Dream Big, Dream Often, and Dream Like it Matters

I remember an old mentor of mine once said, “You are living today in what you spoke of yesterday.”

British chemist and academic author Douglas H. Everett took it a step further when he said, “There are some people who live in a dream world, and there are some who face reality; and then there are those who turn one into the other.”

Dreams come first. Then language. Then reality. And reality is a perfect reflection of whatever you dreamed in the first place.

So be careful what you dream. And be careful to dream in the first place.

Some people have trouble keeping their dreams alive. And others stay in daydreams far too long. Dreaming and creating dreams that matter is an art form.

One needs to get good at it, as it is the highest form of art – it is the art of creating a future. Not just your future. But our future – the future of our planet, the future of our world, the future of our civilization.

Dreaming is important, and it is important to do it well.

When I was little, my dreams were big. It then seemed the bigger I got, the smaller my dreams became.

My dreams started to turn into fears and into reasons I couldn’t have my dreams, and at some point, I found myself in a box of rules – “have tos”, “should dos”, and “can’t haves”.

That was when I started to discover who I really was. That was when I started asking myself the important questions... not the questions about what I wanted but the questions about who I was and where I was going.

I think I went through many stages at that time ... first thinking I was at the effect of all my circumstances, and thinking the world was doing it to me, at which time I had a big personal crisis of losing my boyfriend to another girl.

Boy – that was the good old days, when crisis was about losing a boy. LOL.

But that crisis made me go inside and look at myself and called on me to question my values and my assumptions, at which time it felt like I woke up and found my power.

Suddenly I knew I could do anything, and it didn’t matter about the circumstances.

I woke up, as if I had been in a deep sleep for a long time, and I started dreaming again.

At first my dreams were about ‘stuff’ – things I wanted and thought I needed to have.

More money. Bigger house. Nicer car.

But none of those things seemed to satisfy a deep longing within my heart, and I felt there must be more to life. I started questioning everything. And especially all the beliefs I had, and much of what had been told to me about how life worked, and what it all meant.

Magic and miracles started happening in my life effortlessly, and it seemed like all my dreams were coming true.

I was called to work on a project in Hollywood with Oscar winning Producer Jerry Weintraub, Director Steven Soderbergh, and Screenwriter Paul Attanasio.

But I got to walk the Red Carpet for the Hollywood Movie Premier of Oceans 13 with my friend Freddie Ravel, the talented keyboardist of Earth, Wind & Fire, and with George Clooney, the acclaimed actor.

Jack Canfield (Chicken Soup for the Soul Co-Author) and I co-created the Transformational Leadership Council (TLC) together, and I managed and produced all the programs for TLC for 10 years, calling together some of the most renowned transformational leaders and authors of our time, including John Gray (Men are From Mars), Rhonda Byrne (Producer of The Secret - The Law of Attraction), and Lynne Twist (The Soul of Money).

And then Dale Hipsh (Senior VP Hard Rock International) brought me on as Personal Development Consultant to help him coach and train his Hard Rock Hotel Executives in Miami, London, Dublin, Madrid and Budapest in leadership and communication.

During that part of my life I also made a trip to the Rain Forest and lived with the Achuar tribe in Ecuador. They are a Dream Tribe.

Every morning we would all wake at 4:30 AM, before the light, and the women would make us all a strong tea to drink.

Listening to the sounds of the rain forest, under the stars we all drank it, even the babies.

It would make us ‘purge’ – a nice way to say ‘vomit’.

The idea was that we were purging all our past day thoughts and actions, so we could be ready in a clean space for our new day to begin.

Then we would sit around the fire and tell the Chief what our dreams had been the night before.

He would then decide what the tribe would do that day, based on the information he received from our dreams.

That was when I learned about transformation.

I was the caterpillar and suddenly I became a butterfly.

I felt like I had personal power. But even more than that, I started to be aware of a part of myself that was called to make a difference in life. It started being important to me that I was somehow contributing to a bigger purpose.

It started being important to me to give rather than just receive. I started really listening more, rather than talking all the time. And I started to see in a new way.

Suddenly it became apparent that I was part of a bigger whole. That everything was connected. That life had a FLOW. That there were natural laws of how things worked, and I realized if I could be in sync with those laws, that I could do and have and be anything.

I started getting answers from inside me, rather than looking for approval from outside myself.

I started noticing what I was grateful for, rather than being concerned about what I didn’t have.

I started to trust myself and my intuition.

I started having more compassion for others, rather than judging them.

The more I was in touch with that inner power, the more I felt guided in my actions and my journey.

And the more I noticed that if I didn’t follow that inner guidance, the harder it felt to get things done.

I started listening to my inner voice – not the voice screaming in my head, but the voice deep in my heart.

And then I realized that’s where my real important dreams lived.

Our real dream is that we belong, and that we are connected.

Our real dream is that our lives matter.

We all have the same dream. Right now, at this very important time in history, it is important to remember that.

We are all connected, and we are all now creating our future together.

Now is the time to visualize the skies clear, the rivers clean, and the children safe.

The Covid-19 Virus is like a deep-seated fear within us of our shadow side.

The virus is really just a reflection of the state of our Soul.

Rather than cowering in our homes, fearing what is outside, it is time to reflect and meditate and reconnect with our intuition and our inner power.

The virus can actually be a gift, if we let it. It can be a catalyst for us to go deeper, find our real selves and reconnect with the rest of the Universe in a holistic way.

We can come out of this kinder, wiser, and more compassionate.

This can be our greatest awakening.