Are you thankful for your dreams? You should be. Your dreams come from inside you. Sure, they might be influenced by the world at large, but, they still flow from inside you.
So, on this day of Thanksgiving in the United States, remember that you should give thanks for more than just friends and family, good health, your home, or whatever else you are thankful for. Remember to be thankful for the dreams you have. When you honor your dreams in this way, it will further cement them in your heart and soul and make them that much easier to grow and follow.
Ok, you have a dream. Your heart is burning with a desire to see it through. You even understand the path you need to take to achieve your dream. But, there are one or more roadblocks. Maybe you don’t have the initial money you need to get started. Maybe a critical ingredient or part or other necessary component is not readily available. What do you do when you can’t achieve your dream by yourself?
Simple. Ask for help. Yes, you want to achieve your dream by yourself. The sense of accomplishment you get for seeing something difficult through to completion can never be beat. There is also a pride factor. It’s YOUR dream and you want to make it a reality so you can show the world what YOU can do. There is absolutely nothing wrong with these beliefs. After all, doing something that others don’t believe you can do, or even something that has never been done before always makes us feel accomplished and successful when we achieve what it was we set out to do.
But still, sometimes, in spite of our best intentions or abilities, we simply can’t do it alone. Guess what? It’s perfectly fine to ask for help. In all likelihood, you will find eager assistance from friends and family. Perhaps even from adversaries or “the competition”. Why? Because even in this world of “me before you” that we live in, most of us want to see and help others succeed. After all, not only does doing the impossible make you feel good, but helping someone else do something difficult or impossible is just as rewarding.
I would offer this one example of how an offering of help gave Sara Tucholsky, a softball playing college senior, her first home run, EVER. You see, in a late season game, she hit a home run with two runners on base. And, while running the bases, she missed tagging first base and turned to go back when she tore her right ACL. And, since she couldn’t run the bases, the home run wouldn’t count if her teammates tried to help her. That was when the opposing team’s first baseman and shortstop asked the Umpire if they could assist Sara. As they said, she hit the ball over the fence. She deserved to get her home run. They carried her around the bases, letting her gently touch each base as they passed it until they reached home plate and delivered Sara into the waiting arms of her teammates and coaches. Sara achieved a lifelong dream of hitting a home run because she got help, from adversaries no less!
The moral of the story??? Don’t be afraid to ask for help. If the offer of help is sincere, accept it. Don’t let pride or a stubborn desire to go it alone keep you from reaching your goal. And, by accepting an offer of help, you not only see your goal get a little closer, making you feel good inside, but the person offering their help gets to feel good for assisting someone in need. All in all, it’s a win-win for both of you.
Ok, so you have a dream. You believe in your dream. You have even started to make your dream come true. But, you find yourself developing excuses for not following through with your dream. Or, you find yourself being distracted by outside forces or even inner voices.
What do you do when your dream starts to feel like a chore? How do you keep the dream alive when life is conspiring against you? Here are a couple tips for keeping the dream alive while you “recharge” your batteries.
First, look to others for inspiration. You should be using Twitter, Facebook and other resources (blogs, etc) as tools to provide information or advice all the time. But, if you are at a stand-still with making your dream become a reality, reach out to these resources and read what others have done to get back on track. Ask a question or make a comment on one of the blogs you follow regularly. Find someone new to follow on Twitter that has an interest in whatever your dream “subject” is and then engage with them regarding your dream. Often, new perspectives or new insights will be all that is need to jumpstart your dream.
Second, simply force yourself to continue working on the dream. Maybe your dream is to write a novel, or paint a picture or go somewhere on vacation. Well, sometimes, you have a block or distraction that is preventing you from making progress. At times like this, you can sometimes power your way thru, by simply forcing yourself to carry on. Sit at the typewriter or computer and start writing the next chapter of your book. Who cares if it’s rough? Just start putting words on paper. I find that doing this will cause my brain to kick in and before I know it, I’m deep in thought and writing frantically to keep up with the ideas that are suddenly exploding from my brain.
So, whats the lesson here? Simple. Find inspiration from others, whether they are “old friends” or “new friends”. Or, simply start doing whatever your dream requires for fulfillment. Even if you don’t have an answer or idea, if you just start creating, your brain will get into gear and take you where you need to be.
One last thing: please feel free to comment. I read all comments and reply as needed. And, if you have any suggestions for people or sites that might make The Dream Shepherd a better place, please feel free to comment or email me with the link(s).
Ever felt like you don’t know what your true “dream” is supposed to be? Maybe you have several things you are passionate about but you can’t decide which to focus on. Perhaps you are following a dream but have recently realized it’s the wrong one. If you are lucky to have identified your dream and are already firmly committed to making it a reality, good for you. If you haven’t been blessed with the discovery of your dream, read on.
If you have yet to find your dream, don’t fret. Even the most ardent dreamer had to find the dream before they could make it real. Heck, until recently, my true “dream” was buried in my heart, hiding. It took a long conversation with a dear friend before it became apparent. And, even then, it was several days after this conversation before the dream got my attention. And, as I have mentioned, my dream is my desire to help people.
For me, helping others has always been a passion. However, I’m also rather shy so I let my shyness keep me from opening up and offering to help. It was a fear of being “in the spotlight” or “performing” in front of others. It’s still there, in fact. But, I have reached a point in my life where I understand that I don’t have to worry what others might think when I do the things that give me joy or allow me to give joy to others. And, so I am learning to let go and BE the person I am without regard to how it looks on the outside. If others can’t accept it, or think it’s funny, that is on them. I’m doing this because I believe it to be a good and worthwhile endeavour. If I can change the world, or give even one person hope that their dream matters, then I will have achieved my dream.
But, how do you find your dream? I can offer you these tips. They worked for me. Hopefully, they will work for you. If nothing else, they should be a guide as you find your way along the path to finding your dream:
Think about what makes you happy and make a list of those items. Does any of them stand out as being more important or worthwhile? If so, think more about that item and see if you can identify why it’s so important. Note that next to the item.
Talk to your friends and/or family. Ask them to point out when you seem the most eager or passionate about things you do or talk about. For instance, more than one friend has told me how much I light up when talking about this site and my goals with it. Listen to that passion.
Once you have done the two steps above, relax and involve yourself with other things. Get back to work, read a book, do housework or yardwork. Just make sure to not concentrate on these lists and ideas. Your subconscious will start to meld the various parts together while you are distracted by the mundane.
If you are lucky, you’ll be knee deep in some task when your subconscious mind will knock on your conscious mind’s door and announce that it’s found your dream. When that happens, and I strongly believe it will, open your heart and receive the dream. Exalt in it and let it grow. You’ll soon find boundless energy and a drive to keep that dream alive. Trust me. I’ve made more progress on mine because I realized how important my dream was to my being. It’s simply a matter of letting your heart guide your feet on the path. Once you find your dream, the excitement it generates in your soul will compel you to act. No doubt, you’ll soon be sharing it with your friends and family.
This is a good place to be. Welcome. Your dream is safe with us.
I have wanted to post for about a week now. Unfortunately, inspiration seems to leave me when I sit at the keyboard. I have had so many great ideas in the shower, in the car, while drifting off to sleep. And, I’m not the kind of person to keep a pad of paper and pen or a memo recorder handy for these times even though I carry my iPhone (which has both a notepad AND a memo recorder, not to mention the Wordpress app) with me wherever I go, aside from IN the shower!
Thats when it hit me. Often times, our dreams get pushed aside or simply ignored when we don’t take the time or make the effort. We may have the greatest idea or inspiration. Or maybe an incredible talent or ability. But, we suffer from a fear of the unknown, a lack of motivation to start, worry about the details (money, time, etc) or in my case at times, inspiration when it’s inconvenient or a lack of inspiration when I try to “force” myself to be inspired. These are all simply excuses. Excuses give us an “out” to avoid the “work” of doing difficult things. Excuses allow us to put the blame on other things when in reality WE are at fault for not following through or making the effort.
So, how do we combat the excuses? There are many ways of doing this. Sometimes, you just need to start. Maybe you want to write a poem or story but have no inspiration. Just sitting down and writing, anything, will get the juices flowing and before you know it – BANG! – your mind takes over and you’ve filled three pages with excellence. Maybe you want to open a pastry shop but don’t know how to start. Find a local shop and go ask the owner how he or she started. Maybe you have an idea for a service to help the elderly but don’t know how to implement it. Go talk to the director of a retirement community or home. In other words, find solutions. They’re all around you when you open your eyes and your ears and your heart.
As you can see, one of my “recommended links” points to the incredible blog Zen Habits by Leo Babauta. He often posts about motivation and making your life something incredible. This is his take on defeating the excuses and finding the motivation to realize your dream. Zen Habits is one of the inspirations for this site. His ideas have really helped me to see what my “dream” was/is and how to make it a reality. I highly recommend his blog for more inspiration and life lessons.
Welcome to The Dream Shepherd. This site is dedicated to helping people find and follow their dreams and aspirations. We offer encouragement and, hopefully, useful information and/or links to help you on your journey to fulfilling your dreams.
Please excuse the scarcity of posts and information. I just launched this endeavor last night (10/9/2009) so things are a bit “new” around here. But, rest assured, the shine will be off the handles in a few weeks and it will feel homey and comfy in no time.
A quick word about me: my name is Les Gebhardt. At 44, I’ve been around long enough to have had many dreams and to see most of them fade out of existence. My college background includes a BA in History and quite a few classes in Computer Science. I work as a programmer for a company specializing in software solutions that provide information and finance support in the healthcare industry, particularly with hospitals and providers. I have no real training in psychology or marketing or any other field related “self help”. What I have is a passion for helping others and a desire to change the world.
What I hope to accomplish here is simply to help folks turn their dreams into reality. I truly believe we are all “here” to do something grand. The trick is to find it and make it happen. I have recently used Twitter to find people with inspirational stories, blogs, and such and found them to be quite rewarding to read and follow on a daily basis. My hope is to join them and even share their wealth of knowledge with my readers.
So, I invite you, dear reader, to sit back and relax and both take in what I have to say and share your thoughts as well. I welcome you to comment and suggest people, places, or sources of information you think might benefit others or even myself. This is, in fact, MY dream – to be a beacon of encouragement to people that might feel like they’re drowning in a sea of negativity or doubt (whether external or internal). So, by following along or even utilizing what I hope to offer, you will be helping me fulfill my dream. A win-win for all of us!
Fatal error: Cannot redeclare class services_json in /home/content/w/g/o/wgopadmin/html/websites/TheDreamShepherd/wordpress/wp-includes/class-json.php on line 115
I have wanted to post for about a week now. Unfortunately, inspiration seems to leave me when I sit at the keyboard. I have had so many great ideas in the shower, in the car, while drifting off to sleep. And, I’m not the kind of person to keep a pad of paper and pen or a memo recorder handy for these times even though I carry my iPhone (which has both a notepad AND a memo recorder, not to mention the Wordpress app) with me wherever I go, aside from IN the shower!