Wake up your inner dreamer

Wake Up Your Inner Dreamer

By Doe Zantamata

For a dream to become a dream come true, it has to start with you.  

For many of us, we hear talk about “live your dreams” or “go for your dreams,” but what if you’re not quite sure what that dream is exactly?

Start with you.

When you were little, what did you like doing that could really hold your attention? What were you most interested in before people started asking you (or telling you) what, of a small select admirable range of jobs, would you like to “be” when you grew up?

Or how about now? What are you curious about? What do you spend your money on that you consider to be a necessity but others may not think so? What do you have more knowledge about than most other people you know? If you’ve ever thought “if I ever won the lottery, I would…” how do you finish that sentence?

Your interests and your life experiences are unique to you. There is not a single person in the world who has lived the life you have lived. This fact is key.

We live in a world where technology has made dreams much more accessible to millions of people. You don’t have to have a huge investment to start a company or to get the word out. You don’t have to leave your living room to visit YouTube or Google and learn everything under the sun about how to do what you want to do, or to read stories about people who have succeeded in the modern world.

Initiating a dream requires only two things. Initiating a dream cannot occur without two very important things. They are, the root and the gift.

1. The root

Think of the root of what it is that you love. Is it something creative, or something appreciative? Is it telling stories, or music, or fitness…or is it watching movies, or looking at beautiful artwork?

Be who you are, by expanding on what you love.

2. The gift

Next, think about how you can offer something to the world based on your root. This is your gift to the world. Maybe it’s a service, or maybe it’s a product, but there is some way to combine the root with the gift. Say for example, you love looking at artwork. You browse art online, or visit galleries, and have learned quite a bit about styles and trends. Above that, you just plain have good taste. There are a lot of artists out there who know only how to create. They spend most of their time doing that. So, you could seek out artists, small names with huge talent, who could really use promotion (especially free promotion). You could contact them and ask if you could showcase their work on your new blog. Blogs are free to set up through google, (www.blogger.com) and depending on what words you use in the descriptions that you write, others who are searching for original and unique artwork will find their way to your blog more often than others. This would combine what you love to do, the root, with the gift to the artists to have their work seen by more people, and the gift to other people who could see more beautiful artwork that they may not otherwise see.

When it’s something you love, money is the icing on the cake. Even without any financial reward, it’s fun to do and brightens every day. So even if money takes forever and a day to make its way into the picture, success will already be yours. Money would only afford you more time to devote to doing what you already do.

But how could money fit into the art scenario? Well, it could come in many different forms…it may be that you place ads on your blog, and it becomes so popular that right there is the income to give you financial freedom. Or, it could be that you think of a way to become an agent of sorts for unknown artists and contact people on their behalf, and set up gallery showings or even sales of their work for a commission. Ways will make themselves known to you. With an open mind and an acceptance of income without guilt for doing what you love, it will come sooner or later.

That last sentence may be worthy of repetition…a lot of people feel guilty about accepting money for doing what they love to do. They sometimes even refuse it or reject even the possibility of income from it. Receiving money for your passion does not in any way cheapen your passion. If you’re only doing something for money, it will never be wholly satisfying. If you do what you love and earn money at the same time, you have more time to both do what you love, and to be of more service to others who appreciate and need it. It’s not selfish to allow yourself the possibility of not having to work a “real job” to support yourself and limit your passion to hobby status. In fact, if you’ve combined the root with the gift, it’s very selfless to do so. Think of money not as money, but as freedom. Always welcome the opportunity for more freedom.

You may have heard the quote by Theodore Roosevelt, “Do what you can, from where you are, with what you have.”

You can start now. You don’t need to wait for the lottery. You don’t need to suddenly devote all your time for anything to happen. Most successful businesses spend a lot of time learning, researching, and even failing before they found their footing.

Time spent with an open mind and an intention of combining your root with your gift is precious. Even only a few minutes a day will open your mind further and get it thinking more in the direction that you want to go. Plus, giving yourself that precious time will reawaken that childhood spark of excitement and curiosity within you. That spark may have been sitting quietly, patiently waiting for a long, long time. All you have to do to reignite it is believe. All you have to do to encourage its growth is devote some time to it whenever possible…even if it’s only a few minutes per day.

Every moment spent in the direction of your dreams is worthwhile moment of life.

- Doe Zantamata

Have you read Doe's book on Karma yet? This book is an eye-opener and a life changer!