Growing your dream, while working your job.

So many of us have a idealized image in our head of what chasing our dreams truly looks like, a fantasy of what life as a dreamer would be. this picture usually involves dramatically quitting our job, heading out into the world to pursue said dream and immediately being showered with money, adoration, and being on the top of our dream world. We look at people in our dream profession, be it music, art, or some aspect of the business world, see them thriving and think "hey that could be me". We see the accouterments of success, what ever that would be for our chosen dream, be it big house, fancy cars, time freedom, or anything that we think means success in that field. What isn't as visible is the hard work that went into achieving that dream.

We cheer on co-workers as they leave to pursue their dreams, we pat them on the back, we throw an office party for them and wish them the best, never daring to ask the question of "how"? When we envision dream building we thing that it must happen in exclusion of all other pursuits, that we must be focused entirely on building that dream. Jim Rohn in his famous talk on the "power of part time", talks about, in reference to network marketing, the power of building a business part time that out paces your full time income, the power of the story of that, and the ability to make that happen. While this talk is focused specifically on the network marketing industry, it applies quite aptly to our dream building as well. The ability to forge one's dream, part time, while still earning a full time income is a powerful thing.

When we through away the idea that we must focus entirely on our dream in order for it to succeed, myriad options become available. The pressure that our dream "must succeed in a finite time frame, because as you well know, the day that you leave a job is not the day that the electric company stops caring if you pay your bill, or the day that the grocery store starts gifting you with free meals. If we truly desire to pursue a dream full time we're not only pursuing that dream, but also have submitted ourselves to pursuing a full time income that must be replaced as well.

The beauty of pursuing our dreams is that they don't have to be an 8 hour a day job, they don't need to be all consuming. You can build your dream, while allowing your "day job" to provide the means to pursue that dream all the more effectively. You can become your own investor, putting money you earn working into your dream and while it may seem a hindrance to quick growth, nothing will stall any venture more quickly than missing a mortgage payment, or having a car repossessed. Nothing is more frustrating to the struggling dreamer than having to stop dreaming to worry about paying the bills.

Therefore structure your dream and work on your dream with your "day job" as the funding source, as the instigator that allows you to achieve rather than the chain that is holding you back from realizing your full potential. Go out in the world, dream big, make a difference, and when the time comes you'll have a solid foundation on which to rest when it does come time to truly walk away and pursue your dream full time.

Let the haters fuel your passion, not diminish it.

I'd like to take a moment and point out something that every person that has a "hustle" or big goal to achieve in the new year is going to run into, haters. It seems as though the social media maelstrom that is ever present in modern society, has let people become more and more critical of others, both their successes and their defeats. This isn't a new construct since the advent of social media, people have always been jealous and doubtful of others ability to succeed, it's simply that our connections allow others to voice these concerns more readily.

In anything that you do, others will look on in doubt and disbelief, my theory is that it's not that they don't want you to succeed on principle, it's that your success will make their stagnation that much more apparent. For those that do, those that don't are always quick to remark. Recently I've begun my own journey to what many would call an improbable goal, something that won't easily be achieved, something that will take hard work, dedication and much sacrifice on my part to accomplish. While I've worked very hard to cultivate a positive circle of doers and dreamers around me, there's still those in my life that are stuck in their own ruts, not dreaming, not moving forward. Personally I won't be satisfied with the "status quo", not for myself or my family. Too many times have I found that to do one must only dream. We as human beings are incredible in our capacity to create our own dreams, to affect our destiny's and too forge our futures in the image we desire.

Throughout your journey however those haters will pop up, so what do you do to handle them? My suggestion, and the process I follow is this. I imagine my dream, my goals as a fire that burns within me. I do this mostly because it's the best way to describe my own yearning to be "more than" what I currently am, to progress constantly and explosively within my own life. Instead of the haters extinguishing that fire, or lessening it's fervor, each and every time someone doubts my dream, or speaks to lessen it in any fashion, I picture them dumping gas on my passion, causing it to swell and gain in strength. The urban colloquialism of "haters gonna hate", is a simple reality of life, people will attempt to drag you down to their own stagnancy, to their own mediocrity, however I encourage you to hear the "hate", to embrace the haters and allow them to fuel that which drives you forward.

In this new year, I have one major goal to tackle, and while I'm not naive in the fact that it's going to take work, and it may take much more work than I've originally dreamed, I know that I will concur that goal, because I'm good enough, I'm smart enough, and doggone-it I don't care about the haters! I encourage you all to take on a similar stance towards haters for if we all reach for the stars, the light will only allow each of us to shine brighter against the darkness.

Wait your way to success.

I spent a good time today talking to a good friend about waiting. About waiting in line, waiting with patience, about waiting with hope. Most people would tell you that you can't wait for success, that if you're waiting for success to happen then you don't quite "get it" and you may never realize that success, I however disagree. I think waiting, and waiting well is a stepping stone along the road of success. 

Think about times that you're waiting in your life, waiting in line at the grocery store, waiting for a new movie to come out, waiting on that special someone at home, who never seems to get ready quite as quickly as you think that they should. These are passive kinds of waiting, the waiting where you're checking your watch, the calendar, or tapping your foot. These are the kinds of waiting that you want to avoid on the path to success. Think about the time that you spend waiting over the course of the week whether it's in the pursuit of something mentioned above, or something else, like waiting in traffic during your morning commute, or waiting at the post office, think about those times, and think about how you could change the way that you wait. 

Most people will tell you that they "don't have any time", and while it's true that we live in a fast paced, "always-on-the-go" society, don't let people fool you, but more importantly don't fool yourself with the lie that you don't have any time. The truth is everyone, rich, poor, old, young, black, white, tall, or short, we all have the exact same amount of hours in the day, no matter how much money, power, prestige, or clout you ever gain, you will always and forever only have 24 hours in the day. The difference between those that achieve, and those that don't is how they use that 24 hours, and don't think that the successful don't wait, they simply wait differently than the rest of us. 

Instead of standing in the grocery line, thumbing through the tabloids, checking to see who Prince William is dating now, or how many legs the latest baby found at Roswell has, consider striking up a conversation with the people in line with you, reach out, make contact, make a new friend. You never know what may spring up from a conversation with a stranger, the possibilities are literally endless. If you're in traffic, why not take that time to listen to something that enriches your life, make phone calls that could advance your dream, or spend it in quiet meditation, something other than listening to the inane prattle of talk radio, or pop music.

Change some of these small things in your life and all of a sudden you'll find yourself "waiting" in an entirely different way, you'll be taking charge of your dreams, your goals, and making progress towards them, all the while "waiting" in the certainty that your success will be achieved, and it is that process of "waiting" actively that will help you achieve you success.

So next time your find yourself "in line" waiting on your success, strike up a conversation, reach out, and do something proactive. Wait for your success with a certainty of purpose, with a conviction that you will not be stopped, and console yourself in the fact that it's only through waiting that greatness is achieved.