“We come this way but once. We can either tiptoe through life and hope that we get to death without being too badly bruised or we can life a full, complete life achieving our goals and realizing our wildest dreams” ~ Bob Proctor
“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” ~ Mary Oliver
There is a voice speaking to you constantly, telling you what your deepest dreams are. This is a soft, quiet voice. One that you may not know even exists right now. This voice may speak to you in the moments in the morning before you get up. It might speak to you in those fleeting and rare times where your head is clear of the thoughts you are thinking to manage your current life.
This soft, subtle, sweet voice is the key to identifying the dreams that would give you the most joy and deepest feelings of fulfillment. We live in a culture that teaches us to not listen to this voice.
This voice is not be trusted because it:
-Doesn’t fit in to your current life
-Is suggesting a much different path than what you are currently on
-Might make others around you upset
-Involves taking risks that feel scary to even think about, much less take action on!
-Is not convenient with your current life and path
-Would cause you to disrupt an OK life, one that you know you “should” be grateful for
Yet the voice is very, very patient. It will not go away despite your amazing strategies for drowning it out.
Strategies like:
-Staying so busy that there is no quiet time to know this voice even exists
-Keeping focused on making sure those you love are happy and living their dreams
-Getting physically sick so it takes all of your attention and focus
-Creating drama in one or more areas of your life, so you never get a moments breathing space to ask “What do I REALLY want in my life?”
The voice that I am talking about that is connected to the deepest part of you is the voice of your Authentic Self, your Spirit.
It is with you each and every moment and it has deep clarity about what it wants. It is not confused, it is not unsure, it is not afraid. It has crystal, clear clarity about what it wants in this moment as well as the bigger dreams for every area of your life.
Just breathe into that for a moment. “Wow, the deepest part of me knows what I want right now and knows what it wants for my future!” Let this knowing and awareness sink in because this is related to my first tip for you to begin to get unstuck and live your Wildest dreams!
#1. Embrace that you know in this moment what your wildest dreams are. There can be a false belief that this is something we have to explore, experiment or have contemplative time. I believe that our Spirit knows exactly what are dreams are and is our guiding light for the most fulfilling life. Stop making it much more complicated and complex than it really is. Breathe into the space that you know the truth of your wildest dreams like you do the back of your hand.
#2. So you may be asking at this point. So Shelley if I have this depth of clarity of my wildest dreams than why don’t I know what they are right now?? Here is the thing, and this is very key when you have BIG DREAMS. You have a Conditioned part of you, a protective part of you that developed as a young child to keep you safe. This part of you helped you to navigate the fears and limited thinking you felt from your parents, from school and from the culture at large. You had to tuck your Authentic Self, your BIG dreamer aside and put it underground. Your Conditioned Self took over and it’s main job was to silence the voice of your Authentic Self because it didn’t want it to get hurt anymore.
So here is Tip #2-You must begin to recognize and distinguish your Conditioned Self from the voice of your Authentic Self. They are two dramatically different voices. This is what I teach in my Certification Training Programs and this exercise alone is incredibly transformative. Finally you will see that the main voice you have been listening to has been the fears of your Conditioned Self.
I remember years ago sitting with a Client in a Session and he looks up at me with a depth of clarity and determination and said “I know I am meant to be doing something bigger with my life, I can feel it. I just don’t know what it is”. He actually did know. What was blocking him from being aware of it in that moment is that his Conditioned Self was not prepared to handle the knowing of his wildest dream. It was so far beyond his current comfort zone, so far beyond his current self-perception; so far beyond what anyone around him would believe was possible for him. It took him time to distinguish the fears of his Conditioned Self and to prepare himself to really know and have conscious awareness of his dreams, but he did it!!
#3. Once you let your wildest dreams come into your Conscious Awareness you must take concrete action to reach your wildest dream. If you can think of it like you are a Loving Parent of your Authentic Self and your Authentic Self wants to take a painting Workshop in Italy.
Here is what will happen when you first contemplate your wildest dream. Your Conditioned Self will get very activated and will say things like:
“How are you ever going to do that?”
“How are you going to take time off from work?”
“Who will watch the kids, I have never been away for that long?”
“How could I afford it?” etc.
That is what the Conditioned Self does, it is there to maintain the status quo and not taking any risks so it will use ANY argument to stop you in your tracks. And it knows the most effective ones to put the kabash on your dreams, because remember it has been doing this for years!!
Here is the key. As a loving parent to your Authentic Self your job is to take positive, consistent action to reach your wildest dream, no matter what the outcome will be. This is really honoring and listening to the truest part of you. At the same time you need to reassure the Conditioned Self that you are going to handle all the perceived fears it thinks will happen and say to it instead “Instead of really bad things happening from pursuing this dream, really AMAZING things are going to happen, I promise!”
This is the process I have guided 100’s of my Clients to do over the years which has allowed them to create extraordinary lives of living their wildest dreams!!
Here is to you living your WILDEST DREAMS!!
