By: Wendy Betterini
One of the most powerful things we can do for ourselves is make a conscious effort to nurture our goals and dreams. After all, isn't nurturing care what makes everything grow? Think of the nurturing energy you provide to your children, your pets, your spouse, and even your own personal development. Without nurturing care, living things will die.
Our dreams and goals are certainly living things, breathed into being by our own thoughts. It is vital to nurture them and encourage them to grow and thrive, or else they will surely perish. Though this may sound like common sense advice, it's amazing how many of us don't do this.
Following are the six ways to keep your dreams alive, and even better - make them thrive!
Provide a Fertile Foundation - If you begin planting your dreams in a heart and mind that is polluted with negativity or scattered with doubts, they will not be able to thrive properly. Before beginning the planting process, sweep away all unnecessary debris that could stunt the growth of your dreams. If it's too late and you've already planted the ideas, you can simply uproot them momentarily and begin again with fresh soil.
Feed Them - The most important sustenance you can feed to your dreams is love. Treat your dreams like your most precious creations. Hold them close to your heart and continue to breathe loving life into them. Hold them in a place of prominence in your mind and continue to believe in them. Dreams and goals must be fed with positive thoughts at least daily, preferably several times a day. Give them nourishing snacks of happy encouragement and watch them grow fat and happy.
Water Them - Water is the bearer of emotion and feeling. Lend as much emotional feeling to your dreams as you can, because emotion is what gives your dreams energy and animation. Visualize the outcome of your dreams and goals, and infuse this vision with emotion. Feel the joy and satisfaction of realizing your dreams. Embrace them and shed happy tears for their beauty. Feel your heart lift with awe and thanksgiving, and allow those feelings to infuse your dreams with the power to become real.
Give Them Light - Let the light shine upon your dreams, in the form of inspiration and optimism. Jealously guard your dreams from negativity like a mother bear guards her cubs from danger. If others put your dreams down, the absolute worst thing you could do is to agree with them. Honor your dreams no matter what, no matter how stupid or worthless others may think they are. What others think does not matter, only your own opinion counts. Holding your dreams in high regard will always keep a positive light shining upon them.
Prune Them - Our dreams and goals will often change over time, just as we do. The older and wiser we get, we might realize that the dreams of our youth might not suit us as we are today. Periodically, take some time to re-evaluate your dreams and goals. Take a closer look at them and decide if any aspects might be pruned away or revised slightly. Goal-setting is rarely a one-time activity. Rather, we need to consistently evaluate our progress, and adjust our actions accordingly.
Give Them Room to Grow - Part of the pruning process described above is what will create more room for your dreams to grow bigger and better. But you can also take a look at whether your original dreams were self-limiting in any way. Perhaps you held back out of fear or hesitation, and now you feel you are capable of more. Remove all doubts and uncertainties and make as much room for your dreams as you can. Once they begin to grow and take shape, they will expand and fill the space you provided for them. At that point, you might need to readjust everything again and make even more room. One can hope, right? :-)
