Dare to Dream

I decided this year to face my fears!  My fears were standing in the way of achieving my goals and living a better life.  My biggest fear was my DREAMS.  I was afraid of how large they were and how difficult achieving them would be.  I realized that far too long I was sitting back and living my life according to what it should be instead of what I wanted it be.  This was the result of my expectation that everyone would understand my goals and support me.  It was difficult for me to understand that everyone was viewing the world through their own eyes.  What was good for me may or may not have been what was good for another.  Once I realized and accepted this I begin to embrace my own dreams, goals, and ambitions.  I dared myself to dream.  I dared to believe the impossible was possible.  So the journey began.

Stay the course.  The pursuit of ones dream is a road that is unique to every traveler.  Consistency and perseverance are critical characteristics necessary as we pursue or goals and dreams.  Motivation and endurance are key traits that many of us fail to realize dwells within in us.  We question and doubt our abilities to stay the course and often lose focus on our journey.  Thankfully, each day we are given an opportunity to try again; we're given the opportunity to achieve what was unachievable previously.  In pursuit of our dreams we must embrace every encounter, difficulty, and achievement are thrust upon us in order to gain the wisdom necessary for the next leg of our journey.

"Don't let your excuses be bigger than your dreams."

Be Courageous.  The difficulty in personal success is finding the courage to confront our fears.  Everything we desire lies on the other side of that which we fear.  You can't land your dream job being afraid to take the first step; whether it's soliciting a new employer, enrolling in school, or launching your new business venture.  Be confident and step outside of your comfort zone, this is where your success and achievements dwell.   Learn to take those fearful first steps in stride and accept that sometimes you will succeed and sometimes you will learn a valuable lesson.  

Keep going.  For some getting started is pretty easy, for most staying the course is obstacle.  Learn to keep going, don't give up.   Find the confidence within yourself  to know that through persistence your efforts will eventually become the success you dream of.  Rest, if you must but don't quit.  

Be of service to others.  Your journey and experience can be the motivation and encouragement that others need.  Remember that when you started, you sought the expertise of those whom have succeeded before you.  We are all integral elements in the circle of life, when we help others we are in turn helping ourselves.  Even if you have just started pursuing your dreams there is someone who has not yet started; open your heart, lean on your faith and extend your hand to help another.  Learn to see the light in others, even when they can't see it in themselves; treat them as if that is all you see.  Our jobs are not to judge; our jobs are not to determine who deserves something.  Our jobs is to encourage, motivate, heal, and restore.  Don't add to the broken people in the world, help with the healing.  

The road that leads to our goals and dreams will take us places, give us new experiences, and reveal strengths we didn't know we possessed.  I encourage you to dare to dream, dare to dream that the impossible is possible.  

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Creative thinking

Creativity is something we all have.  It isn't just the ability to sing, create art or write. It's the act of thinking outside of the standard.  It's the ability to see things differently and to share those thoughts or ideas with the masses.  Gone are the days of teaching students what to think and memorizing multiple tables and diagrams.  The most successful academic programs are teaching students how to think.  How to use the mind to think outside of the box.  To probe new ideas, new understandings, and new methods.

When people think methodically they tend to think the same ideas with only slight altered changes.  When you think creatively you dream, you fantasize, you are able to think on another level.  Creative thinking has given us some of the greatest achievements and advancements we've seen.  If Henry Ford had asked the masses what they would like to see improved with the horse and buggy, they would've told him a faster horse.  Because he was thinking creatively he was able to envision something bigger and better.

"An idealist is one who, on noticing that a rose smells better than a cabbage, concludes that it will also make better soup." H. L. Mencken "Fantasies are more than substitutes for unpleasant reality; they are also dress rehearsals, plans. All acts performed in the world begin in the imagination." Barbara Harrison "Creativity is Intelligence Having Fun" Albert Einstein "Great is the human who has not lost his childlike heart." Mencius "Creativity, as has been said, consists largely of rearranging what we know in order to find out what we do not know. Hence, to think creatively, we must be able to look afresh at what we normally take for granted." George Kneller "Without the playing with fantasy no creative work has ever yet come to birth. The debt we owe to the play of imagination is incalculable." Carl Jung "Once we rid ourselves of traditional thinking we can get on with creating the future." James Bertrand

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