Post #59- Dream, Dreamer....Dream!

-      --- A few years ago I found myself very unhappy. I had began a job that I initially loved. My director became like a second mom, however when she retired to take care of an ill husband, a new sheriff came to town with whom I did not see eye to eye. This led me to quitting my job in full dramatic fashion while leaving me with no job, no career, my personal relationships in shambles, my spirit restless and with no sense of direction. Soon after I was blessed to be in Hawaii for vacation with a conviction that I needed to get “clear.” While there I asked myself two important questions 1) Ray, where have you been? Meaning, what has led you to this place and what have you contributed to it? 2) Where are you going? In other words, what’s your plan to move forward. So, as I sat on the veranda of our resort, listening to the ocean waves crash on the rocks and feeling the cool sea breeze, I was determined to get “clear.”

-     ---  I believe it’s incredibly important to get clear. We must live on purpose not by accident. We don’t just want to make a difference in the world (our existence on the planet is already doing that) but make the world different. When we are our best selves, we make others their best selves, being the change thereby causing and creating the change. But it all begins with getting clear.

-      --- Getting clear is so important. I’m a career and life coaching for Texas Workforce Solutions and with my workshop participants I always insist that everyone should be clear on the difference between a job and a career …..and on the three different jobs/careers we can have. 

1.     “Dream Job”- Don’t be afraid to believe and speak our heart’s desire. Get clear on your dream (for me, it’s to write books and lecture/teach/preach around the world).

2.     “I Could Do It If I had To”- I don’t really want to do that, but ummm, I would if I had to (for me, it’s teaching middle school again)

3.     “Oh Lord Jesus, No!”- Only if my children and I were on the side of the road starving would I resort to that (because I don’t like weather, it would a job in road construction…Lord, please no! Lol)

-      --- I was sharing this, just Tuesday, and I had a young lady tell me that so many of her classmates have incorrectly prioritized these…many of them becoming strippers, or in her words going to the “Oh Lord Jesus, No!” category before reaching higher to their dream.

-       ---And then it dawned on me, fact of the matter remains….while our teachers and parents and mentors have loved us, many of them have not taught us how to dream. We Must WAKE UP…and DREAM!!

-       ---We mustn’t allow fear of being hurt or the fear of failure to paralyze us from dreaming. Get clear about your purpose and make some steps…. any steps to move in that direction. Dream DREAMER, Dream!

-       FOUR Steps to Dreaming a Bigger Dream:

1.     Get Clear on What You See: Change your Perception

·      We are not the victim of circumstances (circum-stare..how we see that which circles or surrounds you) you are a victor over them.

·      “When You Change the Way You Look at Things, the Things you look at Change.”

·      Is it a challenge or an opportunity? Was that last relationship a disaster or a good lesson learned? How do you see it?

2.     Get Clear on What You Say: Tell a New Story

·      When we begin to see ourselves and circumstances differently we create a new and profound relationship with and interpretation of reality. When our perception changes, we can then re-present and re-construe and re-construct the meaning of ourselves and what is…and thereby tell our stories differently.

3.     Get Clear on Your Passion: For Your Purpose is your Passion.

·      Joseph Campbell (mythologist, author, scholar) tells us to Follow Our Bliss, so get clear on your passion…not your parents’ passion or your good judy’s (friend’s) passion or society’s passion…but YOUR passion. Don’t get trapped by the expectations of others. We didn’t come here to fit but to stretch.

·      We are no closer to God than through Self-Actualization. When you are being and becoming your full self, who and what God created and destined, you are therefore in the flow, right slab-dab in the middle of God’s shekinah Glory. When you are functioning in your passing and therefore doing and being you, God will show up and peform in you, thru you, to you, for you, and AS you.

·      So, the question remains, what do you believe about you…and how can you self-actualize and become actually, factually, functionally and punctually yourself? Are you living your accidental selves or who you really are?

4.    Get Clear on Your Responsibility: Take Control of Your Own Life.

·      We are co-creators with God.  This thing called life will work if you work it!

In closing…Don’t be afraid of you! If you’re at a crossroads, all paths lead to and through you.  How do you experience you? Who are you and who are you becoming? You are not what happened to you, you are who you choose to become? Get Clear and Dream, Dreamer Dream!!!