Protecting your Dreams
“Listen to the mustn'ts, child. Listen to the don'ts. Listen to the shouldn'ts, the impossibles, the won'ts. Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me... Anything can happen, child. Anything can be.”
Shel Silverstein
If you know me or if/when you read my book “AfterLIFE” (to be released in January 2021 www.carloblog.com) then you’ll know my stories of “yes and-ing” and “following the fun” that have lead me on a path of growth, learning, and adventure for nearly a decade now. Each thing that I said yes to lead me to new adventures, new people, new passions, all the way to this very with this project of my book, blog, and podcast that I’m having so much fun with! In the beginning I rarely spoke with anyone about my new dreams because I was still learning to trust myself and love myself enough to just say “yes” to me.
I also learned the hard way it’s not always “safe” to share my dreams or visions with everyone especially when they are in a fragile “being born” stage…when a dream or project is new to me and maybe a bit scary, or when I’m trying to build confidence to step into something new and unknown. Once I reach a certain point in my internal decision making process I’ll step into new projects and adventures with confidence and I’ll welcome questions and challenges because they help me clarify my own thinking and can sometimes help me identify anything I missed in my own risk assessment.
I’ve also learned that talking with some people can really help a project. The dreamers, big thinkers, and yes and-ers who can and will help you, cheer you on, or maybe just ask some good questions that’ll help you clarify your vision! I was lucky to have people in my life like this at critical points in my journey.
In 2018 I was kicking around the idea of a podcast. I sat down some with friends one day to brainstorm. They asked me some great questions about the focus, my audience, and the purpose of the project and I couldn’t narrow it down. So they suggested I talk with another mutual friend who has a good mind for this kind of thing. After talking with him he said maybe you should write a book on your subject. He suggested that the process of being able to focus my message and its various parts into a book would give me a template to build a podcast on. That sounded like a great idea. So, I called another buddy to pick his brain because I knew he had some writing experience. He said “I know exactly who you need to talk to. I’m working with Nancy Erickson, The Book Professor, and she has a process to help people write non-fiction books!” Amazing! I gave her a call and enrolled in her program a few days later. A year later I had a draft and a year after that it was finished and into the publishing process. As I write this I’m just waiting for a proof copy that we’ll look through one more time for any typos or other errors then it’s done!
Learning to love and trust myself was a foundationally important step in my journey, but having the right tribe around me to help me along my path has been just as important.
Keep working to love and trust yourself and nurture a tribe of fellow dreamers who want you to succeed. Keep a journal where you can keep writing and rewriting your dreams to help bring in the details of what you want so you can more easily go after it with precision and then be prepared for the law of attraction to bring in the people and circumstances that resonate with those dreams.
Photo by Gianandrea Villa on Unsplash