Dream Seeds

“Never underestimate the power of dreams and the influence of the human spirit. We are all the same in this notion: The potential for greatness lives within each of us.” 

~Wilma Rudolph, first American woman runner to win three gold medals at a single Olympics. 1940-1994 

A dream is an ephemeral thing and easily vanishes in the hard light of day. The practical necessities of life make dreams seem flimsy and futile and it is easy to give up.

Ironically it is the purpose of dreams to give us the wider vision to see beyond our present limitations. It is the very ability to dream and create a different future that makes us human.

Cultivate your dreams…

Because the power of thought is so vital to making a dream a reality, it is essential to find ways to nurture our dreams until they become as real and tangible as anything else in the world. This can be easy when you are in a high-energy state and when things seem to be running smoothly in your life, but when you’re feeling low or the world seems to be offering you nothing but resistance, it’s harder to hang on to those all important dreams. Dreams, like seeds waiting for the right circumstances to germinate, must be protected and cultivated.

Envision your dreams…

One of the easiest ways of nuturing your dreams is to give them more power by grounding them in an image. A very effective way to do this is to create a visionboard. Visionboarding is easy and fun and does not require artistic skills; it’s simply creating a collage of found images that resonate with your dreams.

Find old magazines, calendars or any print material you have and clip out images that appeal to you. Once you’ve assembled a number of images, crop and glue them onto a large sheet of poster board. Be creative! You can include re-arranged text from magazine ads and piece together phrases from different copy to suit you.

Visualize your end goals…

Another way to nurture your dreams is to create a series of steps to make those dreams materialize. One way to do that is to imagine your dream coming to fruition in say, two years. Close your eyes and imagine that you are in that place—that it has already happened. If, for example, you wanted to start your own graphic design business, picture yourself in a studio with high-end computers and software. Picture your clients coming in the door.

Make a plan…

Now, how did you get there? Go back to the step just before the studio was set up. How did you achieve this? What had to happen? Your loan from the bank was approved? Great! Write that down. Now, how did you get the bank manager to agree to lend you the money? Did you write an iron-clad business plan? Perhaps you secured a long-term contract with a large and prestigious company? Wonderful! How did that happen? You had set up meetings with a wide variety of companies and wooed them with your incredibly creative portfolio.

There you have the rungs of the ladder on your climb to success. Make a list of targets. Find out how to reach them. Make a feasible business plan and use it to secure financing… whatever it takes; work backwards from your dream vision and list the steps along the way.

Make a timeline…

Do you see how easy it is to ground your vision and give it some substance? Now fill in the timelines for each step you’ll take to make your dream happen. Be realistic and hold yourself accountable. Separate your long-term from your short-term; short-term can be daily and weekly goals. Do both! Long-term goals cover sixth months to five years.  It never hurts to see where you’ll be in a decade and infuse that image with your highest hopes. But, make today’s goals fit what you can accomplish and set yourself up for success!

Nurture growing dreams…

You have just successfully transplanted a seedling dream into the earth. Pretty soon—with regular care—you should see some budding shoots poking their way into your life.