After having my Italian dream coming true, I got more confident that finding a way to living the dreams is possible. Even more so, as I happen to come across more and more articles and Ted talks armed with years of experiments and studies that support that claim.
It seems that the secret pass-way to get there, is revealed by taking few steps first:
The first is allowing ourselves to live with the unknown.
Then, get on with daydreaming and fantasizing, as I did before moving to Italy.
The last is taking an actual step, breaking through the difficulty of resisting procrastination.
At this time I’d like to share the findings from those Ted lectures that can inspire us along with some practical tools.
The first talk deals with “How to program the thoughts to success”
Carrie is an entrepreneur who started a successful business but couldn’t stop herself from getting caught up in a succession of negative thoughts that had successfully sabotaged her career.
It was only until she noticed that she was the one who brought her own suffering when things started to shift for her.
What did she do? For starts, she began to confront herself by asking essential questions, which led her to crucial findings of herself.
The concept of asking few questions may sound easy…:
“So all I need is to ask some questions to reach my fulfillment and epiphany? To live my dream? “
Well, no.
First, these are not just some questions, rather these are questions that force us to face ourselves deeply. It requires that we will reach our true essence and hear what the heart tells us, instead of our brain or our environment.
“Alright” you may say now. “Let’s say I am focused enough to hear my true voice, what’s next?”
After distilling the essence of the real work, comes a part of some guided imagination.
But one step at a time: are you ready to dive into the set of questions you may need to ask yourself- if you wish to live up your dreams?
These starters of questions are your bridges to hear the deeper essence of you:
“What, Why, Who “
1. What do I want to achieve? What does the finish line look like? It is important to see how it looks like, and how does it feel
2. On the second stage comes the question that focuses on the “Why”
Why do I want to get what I want?
In this context alone, there is a complete and famous lecture called “How great leaders inspire action?” by Simon Sinek.
In his lecture, Simon talks about the importance of addressing our “Why” (which was also emphasized by Friedrich Nietzsche who claimed “He who has a WHY to live can bear almost any How”)
Essentially, facing that question is what gets us straight to our emotions. And our emotions, it turns out, are what drives us.
The only thing with this kind of question is that it could feel overwhelming:
“Where do I even begin to find the answer?” I found myself wondering.
To access this question I broke it down into a few smaller, easy-to-digest ones, and they are going like that:
“What are my values?
What interests me?
What gets me excited?
What else will be possible once I get there?”
You can always go back to those questions, look at them from different angles or in different moods, till you get down to the most refined and correct answers.
3. Then, the third question goes like that:
“Who should I be in order to do what I want to do?
More specifically: How does she look? How does he act?
Get in detail to your image of the desired version of the future you.
4.The fourth step is about “programming” our thinking in a way that supports the desired goal.
How can we program a thought?
According to Corry, programming is performed in three steps:
1. Attention and awareness of what is going on in our minds.
2. Directing our thoughts where we want them to go. The intention is to control the thoughts and to exchange negative with positive thoughts. Lighting on what brings us up instead of what lowers us. Looking back on positive experiences, where we felt strength and success instead of failures.
3. This last part takes us back to the power of guided imagery. The goal of guided imagery is, like mentioned before, to create a clear picture of the direction in which you want to get while activating the emotions.
For those of you who are left with doubts, here is Dr. Alia- a Harvard graduate who provides scientific support for the power of our mind over our reality at the following link:
In her fascinating lecture, Dr. Alia brings up questions such as “Does our mindset about stress determines our response to stress?” or “Could it be that what we think about the food we eat has an effect on how our body response?”
You are invited to watch the lecture and find the scientific proof you look for.
So go ahead, get on with your self-exploration, connect to your emotions, and fire up your imagination, and let’s meet on the other side of our dreams!
