Dare to Dream

As children we dream and play make-believe but as we grow older, we are instructed to stop dreaming and face reality. Education is given top priority while dreams are declared to be low priority. Yet, there has never been an achievement that did not begin with a dream. There has never been success without many failures.

During the dreaming stage, one is alone with his seemly impossible ideas. When talking about ideas, the first reaction is… “That’s crazy?” Remember that all great inventors and achievers go through this phase, especially during the failure days. After a few successes everyone will support any idea you have. It takes persistence to find what works. Only you realize your ideas have possibilities, others will not realize possibilities until you prove them to be of value.

Motivation: Three Elements

Motivation starts with the desire to be free to live the lifestyle we dream of, freedom to explore our ideas. Total freedom is not possible or desirable, but the struggle to achieve that ideal is the basis for motivation.

Motivation is built on three basic elements:

1. Motivation starts with a need, vision, dream or desire to achieve the seemingly impossible. Creativity is associated with ideas, projects and goals, which can be considered a path to freedom.
2. Develop a love-to-learn life pattern, become involved with risky ventures and continually seek new opportunities. Success is based on learning what works and does not work.
3. Developing the ability to overcome barriers and to bounce back from discouragement or failure. Achievers learn to tolerate the agony of failure. In any worthwhile endeavor, barriers and failure will be there. Bouncing back requires creative thinking as it is a learning process. In addition, bouncing back requires starting again at square one.

A loss of any one part and motivation is on the rocks. For example:

1. If you like to be creative and love to learn but cannot face up to failure, you will not go back and try again. Persistence is associated with bouncing back.
2. If you have a unique idea but don’t like taking risks, ideas is all you will ever have.
3. There must be something in your life that turns you on. You can start by analyzing the lifestyle of your dreams. Remember, money is not a goal, it is a reward for achieving a goal.

Motivation: Seven Rules

1. Set a major goal, but follow a path. The path has mini goals that go in many directions. When you learn to succeed at mini goals, you will be motivated to challenge grand goals.
2. Finish what you start. A half finished project is of no use to anyone. Quitting is a habit. Develop the habit of finishing self-motivated projects.
3. Socialize with others of similar interest. Mutual support is motivating. We will develop the attitudes of our five best friends. If they are losers, we will be a loser. If they are winners, we will be a winner.
4. Learn how to learn. Dependency on others for knowledge supports the habit of procrastination. Man has the ability to learn without instructors. In fact, when we learn the art of self-education we will find, if not create, opportunity to find success beyond our wildest dreams.
5. Harmonize natural talent with interest that motivates. Natural talent creates motivation, motivation creates persistence and persistence gets the job done.
6. Increase knowledge of subjects that inspires. The more we know about a subject, the more we want to learn about it. A self-propelled upward spiral develops.
7. Take risks. Failure and bouncing back are elements of motivation. Failure is a learning tool. No one has ever succeeded at anything worthwhile without a string of failures.

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