Yesterday, I wrote about how the mind, body & spirit interact inside each one of us.  Continuing on for those of you with excellent discipline , I wanted to talk about something very dear to me:  wild dreams.

Wild dreams are a great part of our humanity.  To me, they make everything feel a little better about daily life.  We can always sit back and picture our wildest dreams to feel a little better about ourselves.  We always have our hopes and dreams which no one can ever take away from us.

It is these hopes and dreams that guide our young lives.

For example, when I was younger, I used to dream of being a baseball player.  It was something my Dad held dear, and it was the first sport I really learned to play.  I used to dream of what it would be like to be a big league ball player.  I remember as a little kid in Brooklyn, I got a chance to meet some of the World Champion 1986 New York Mets.  Mookie Wilson, Bud Harrelson, and Lee Mazzilli were invited to hand out trophies in my little league.

My Dad walked up with me to meet Lee Mazzilli.  Lee turned to hand me my trophy and stopped suddenly.  His face signaled recognition.  He said “Hey Pete, how are you?”  I was stunned.  My name was not on the trophy.  How did he know a little 8 year old from Brooklyn?  All of a sudden my Dad (also named Pete) sticks out his hand and says “Hey Lee, long time.”  In my amazement, my Dad and Lee began talking like old buddies.  I found out later that they played baseball together in Brooklyn most of their lives before my Dad got hurt in college.  He had never said a word about it to me before.

This was the first ‘starstruck’ moment I can remember.  For awhile after that I wanted to be a ball player.  I talked about being a ball player.  I watched the games.  I played against my little sisters.  I even joined little leagues.  However, when it came time to practice, I usually made an excuse.  When I did not do so good, I figured maybe I was not meant to be a ball player.  No matter how many times I was told I needed to practice if I wanted to get better, I never seemed to listen.  I just figured if I was any good, it would come naturally.

This is where the Mind vs. Body comes in. As a kid, I was unaware of how the world operated.  My mind was telling me I wanted to be a ball player.  However, my body was telling me it was too tired to practice, or that practicing was boring.  My mind was also telling me whenever I would strike out or make an error that I was not to blame. I just was not born good enough.  I just did not have the same talent my Dad or other kids had.  This is what I perceived to be true.

The real truth is, it was all my fault.

Now, being that I was a kid, I am not trying to be hard on myself.  I am just using this as an example of my mindset.  It sounds rather simple.  Obviously, we all know we have to work at anything we want to achieve.  But what is important about this story is the way my mind tricked me.  It made me perceive that everything happening around me was out of my control.  All the things I wanted in life were like a lottery ticket.  If they happened, great.  If they did not, then it was not meant to be.  That is a scary way to think.  It’s like your whole life is one big crap shoot.

I think for me, it was tough to realize that if I did not achieve these goals, I would be a failure.  It was less pressure to not try too hard and take whatever success came to me.  That was the safe route.  What I have learned more than anything else in life, is that the safe route is usually the wrong one to take.  The tough path is always harder at first, but once you make it down the road, the rewards are priceless.  Instead of wondering if you should take the tough path, try wondering what happens if you do not.  What if you don’t take any chances to live the life you want to?  Is that how you want to spend the only guaranteed life you have?

The gift of life is your wildest dream!

It’s up to you to fill in the details.  You live only one life we are sure of, and therefore we only have one chance to do what we want.  There is a deep self-satisfaction at going after your wildest dreams.  Achieving them is the icing on the cake, but I bet many successful people will tell you, the time they treasured most is not after they achieved their goal, but rather while they were deep in the midst of attempting to.  It is the struggle we all look back on fondly, because that it was really makes you feel proud of yourself.  Just knowing that most other people would have quit when you kept going is enough fuel to help you achieve many more goals.  It is that pride that we hold dear, not the actual success.

Achieving Your Wildest Dreams

Below is a list of steps to start toward achieving your wildest dreams.  Please be warned:  these are not life changing tips.  You will not read the words below and be so mesmerized that you will suddenly achieve all of your dreams in the next 10 minutes.  Rather, the point of these steps is two fold.  First, I want you to try and identify exactly what these dreams are.  Second, I want you to understand just how possible they are to reach….

1. Identify Your Dream – Simply put, pick your wildest dream or desire, no matter what anyone else thinks of it, and run with it.  It is very important to know just what you want.  Being rich is not a realistic goal.  It is more of a desire.  To get rich, you create a realistic goal to make money.  You don’t just really want to be rich bad and go around chasing every potential money maker you can find.  Make sure you identify exactly what you want to do.  Pick something you love to do, not something you like.  Something you truly enjoy whether the pay check is good or not.
2. Believe – A crucial step is to leave all doubts behind.  Don’t worry about if you can succeed.  Just worry about if you want to.  If it is something you truly dream of doing, the success will come to you.  Worrying about whether or not you can be successful is a waste of time in the beginning.  No one is ever able to identify success for sure before they try something.  Instead, worry about succeeding.  Worry about your desires.  Worry about yourself.  Don’t let your mind tell you any different: If you love to do something, success will find you.
3. Plan – This is the part most people skip.  You need to identify a realistic strategy for achieving your goal.  The way I do this is I pretend I am doing it for someone else.  I make a plan of how I would want a perfect employee to do the tasks I need to accomplish the goal.  By making believe it is someone else, I am able to ignore my personal feelings (& laziness).  This prevents me from making internal excuses for not doing what I really think needs to be done.
4. Implement – Now, we all know, even with a full-fledged plan we probably won’t follow it everyday.  That is okay.  We just want you to have one as a guide.  Start out trying your plan for 1 whole week without judging any part of it.  Even if it feels terribly wrong, just give it a shot for 1 week.  This is the most critical step.  If you do not try out your plan, then why even bother creating one?
5. Fail – Yep, you read it right.  Life is a constant learning experience, so don’t expect your plan to go smoothly.  An important step toward any goal is failing. You must fail in certain aspects. I would like to say it is impossible, even though I have no proof, that you can create a perfect plan and not fail right from the start.  Chances are, you will fail at some part or another of the initial planning process.  Failing is an important step, because fixing these weak links is the best way to strengthen the whole chain for the long journey.
6. Adjust – After you have given it a serious try, and failed in some regard, now is the time to adjust your plan.  Maybe you overcompensated for this aspect, or maybe you underestimated the effectiveness of that strategy.  Either way, plans should always be adjusted.  I like to make 3 month plans, this way you give yourself some time to achieve small goals, and mix in any changes along the way you did not see coming.
7. Persist – Keep going and repeat steps 3-7 as necessary.  The most important part of achieving any dream is the refusal to give up.  Remember it is this easy: If you don’t give up, there is no way you can possibly have failed.  Be persistent and don’t accept permanent failure.  Just understand that you will probably fail in some major battles on the way to winning the big war.  Just check any history book on war for real life examples of that.

Remember, that’s what the battle for success is: A war of attrition.

No matter what your mind tells you.  No matter what your body warns you of.  Achieving your dreams, whatever they may be, is definitely a realistic possibility.  It is up to you to make it a reality, no one else.  Not destiny, not fate, nor divine intervention.  It is all up to you. Just don’t expect it to be easy.  Instead, expect it to be gratifying.

I have never heard anyone say they were sorry for going after their dream.  I also have never heard anyone tell me they succeeded at their wildest dreams without ever trying.  Keep that in mind when those little inner whispers of doubt start to get louder in your head, or when other people don’t believe in it like you do.  Those negative thoughts are your mind challenging your body.  That is your mind warning you that maybe ‘no way we can do that.’  It is up to you to make it believe it can.

The final part of this short series will be about how to better balance your mind and body.  It will discuss some different ways for how to get your body to better listen to your mind by revealing the power of thoughts.

Until then, try to think objectively….

Does the fear of failing play a big role in your decision making?

Are you really going after the life you want?