Dream Big ~ Be Grateful ~ Give Love
This is a story of how I was once afraid of my big dream. I’ve shared it many times at live events where typically at least one person speaks to me after my talk and says, “Jacquie – I hear you! …and I’m afraid too!”
So I thought I’d share it here…
Read on how my dream came alive at a desk, jumped into a boardroom and 20 years later was transformed into LOVE!
How many times have you sat in a boardroom, or training room listening to a person teaching a topic you already know? So well in fact, you begin to believe you could teach the topic yourself. Who are you kidding?! With the voice of the trainer purring on, your mind wanders. Visions of doing things you’d much rather be doing play on like a movie reel in your head. You hear your inner voice speaking softly, “Why am I here?”
In a flash, you get a vision of yourself at an earlier time in your life when you had a dream that you loved, and felt fully alive every time you thought of it. You wanted it so much to come true, except that….
You didn’t know how to start
Or
You felt afraid!
This happened to me in or around 1988. I was listening to a trainer teach selling skills to a group of Account Executives. Today, the presentation would be labeled ‘death by PowerPoint’. Bored, I began to imagine what it would be like to BE her. What would it be like to BE a trainer? What would I DO differently to engage the audience? Then… POW! A memory appeared of seeing an elementary school teacher speaking to a group of students. I was a young girl sitting at my desk dreaming of being a teacher!
An epiphany emerged!
Back in the boardroom, I remembered my dream of being a teacher! I had let that dream fade away for many, many years. By this time I was in my late twenties, a single mom and struggling to make ends meet. Quitting my job to go to school was unimaginable, and foolhardy. Add to the mix – my dream robbing self talk, such as, “Am I smart enough? Or good enough? Or worthy enough?”
So guess what I did?
Absolutely NOTHING! Not for one year, not five years, not ten years – for twenty years! I put my dream on the shelf. I stayed working in a job making other people’s dreams come true, where I wasn’t using my natural talents, where I wasn’t valued for my efforts, and where I didn’t connect to the people I was serving and working with for twenty long dreamless years…..
Then one day… I woke up.
I began meditating in a way that helped me tap deep into my unconscious. At the time, I didn’t know what I was doing – I was following along with a group of people. Curiously, my dream crystalized. The dream was so vivid, so real, and felt so deeply congruent and authentic that I felt I had truly found myself. This spurred me on to take a leap of belief and take a risk! I finally decided it was time to make a massive change in my life.
The next step was searching for a methodology.
I was looking for practical tools that were respectful, powerful and with long-lasting results. These factors are important to me as I value autonomy in my life – and in order to be autonomous it means having self-coaching skills that really work. I also wanted to teach others how to be autonomous too.
After searching many months for a method that would tick all my boxes, I remembered attending a workshop in 2000 on Neuro Linguistic Programming, a.k.a. NLP. That half day workshop gave me practical tools to better understand how people make sense of their world and what motivates them to buy. Sharing those NLP lessons with my sales team led to a double digit sales increase that year. Amazing!
NLP taught me a gentler, kinder approach to selling. By meeting people where they are and helping them decide where they wanted to go, instead of forcing people down a path of resistance. I love selling in this manner, as it means I can help solve peoples’ problems in a respectful way that is more loving and compassionate.
Taking the proverbial plunge.
So, in March 2008, I signed up for a dual NLP Certification Practitioner training in England at the NLP Academy. That training experience was one of the most life changing experiences I’d ever had. Thirteen days changed the trajectory of my entire life going forward. It also gave me practical tools I could teach other people so they can make a significant difference in their own lives too!
My dream supports me to be a more loving, caring, compassionate person!
When I realized how being a trainer could give me the opportunity to help other people overcome massive challenges in their life, as I had – well, I got excited! I also realized that by living my dream I would be satisfying one of my highest intentions of supporting others in a loving way, as foundational NLP principles are based upon. That really fired me up! I launched my training business in 2008, achieved two coaching certifications and began speaking professionally the next year. I finally started living my Dream Beyond the Dream!
I have another dream for 2017 that is even bigger than the dream I’m living now. This time, I’m NOT going to wait twenty more years. This Spring I decided to invest in myself and signed up for a Mastermind Program that is going to help me achieve my dream faster!
Stop being afraid. Start Living Your Dream! Take action today. Hint: Think FAST!
Are you sitting on the fence about your dream? Or, are you living someone else’s dream?
Is your dream so exciting, so loving and so audacious, and so much bigger than you – you feel scared?
Or maybe you don’t know what your dream is. Would you like to explore deeper to find out?
Here’s my 3 Steps to Start Living Your Dream Today – plus an extra Bonus Tip!
- Is your dream so big you feel afraid anytime you think of it?
If you answered yes– you’ve got a biggy alright!
Explore ways to ‘anchor’ your dream – in other words ’embody’ your dream. So whenever you think of it, you feel it, you see it and you hear it. This will help stabilize your state while you put the wheels in motion to make it come true.
- Who can help you? Make a list of all those people.
You’re going to want support!
“Friends…they cherish one another’s hopes. They are kind to one another’s dreams.” ~Henry David Thoreau
Friends are nice to have when you’re making a big change in your life. It’s also important to work with professionals. Do your homework and seek people who truly believe in YOU who are sincerely willing to support you. This doesn’t mean giving you pats on the back, or high fives, or hugs. (although I’m a hugger – hugs are good).
Find a model of excellence in your field. Ask their permission to model them. Modeling people without asking first is rude!
Treat them to coffee or lunch and prepare two important questions in advance.
Invest in yourself and hire a coach or mentor. Selecting a coach who’s had a similar trajectory as you won’t necessarily guarantee results (although I do this and it works!) More importantly, hire a Certified Coach with a proven track record.
- What’s the first next step?
What can you do today to put your dream in action?
Every day, do ONE key action to move you closer to your dream.
BONUS TIP: Create a mind map representing the pieces of what needs to happen to create your dream. Imagine yourself taking that first step! By doing this, you’re creating a visual + kinesthetic [VK] synesthesia which will help anchor your physical feelings with your vision of seeing yourself living your dream.
Want help making YOUR dream come true?
Join us May 6, 2017 for ‘Start Living Your Dream Beyond the Dream’ event where you will gain insight into your physical and energetic presence, explore your dream at a deeper level, bring it alive and start taking action immediately!
Jacquie Nagy is a Professional Speaker, Certified Neuro Linguistic Programming [NLP] International New Code NLP TRAINER & Coach, Certified Adult Educator [CAE], Art of Feminine Presence™ Teacher, founder Holistic Directions Inc. 2008 and creator Holistic Self-Coaching™. Jacquie offers personal and professional development workshops, NLP Certification courses and classes, private 1:1 and group coaching and mentoring for individuals and entrepreneurs internationally and in her home city of Winnipeg, MB, Canada. You can find out more about her speaking, coaching and training services at http://www.holisticdirections.com
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