The 25 Keys to Dreaming Big
By David Finkel Dream no small dreams for they have no power to move the hearts of men. –Goethe Everything happens because of a dream. If youre not living your dream, youre living someone elses dream. Look at a normal life for the average person today. You get up earlier than you really want to because the alarm goes off. Rush through a work-out (or wish you had time for one) and go to a job that occupies most of your working time. The dreams of your childhood are long past. Now, it’s about working, providing for a family, and maybe, someday, you’ll have some time for you. If youre working for someone else, chances are youre working on someone elses dream. Now heres the amazing part. The owner of the company might never have purposely chosen the course of his business, so its not even his dream. His mother always had the dream that someday her son would own his own business or his high school math teacher told him he was gifted in math and needed to do something in that field. He might have married someone his family told him he should marry (through spoken or unspoken comments and actions), lived in a city and neighborhood where someone else thought he should live and work. It’s a life of chance and passive coincidence. No wonder we go through midlife crises! Its our subconscious waking up and saying, Hey wait a minute! What happened to those great dreams we had once upon a time? Some people decide to start their own business in hopes that this is the way to personal freedom. The entrepreneurial spasm lasts long enough to quit a job and start working for their own business. But, for most people, they run their own business exactly the way they used to work a job. The difference is that instead of just one boss, they now have a whole lot of bosses to keep happy. We call them customers or clients. The business owner still has no control and still isnt following her deepest, most precious dreams. Ask yourself: If you have your own business, is it run exactly the way you want it to? If you work for someone else, are you living your highest purpose? Are you achieving what you wanted in your life right now? A big part to being a Maui Millionaire is purposely choosing the life you want to lead. Then its a matter of setting the game up so you get exactly what you want. If you dont choose where youre going, youll never get there. The dream is the beginning. Its the seed and spark that grows into a life of abundance and wealth. Rediscover Your Dreams As a child, we had dreams. They were in the language of children because we were children. Then we put aside many of those childish dreams and grew up. Of course, growing up meant that we followed what the adults around us said being a grown up was. We gave up on the big dreams. Instead, we started substituting goals for dreams. If you were raised in a typical American household, those goals had to do with success and money. They focused on the outer achievements, not on inner values and dreams. It’s pretty ironic that with the primary focus on those kind of achievements, more and more people find their wealth slipping away. Could it be that there is something fundamentally off with how the average person thinks about the future? Of course! And in this section of the book you’ll learn how to tap back into your real passion and purpose in life as you clarify your big dreams. The big dreams of a Maui Millionaire are not always brand new dreams. Youre not reinventing dreams. Youre rediscovering the dreams of your childhood. Now, though, youre doing it with the years of experience and education that allow you to use the language of adults, with the heart and faith of a child. Dream No Small Dreams If youre committed to going out there and pursuing a dream, make sure the dream is worthy of your time and attention. Seek the game worth playing. If your current life doesnt have a dream big enough to risk the game, then find one that does. Find a dream so juicy, so appealing, and so powerful that it compels you to work to reach it. It calls to you, sings to you, sinks its hooks into you and won’t let you go. Whats a dream that is so powerful that you will live part of your life for it? In the next few chapters, we’re going to look at how to rediscover the dreams you’ve had and then supersize them in Maui fashion to create something even bigger and bolder. We believe that you were born to do something great, and now it’s time to rediscover exactly what that greatness is! Dream Big! Corporations pay thousands of dollars to work on articulating their company vision. The corporate vision generally isnt just about making money. It’s about the deeper reasons why the business exists and the powerful passions that fuel the organization. The same is true for us. You have a personal vision as well. Sadly most of us dont bother to take the time and energy necessary to articulate our own vision — the dreams that make everything we do worthwhile. Without a dream to pursue, our spirit wilts and our soul shrinks. Your big dream is your personal vision that taps into the passion you have in your life. Passion is the energy of your heart. It drives you to perform at the highest possible level. It gives you the fuel to keep going when others around you quit. Passion dares you to ask more, to do more, to be more. Passion allows you to make mistakes, get knocked down, and get up for another round. Passion is the limitless energy that allows you to achieve extraordinary results. It’s the juice that makes life so sweet. What is so important to you that you would invest part of your life going after it without any direct reward or compensation, just because you felt so powerfully moved by that dream? Thats a first step in determining the dreams that arent just merely financial. If your most compelling desire right now is to create a certain amount of money or passive cash flow, ask yourself — why? Imagine you have all the money and financial success youve ever wanted, then what? When you achieve that level of wealth, what are you going to do with the money? Who is the person you dream of being? Thats how you can tap into the most compelling aspect to those dreams. Three Ways to Re-Discover Your Dreams Sometimes finding out what our dreams actually are can be the hardest part. Here are some ideas to jump start the process. Technique One: Do a dream download. Consider who would you love to be . . . what would you love to do . . . to have. Thats your passion. Think about what you are good at. Thats your talent. Reflect on whats most important to you. Those are your values. Now, what were you born to do? Thats your destiny. Take a blank piece of paper and put it in front of you. Set a timer or ask someone to time you for 10 minutes. Pick up a pen (not a pencil!) and write. You might make a list of dreams. Or you might describe your dream life. Or, perhaps you just answer the questions above. Whatever it is, keep writing. Don’t stop until the timer stops. Technique Two: Make a dream collage. Assemble a stack of magazines, blank poster board, a glue stick and a pair of scissors. Cut out pictures and create a poster of your dream life. Include pictures of whatever speaks to you. Supersize your dream collage. Get a few friends together and each work on the project individually. Each person will create a collage of his or her life today on one side of the poster board. Assemble a dream collage on the other side of the poster board that will show your life five years from now. Technique Three: Talk to your friends. Chances are your friends, family and business colleagues know things about you that you dont even know. We tend to look at ourselves through the eyes of others who have been critical of things weve done. Have you ever noticed how you remember the one bad comment you got about something you did and cant for the life of you remember the dozen good comments you received? Were conditioned to look for the fault in ourselves. That helps us find the things we need to improve on, but it also means that we overlook the things we do well. Spend a lifetime working on your faults and youll live a lifetime being mediocre. Instead look for those things that you have a talent for and that you are passionate about. Chances are the things you do well will unlock the secret of your dreams. How can you find out what those dreams are? Your friends might hold the answer — ask them. Send them a letter or e-mail and ask for their help. David Finkel is one of the nation’s most respected wealth masters. A former Olympic-level athlete, he is a self-made multimillionaire and the cocreator of Maui Mastermind, the world’s most exclusive wealth retreat. He is also the bestselling author of five financial books, including The Real Estate Fast Track, from Wiley, and his how-to financial articles have appeared in periodicals across the United States. Diane Kennedy, CPA, is a top financial author and investing expert. She is the founder and owner of DKA, a leading tax strategy and accounting firm. A past recipient of the prestigious Blue Chip Enterprise Award, Kennedy is also the author of Loopholes of the Rich and coauthor of The Insider’s Guide to Real Estate Investing Loopholes, both from Wiley. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=David_Finkel http://EzineArticles.com/?The-25-Keys-to-Dreaming-Big&id=362067 paycheck loan columbia sc business loan bad credit cash secured business loan payday loans installment no faxing no direct deposit needed
