Day 100: Day Reality - Acknowledge the Dream

So you want to turn your daydream into a day reality, huh? 

I do, too!!

The first step may seem obvious, but if missed you might as well kiss your daydream-turned-day-reality goodbye. It is:

1. Acknowledge the dream.

No matter how fleeting or expansive, frequent or rare, we have to acknowledge and identify the dream in order to do anything with it.

This step sounds easy, but if you're anything like me - with a lifetime of family and societal conditioning influencing your every thought and action - it can be quite difficult. 

That's where the new way of (investigative) thinking comes into play!

Allow me to illustrate -

In a recent daydream, I saw myself on stage at the Chicago Theater. Standing in front of a crowded audience. An audience that deliberately paid and traveled to see me and hear what I had to say. To see my show not only be entertained ('is she a comedian?!'), but to be inspired, lifted up and validated in who they are and what they are currently experiencing in life. They leave motivated and excited to apply new ideas and concepts they learned to their own lives. And eagerly share this information with others.

My dream was nowhere close to this when it first started knocking on my consciousness (and I've no doubt it will continue evolving). Yet, it kept throwing pebbles at the windows of my soul, over and over. Desperately trying to get me to take notice. 

Many nights as I was trying to go to sleep, my mind would be flooded by passionate narratives of various topics and themes.

Ooh, this is good - I should write it down! Ugh, but my bed is so warm and I'll have to turn on the light . . . I'll remember in the morning . . . I hope.

The willed memory the next morning almost NEVER worked. But the nighttime ideas continued, and I finally wised up to write them down.

What did I do with them after that?
Besides this blog - nothing.

When one approach didn't work, my internal desires would try another:

"When you think about it, we've always liked performing," my sister stated one evening, in reference to many childhood kitchen dance shows, during which behind the fridge was 'back stage.'

And another approach:

[Me thinking after writing down a bunch of thoughts in my journal]
'huh, why do I write as if I'm telling someone else these thoughts - as if they're not just for me?'

Sometimes, the best thing for getting in touch with what's going on inside of us is some good old fashioned silence. Time spent doing nothing.
Nothing but thinking and reflecting.

I thought about how I enjoy public speaking on topics I am passionate about.

I thought about how I like making people feel good about themselves and believe in their own abilities.

I thought about the declaration my best friend Elsa and I [somewhat jokingly] made in our early 20s about being inspirational speakers when we are old ladies.

I then thought about a question I was asked a handful of years later about this declaration, "Why wait until you're an old lady? Why not now?"

So I sat and reflected. And thought. And reflected some more.
. . . public speaking is a form of performing and I'm passionate about what I'm learning from coaching. I can incorporate speaking events into my coaching business - that would definitely be considered inspirational speaking. . . . and I could do experiential events! Kind of like simulation meets art gallery - that are interactive and engaging, entertaining and enlightening . . .

Ok, I was finally starting to get the message of all the subconscious hinting. I was finally hearing Mountain Man, my Inner Guide, rattling around in his cavity inside of me.

So that's it, right? That's all it takes to Acknowledge the Dream? 

I wish! 

No, that's only the first half - creating awareness to what the longing and desire inside is. 

The second half of Acknowledging the Dream is:

• creating awareness of the thoughts/beliefs that keep you pushing the dream away and
• how these thoughts/beliefs impact your current thinking, actions, view of yourself and view of life

Oof! If this content weren't enough to wrap this post up, the length definitely is!

[Dramatic cliffhanger music starts]

Acknowledge the Dream: Part 2 - To Be Continued