Why are you doing this?”  My response is, “Because I am living my dream. I am having fun!”

Again, this is a foreign concept for many. When they were young, they had what they called a dream, but in reality, it was a sketch in their imagination they never fed, so over a period of time it got buried under all the reasons and excuses about “why they couldn’t do it.” Without realizing what they were doing, they were giving up on the life they could have had and settling for the existence that would become their trap.

The word “Dream” is such an interesting word. Many confuse it with a goal, but a dream is not a goal!

A dream is a sketch in your imagination that each day is looking for the nourishment that will fuel the desire that keeps it at the center of adventure and challenges you to continue to reach for the horizon, even if you don’t have a clear picture of what it is.

Dreams are so important to your life! Why?

Dreams give you a purpose and a direction! How many people do you know who get up each day and wander in their repetitive circle of living? There is no adventure to their life. What they fail to realize is without a purpose you have no direction! You are trapped in your own self-created wilderness. Purpose creates a sense of direction. Direction gives you a sense of being. These two allow your imagination to plan beyond the moment you are standing in and fill you with a sense of bringing value to yourself and others. How important is that?

I finished my presentation and was having a quiet lunch thinking about the presentation I had just completed when I was aware of someone standing beside me. I looked at her and said, “Hello!”

She stood there in a moment of silence just looking at me. Finally, she said, “I would swear someone must have told you about me. Your entire presentation was about my life!”

Her body language said she needed to talk, so I motioned to a chair and said, “You want to sit down?”

With that, she took a seat, and her story started. “I have been doing what I am doing for 9 years now, and I will tell you I am just as lost today as I was when I started. I was in need of a job, and this one came along. I took it because I needed the money, not because it was what I really wanted to do with my life.”

She paused, seemingly gathering what she wanted to say, looked at me with sadness in her eyes and continued. “From childhood my dream was always to be a nurse. As a child, I would gather my dolls and practice taking care of them. My mom thought it was cute, but my dad thought it was foolish for me to even consider thinking about being a nurse. His future for me was to get married and have children.”

The sadness in her eyes grew, as she looked away and continued, “I did get married! I did have two kids, but there continued this empty feeling inside me. Don’t get me wrong, I love my kids. My husband was a control freak. I would talk to him about my dream of going to nursing school, and he would get mad and tell me that was just plain foolishness.

We divorced three years ago. I just couldn’t live with his controlling attitude. I was not his wife - I was his female slave. I was only there to do whatever he wanted me to do when he wanted me to do it.”

The look in her eyes changed, she leaned in and said, “Today I am enrolled in nursing school. I know it is going to be a long road, but this is what I was placed on this earth to do. I have a purpose and a direction today. I am happier, the kids are supporting my decision. They have stepped up with helping me around the house. They make sure I am studying and seem proud of their mom!”

She leaned forward, placed her hand on mine and said, “Thank You!

“Why are you thanking me?”

“The turning point in my life was when a friend of mine gave me a copy of your book I Need A Life. I read that book at least 5 times, and each time I read it, it gave me more strength, more encouragement to do what I knew I needed - no, HAD to do to have the life I wanted – the life I know God intends for me to have. It is so great to have my dream alive!! I am filled with an energy I have never had before. I have my purpose clearly in front of me now. I have a direction that keeps my focus clear. I am going to do this! I am going to become a nurse!!! Thank You for giving me the strength to do this!”

When your dream is alive, YOU have a purpose, and with that purpose comes a direction. With a clear direction, you can open your big box of crayons and color your life with meaning.

Dreams give you a reason to get up and get going! I remember my conversation with Deb. I had just finished my program, “No Limits,” and I could tell by her demeanor as she approached, she was in a funk!

She stared at me for a moment, leaned in and said in a questioning voice, “I don’t know if I like you or hate you!”

I just smiled and waited for her to continue.

“You just described my life in detail. I am lost. I know it, but don’t know what to do. I used to be that dreamer you were talking about, but every time I shared my dream with the people in my life, they would just laugh and tell me I needed to ‘get real.’ I guess when you hear that enough, you start to believe it. Recently, I have found myself restless and not happy with where I was. It’s like this little girl that use to dream all the time has been awakened and wants out to play. My problem is I don’t have a clue what she wants to do. You talked about needing a direction - I don’t have one. You talked about a reason to get up in the morning - I don’t have that either. I wake up in the morning, stare out the window and just pull the covers back over my head. I’m hiding from my life. No, I guess I am actually running from the fact I don’t have a life!”

She was right on. The dream that little girl had that got buried was resurfacing and screaming to get out. Do you know how many Deb’s there are out there?

Dreams energize your life! When your dream is alive within you, you are charged. You get up seeking the meaning of the day that is in front of you. That sketch, that dream - when fueled - creates the desire to know the unknown, gives you the passion to continue when the terrain gets tough. It motivates you, and that energy creates PASSION!

Ralph came to the front of the room, flopped down in a chair and just started laughing. “I just love your energy. You are like a lightening bolt that reaches from the inside of you and zaps people in your audience.”

There was a pause as the expression on his face changed. “I used to be like you. I got up in the morning charged for the day. I couldn’t wait to see what the day was going to bring me. I knew no matter what it was, I could learn from it. I was alive, dreaming, and every day excited!”

Again, a pause and a look jumping from his eyes that was now filled with sadness. “Then, one day it was gone. I lost my mojo and haven’t been able to get it back. It was like one day you are alive and the next day you are internally dead. To be honest with you, I don’t like this me I am now. I want that other me to come back. I want to get back to dreaming, to finding the purpose in each day, to being alive with energy. Without my dream to get me up, get me going and fuel me with energy, I am simply a shell existing in a world I don’t like.”

Do you think there are more Ralph’s out there? Do you have any idea of how many people get up each day with a dead spirit? They were once alive with energy, but today exist in their world with nothing to really build on. It’s like their internal circuit breaker has been tripped.

Dreams provide you with anticipation! Your mind likes a challenge. It likes to color each day with optimism. It knows where you have been, what you have learned, what you want to do, and knows you can do it! That’s anticipation. That’s what allows you to step into the unknown with controlled fear. That’s what opens the door to adventure. That’s what takes you out of the Circle of Sameness and frees you to be the person God put you on this earth to be. That’s the freedom to live!

Dr. Charlie Sink was one of my favorite people in the entire world. I met Charlie and Vonda at a “Growth” Seminar I was doing. His energy, his presence, his hunger to learn drew me to him. Charlie and Vonda became two of my Private Mentoring Students. As I got to know Charlie, I soon learned that he was ok with what he was doing (Real Estate Investing), but not satisfied with his life. It was like he was just filling time with moments of activity.

Charlie had left the world of veterinarian medicine, because he wasn’t happy working with Vets who used the pain a client had for their pet to “take them to the cleaners.” Being a Vet was his passion and his pain. When he realized, he couldn’t change the industry, he physically left, but mentally never detached.

During our working together, I would ask him, “Charlie, why do you think God put you on this earth? Do you think you are doing with your life what your talents say you should be doing?”

In the beginning he hated me asking that question, but I knew Charlie Sink was not in sync with his dream. We started talking about him opening his own clinic.

Back in Cheyenne, Wyoming, he had his own clinic, but when he moved to Phoenix, he worked for other doctors. What Charlie saw was against what Charlie thought veterinarian medicine should be. He couldn’t handle what he saw being done to a person and the love they had for their pet!

Vonda and I kept challenging him to open his mind to having his own clinic. I challenged him to look at his skills, his talents, and see if he was living his dream. His response was, “I don’t know!” Inside he knew, but if he admitted it, he would have to do something about it. The more we talked about his passion, his gifts, what he wanted for his life, the more Charlie started seeing the impact he could have on the industry he loved.

Finally, Charlie realized God had put him on this earth to be a veterinarian. He had known that was his calling since he was a child. He grew to understand, you don’t help things to improve by running away. You help my standing up and making a statement through what you do.

With that came the birth of “Grand Paws Veterinarian Clinic.” If you could have met Dr. Sink, you would have found a man who was Living His Dream! He was back in sync with his God-given talent; he was making a difference by what he was doing in and with his practice. When was the last time you saw a Veterinarian Clinic where the waiting area was full, and people were standing outside to get in, and they didn’t mind waiting to have their pet treated by Dr. Sink?

Once Charlie got back in sync with whom he was and the purpose of his life, he lived with the anticipation of the Clinic growing (although, if he grew much more, he was going to have to find a bigger place), which is exactly what happened!

I loved being around him, feeling his passion, watching his mind sketch the next dimension of his dream, and seeing his spirit alive because he was living his dream!

Can you say, “I am living my dream?” Would it be more honest to say, “I am searching for my purpose in life?” Your dream is ALIVE inside you just waiting for you to take that deep breath, trust yourself, and step forward with the faith that really can move mountains.

Dreams make today a source of joy and tomorrow a waiting room filled with opportunities! When you are not living your dream, you can’t experience the real meaning of joy. When you are not daily experiencing what you feel is the purpose of you being on this earth, you can’t see tomorrow as any different than today. As hard as you may try, without a sketch your imagination is drawing, you will lack clarity of purpose, the calmness that sees beyond the confusion, and the confidence that makes the unknown a time of opportunity. You will be locked in your world of sameness talking about a tomorrow that is a blank page.

Dusty is one of the finest young men you will ever meet. I met him while doing a program in Sioux Falls. His energy, his passion, his zest for life were the first things I saw in him. His words to me were, “I am at a crossroads in my life. What I am doing right now I thought I would do the rest of my life, but I’ve learned to never lock myself into one dream. Don’t get me wrong - I really do like what I do, but the passion I have had is just not there anymore.”

He paused, looked at me with his mouth posed to speak, “Can I ask you a question, and you won’t think I’ve lost my mind in asking you this?

I smiled and said, “Lay it on me!”

“My business is very successful, and I make a good living, but - and it is a BIG but - I am thinking about selling it and going to Bible College. Now, the few people I have said this to have all thought I was crazy. Why would I give up a successful business and do that? Richard, I just feel it is what I am supposed to be doing. I get up each day, do my work, come home, and feel there is something missing. It is that missing part that just keeps nagging at me. Do you think I’m crazy for thinking this way?”

“Dusty, in life, you learn most of the advice people give you is their opinion, not their belief. Most people wouldn’t even conceive doing what you are thinking about doing. They are trapped in their own little world by the fear of what might happen if they really started dreaming and decided to reach for their dream. You must listen to what you know, not what you fear. If you feel this is what you are to be doing with your life, do it! It is your life, not theirs. To deny yourself the adventure is to shut the door on today and change the plan for tomorrow.”

“Richard, as I am standing here, I have an inner peace and a feeling of joy thinking about doing it. I know if I don’t, I will always wonder about what I missed and not know what opportunities I missed. I have just got to do it!”

Did he do it? You bet! When I talk to him, he is one happy young man. He is living his dream. He is standing in the moment where he feels he belongs, preparing for the opportunities that are in front of him.

QUESTION FOR YOU!

Would you say you are living your dream? Would you say you are where you want to be in your life? Is fear, in any way, holding you a hostage and keeping you from stepping forward and experiencing the real meaning of Life?

Living your Dream is the key to your inner motivation. It is the source of your spirit being alive with power and your imagination with a big box of crayons ready to color your sketch with meaning, purpose, and abundance.