I signed up for Amy Wessel's brilliance something....I really liked the idea but alas I neither have had the time nor the will to do the exercises though every week she has dutifully sent me stuff. I was looking for something inspirational yet thought provoking to send to my mentee when i looked at one of her emails and found something amazing. as i said I haven't done the 6 exercises but hey perhaps someone is at a stage in their lives when they need this. i think we all have to ask ourselves these questions at some point in our lives if not several times. i certainly did ask myself similar questions last year before turning my back on banking, accounting and law....in short a conventional life as defined by my environment.
Gem Number Six: My Dream (aka My Vision)
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This is your last Gem, and it’s the biggie. Today you’re going to ask yourself what you want, and why you want it. You’re going to cultivate your dream, and invite its sparkle to light you up from the inside out.
Your dream is vital to your psychic wellbeing. Where would any of us be without them? We began hatching our Big Dreams when we were small children, back when it seemed entirely reasonable to want to live in a floating palace surrounded by endangered animals we rescued and tamed. But so many of us put them on hold, tell ourselves they’re impossible, gunk them up with all the reasons we can’t have them. We allow fear to hide our dreams.
Why are we afraid of dreaming? Is it that we are afraid of it coming true? Or of it NOT coming true? Are we deserving of the dream?
I want you to dust off your dream. Bring your vision front and center, in all its glory. Identify its parts down to the tiny details, so you know it inside and out.
First exercise: create the long list. Close your eyes, get comfy, and breathe. Then start writing down what you want. Your juiciest, most outrageous, out there dreams for yourself. What do you want more than anything? What would you do if you knew you could not fail? What will it feel like when you are living your dream? You are not limited by circumstances, money, or time. How many can you come up with? 5? 10? 20?
Behold the list. How does it feel to contemplate a life that includes all THAT?
Now get busy whittling down the list to what you really, truly want. For each dream you came up with, ask yourself these questions:
: Why do I want this?
: What are the roots here - how long have I wanted this?
: Is it truly mine, or have I borrowed it from someone else?
: What parts of this do I already have in my life?
: Is my dream in reaction to something I don’t like, or does it come from a place of truth?
Work the list. Get a sense of which dreams are nice, but not so important. And then identify the biggie, by asking Which dream calls out to me so loudly I can't ignore it?
That's your dream. The big one.
Second exercise: feed your biggest dream. From your long list, you found your boldest, most out there, exquisite yearning. Name it and claim it. What about this dream lights you up? What do you feel when you imagine yourself living the dream right now? How would your experience of being alive differ from how you now live? Flesh out the details of the dream and enjoy them fully.
Oh - and please remember that we don't need to wait until the final act to reap the benefits of our dream. Simply stepping onto the path toward it brings us its freedom, its richness, its juice. And jumping in with both feet? Even better.
Your dream has within it all the instructions necessary to make it real. Your job is to pay close attention to its guidance.
Once you have dusted off your dream, honor it by keeping it close at hand. Invite yourself to visit your dream often, and take away the yummy feelings generated by your connection to it. Share it with those you love. Tell it to strangers. Feed it – it wants to live.