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Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781452545738 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Balboa Press |
| Publication date: | 05/22/2012 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 104 |
| File size: | 3 MB |
Read an Excerpt
Want YOUR DREAMS
A POCKET PRACTICE BOOKBy SEAN O'LEARY
Balboa Press
Copyright © 2012 Sean O'LearyAll right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4525-4572-1
Chapter One
Preliminary to Your Dreams DREAM GUIDELINES
Make sure your dreams are desirable to YOU. They may evolve in the future, but whatever they are now; own them or change them to ones you can own. It is very important to decide your dreams. Choose your dreams regardless of scope, likelihood, opinions of others and especially regardless of any limiting thoughts of your own, if you have any about them. The first important thing is that they are what YOU want. Examine them and ask yourself, "What if ...?" Write them down on paper or on a computer and look at them in "black and white." Decide which ones are really for you.
Don't compare your dreams to other people's dreams in a negative or competitive context. The future is open for anyone to mold. One of the beauties of life is in its diversity. Different people often want different things. No one's dream is better than another's; your dreams are your dreams and another's are another's. You take on now, what you can take on now. At some point in the future, your viewpoints may expand and you can reassess what you want to take on at that time. For now, they're your dreams and there is no comparison required.
Don't belittle your dreams if they don't seem as great as others' and don't aggrandize them if they seem greater. Big and small; it's just not part of the equation. "Desirable to ME" or "Not desirable to ME" is the only fundamental comparison involved. Just recognize that they are "MY dreams" and that "I want them."
Don't adopt dreams because of peer pressure or keeping up with your neighbour. Really consult with yourself as the final say in the matter. Be true to your integrity on this point. That your peers or neighbours may look at you in a better light as a result of you accomplishing your dreams, is merely a pleasing side dish at the pot-luck you're creating to nourish your soul.
A great phenomenon of life is the core similarity we find in the people we meet. Different people sometimes want the same things we want. Dreaming of things that others may want can still be YOUR dreams. Adopting another's dream in a joint effort can still be considered YOUR dream. Sometimes joint dreams have a better chance of realization, simply because they are generally more out in the open, resulting in them being better defined than if they were more loosely bouncing around inside our heads.
Be healthfully selfish in making sure your dreams are going to result in you having what you want. YOU are important here. Others do come into play, but we're talking about YOUR dreams.
That being said, it is beneficial to align your dreams so that everyone involved gains in some way as a result of their accomplishment. Keep your dreams compassionate in this way and spread the wealth, so to speak. On the one extreme; living alone with loads of stuff, accomplishments, no friends and scads of enemies is not a pretty picture. On the other end, living with loved ones, with loads of stuff, accomplishments and scads of friends would be more appealing to the common core I know we share as humans and spiritual beings. The specific dream is not in question here, just that there are some common end results that will go along with any dream well chosen. Increased personal well-being and increased well-being of your relationships with loved ones and friends are your primary indicators. In fact, they are mutually inclusive.
Keep in mind that you may find yourself with ill-chosen friends or relationships that might be shed in the pursuit of dreams and life improvement. However, you can expect to encounter new friends and relationships that are more aligned with the well-being of all concerned.
Here are some important points to consider in relation to how you envision your path to and arrival at your dreams' fruition:
• Life is to be lived and enjoyed.
• The pursuit of dreams is the activity that brings the real joy of life.
• Your dreams are not an end in themselves.
• The accomplishing of your dreams are stepping stones to new levels of existence.
• The final accomplishment of a dream is an ideal launching-point to an even happier you.
• A dream that ends in you not having to do anything else in life is a dead-end dream; life is for the living, fun is to be had, there can always be an enjoyable game afoot!
• Consider, recognize and intend that once your current dream is accomplished, you will want to adopt others; and that you will progressively find yourself in a better position to do so.
Change is inevitable, so you may as well change for the better. And you may as well choose change that is enjoyable to go through. However, don't let your dreams shed a negative context on your current life in the sense that you are dreaming yourself "out" of something bad. Dream yourself "in" to something improved. This is a vital nuance of thought! It may seem like six of one and half a dozen of the other. It may seem like an irresolvable dilemma. But it is very important that you understand and apply this point when it comes to establishing your dreams. Any negative built into a dream siphons off its power at the source.
Recognize the good things in your current life and align your dreams as an improvement on them; not as replacements of unwanted things. Keep your focus on the improvement in its own right and not on any comparison to some undesirable present condition. Again, this is a vital nuance of thought. There may not seem to be any difference; but there is a world of difference! This requires focus, especially if you have a tendency towards pessimism. Consider yourself as a young horse, with plenty of horsepower who just needs to be tugged in the right direction, for long enough, until you finally go in that direction as a natural occurrence or from only a slight nudge.
Now, what I have to say next might seem like a contradiction of the above, but bear with me. If it weren't for your current circumstances (good and bad), the dreams of what you now want would hold no desire for you. I repeat; if it weren't for your current circumstances, the dreams of what you now want would hold no desire for you. Meaning, unwanted conditions do influence the direction of what you now find that you want; and the good things you have in your life influence it also. Less of the bad is an inevitable by-product of following your dreams to more of the good. Following dreams to less of the bad things has a negative or subtractive result; nothing really gained just something removed. Most important to recognize is that the good things in your life are the yardstick against which you will be measuring your success. The accomplishment of a dream towards more of something that you are now aware of as good, results in something gained and something added to your life. More of the good things, yeah!
Your dreams are a logical and natural progression from where you are now to an improved state of existence. Wherever you are now in your life is your only frame of reference to determine what you would like to experience in the future. Except for the common thread of love and friendship in all our hearts; the direction of your dreams will be as individual as you are and as individual as the circumstances you experience in the world around you. They are your path to get deeper into the activity and joys of life; they are your path to realizing your creative influence on the future.
Your dreams provide a walking path No need for fight or aftermath. Just take your steps, be true to self And walk on to YOUR kind of wealth.
Don't be concerned by slight or jeers Keep YOUR dreams and not your peers'. Don't swell your head or bare your chest Just be yourself and be your best.
Take them with you, friend and foe So all of you might learn and grow. And gather all in fields of sun And celebrate all that you've done.
Recognizing how you've grown, You look again to fields unknown. Though certain path cannot be seen Adventure means the same as dream.
Enjoy your new surprise and turn. Revel in the things you learn. Keep those lessons, boil to cream, And build the path to your next dream.
Chapter Two
Concurrent with Your Dreams YOUR CURRENT LIFE
Appreciating and enjoying your current life is of utmost importance to following your dreams. This cannot be understated. You have to take actions to appreciate and enjoy the good things in your current life; otherwise your dreams will act as an affront to your life instead of a progression.
You don't want to be following your dreams with your attention focused on the undesirable things in your life. Inevitably, actions towards your dreams will start reminding you of them. Following your dreams, then, would become equated with thoughts of the unwanted things in your life. The exact opposite of what they are!
Following your dreams is an improvement on the good things in your life, whatever those things are. Better food, closer friends, more love, more money, more stuff ... Following your dreams while appreciating the things about your life that you enjoy reminds you that there ARE things in life that you enjoy. The activity then becomes associated with the good in your life; the present and imminent increase of that. It doesn't have to be megalomaniacal! Increasing the good in your life is personal and not subject to qualification except that there is more of something that is good by your definition. It is an expansion or progression towards more of the things or conditions that are good and desirable.
This can be subtle. On one hand you have this wonderful dream; yet thoughts of how this or that undesirable thing that exists in your life now may keep popping up. While you have your attention on these things, at the same time, a multitude of great things, right there in front of you, can go by undetected. Focusing too long on unwanted conditions basically puts blinders on you, preventing you from seeing the beauty in your current environment as well as from seeing golden opportunities to further your dreams and worse, preventing you from seeing yourself as the dynamo that you are. It has a narrowing effect on your imagination and on what you may think is possible for you.
On the other hand, focusing on what is good in your life has the effect of opening up your eyes to more good and opening up your imagination to the possibility of more good. You become alert to goodness and a goodness hound! You see more of it and so you become aware, with certainty, that an abundance of it exists. It makes the possibility of an increased goodness in your life more real and therefore, easy to envision; giving you more confidence and understanding of the truth in your ability to increase goodness in your life through the accomplishment of your dreams.
To increase the good in your life, you have to have a keen awareness of what good is around you; you have to be alert to the channels good travels on. The best way to do that is to actively examine the good all around you. Seek it out, dig it up, look deeper under each stone; keep your eyes and heart open for it. Pick up some of those barnacled, seaweed-covered shells, crack them open and find some pearls.
The easiest way to maximally enjoy your current life is very simple, yet there is no shortcut to it. It is easy, but; it has to be DONE. Meaning you have to DO IT! No one can do this for you and reading it in a book is not enough to get you the results. You have to regularly put your attention on the positive aspects of your current existence, throughout each day. This includes your external environment, your body, your mind and you. It IS as simple as this! And if you don't already have certainty about that, all you have to do is spend more time finding and appreciating the good things around you than you spend focusing on unwanted things around you. You will discover your certainty about it.
Now I know that sometimes, looking for the good around you feels impossible; for example, in a moment when something bad is in your face. We all feel this, and always will. We are not wooden and unfeeling beings, but the length of time we spend focusing on something bad in front of our faces, should be very short in comparison to the length of time we spend focusing on the good that's around us. The good keeps going on while we are mired down in the bad. It never stops; it's always there for the seeing. At those rough times, we've just turned away from it. Train yourself to allow the examination of the bad for shorter and shorter times before turning back to the good that is there waiting for you to return. It is your rightful relief from the bad, but more importantly, it is your right to experience joy in the beauty that exists all around you.
Look for that beauty that is around you, seek it out and take the time to contemplate and admire its wonder. Allocate time in your day to do this. Do it regularly and throughout the day.
Looking at a passing bird may not be enough to fully appreciate the miracle that just flew by; take time to consider the ramifications of what all is in your environment and the miraculous conditions necessary for them to be there. Ask yourself, "How does it know which seeds to eat?", "How can it be so very accurate in its flying to weave in and out of bushes and trees?", "How does it know the method of cleaning its feathers?", "How does it know that cleaning its feathers is important?" Miracle, miracle, miracle, miracle! It doesn't take long to come up with a genuine understanding that we are witnessing fantastic phenomena every time we look out the window. We don't have to fully understand the answers to these questions for them to lead us to the realization of the true wonders that exist in front of our noses. Ask these questions (and more) for a while; soon, just the sight or sound of a bird will make your heart sing praises to the beauty and organization of life. You will break out smiling like you're on the inside skinny of a wonderful secret!
The trees, the squirrels, the clouds, the blue sky, the rain, the sun, the moon, the stars; all miracles if you take more than a passing look, but take the time to let their details penetrate your awareness by simply spending time with your attention on them, in appreciation. Ask questions about their nature. Look at them until you come up with something to wonder about. The wonders are there and there is joy in witnessing them. Be patient but diligent in this. Find the things to appreciate by taking the time to look until you start to wonder about something. Ask yourself, "What is beautiful here in front of me?" And don't stop looking until you come up with an answer.
Savor a good meal. Actually take the time to put your attention on the lovely details of the tastes, textures and smells. Taste the beautiful results of combining some foods in your mouth. Admire the colouring and shapes of the food on your plate. Really put your attention on these things and extract the beauty, satisfaction and joy from them. Consider that everything which makes up that tomato once existed only as potential in a seed; the patterns of growth necessary for that delicious food were encoded in a tiny nugget of organic matter. Consider the energy received from it into your body, another miracle of fantastic detail. Really dig in and see the beauty in everything we are involved in. There's a LOT!
Appreciate the good things about yourself and your mind. You have accomplished things in the past, admire that about yourself. It is testament to your abilities. Let yourself know on a regular basis that you can depend on yourself to take the actions towards your dreams as they become apparent to you. Exercise your "child's eye" to look at the world with endless possibilities for the future and endless wonders in the present; knowing that they are yours with just your decision of choice. Nurture your confidence in yourself by looking at the good things in the life that you have now; the result of your good choices in the past.
A flighty bird, a stoic tree, A lolling herd, a buzzing bee, A running rill, a hidden vale, A rolling hill, a beaten trail.
A clump of stars, the sun at noon, The round red Mars, a full lit moon. The Ocean's reign, a wind in wail A pour of rain, a pelt of hail,
A lazy walk, a break-neck run, Consoling talk or jokes in fun, A bask in sun, a nap in shade, A job well done, a choice well made.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Want YOUR DREAMS by SEAN O'LEARY Copyright © 2012 by Sean O'Leary. Excerpted by permission of Balboa Press. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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