Decide 2 Matter

Make Space For Your Dreams!

Shake the dust off those dreams! Don't let them fall along the wayside. Make space for your dreams. Barbara Sher says that isolation is the dream and while it's important to have friends who support your dream, we need to make space for our dreams.

Look around your room, your apartment, or your house. Is there a junk corner? Does the kitchen counter get piled with old mail (like my kitchen table)? Is there a bookshelf that isn't getting used? Is there a filing cabinet drawer that's empty? What about the fridge?

What I want you to do is make a space for your dream. Not sure exactly what that dream is? Then make space for your interests instead. The visual reminder of a small creativity alter - yes I said alter - will keep your dreams on the surface of your thoughts or at least in the back of you mind.

Perhaps right now you are looking around your house and can't find a single space to set up a creative space or a dream alter. Then turn that junk drawer into a dream drawer. You weren't using the junk drawer for anything useful anyway. Or buy a photo box. What's important is that you have space for your dream!

Exercise

1. Find a place to set up a dream alter, creative space, or joy nest
2. Gather objects that remind you of your dream
3. Add a new item or look at the items each week

This is a simple exercise that will be like planting a seed. Each day you notice the dream space, your dreams and joys will grow. It's just one step in deciding to matter!

New and Fresh

Have you ever watched a baby discover  something for the first time? Everything around him is new and fresh. Do you wish you could bring those days back? Yes, perhaps you would rather not put everything into your mouth to discover what it is, but why not look at things anew?

Do you really see the sky? Or is it the same boring weather: too cold, too hot, too wet, too dry. Is your car just your transportation to work, or do you really see the way the metal curves, the color of the paint, the many lights on it?

Do you hear the birds sing or do you ignore them? Do you feel the textures of your clothes against your skin? Do you smell your food before you shove it down your throat?

If you answered no to all of these questions, you need to revamp your world and start looking at things with a fresh set of eyes, ears, etc.

How do you do this?

1. Slow down and notice where you are right now
2. Shut off your inner critic and inner judge
3. Throw away all previous knowledge of what you are experiencing
4. Be still
5. Just notice life around you!

It really is easy, we just need to slow down first and notice the world around us. What fresh new thing did you notice today?

Think Arete

Okay, it's about time I started a category devoted to my favorite links. Let me start by introducing Think Arete.

Brian Johnson is the brains behind Think Arete. If you are looking inspiration or philosophical quotes this is the place to check out.

There are

• Famous Quotes
• Inspirational Quotes
• Philosopher's Notes Check it out!

Rest This Season

Slow down. You will get there. Your dreams will grow and flourish. Your waiting, your striving, your longing will not make any of it happen any faster. While you wait for the seeds of your dreams to grow, you can now take time to rest. Once the seeds start to push through the soil, you will then pick up once more to toil and strive and harvest.

If we changed the seasons to fit our lives, we would have spring and summer all year round. The new growth of spring is exciting and fun. Flowers, babies, and bees greet us with the sun and rain. Soon the heat comes and there is growth in abundance. Plants turn a deep rich green. Weeds wrestle for control in our gardens. Baby birds soon take flight.

However, when fall comes, we are still itching for growth and sunshine. Each season is needed. Fall brings us the shedding of skin, leaves, and excess growth. Winter welcomes a deep icy sleep where animals hibernate and plants die back. You mustn't forget these cycles. We all must rest to maintain our health and balance.

Are you making time to rest? What one activity in your life do you need to let go of? Is there something you've out grown? What can you do right now to rest?

Take a risk

Many of us dream of fantastic lives filled with adventure, passion, creativity, and fun. However, we also long for security, reassurances, and guarantees. If your need for security is great, you may never find that adventure you desire because your worrying will kill it before it even starts.

To experience all that life has to offer, you need to take a risk. When people hear the word risk they usually think of those folks who quit their jobs and moved to Alaska, Hollywood, or Africa. Those are big changes that only some of us are willing to make. But taking a risk can be as simple as not wearing makeup anymore, taking that art class, putting out a personal ad, or starting college again.

When we take risks, we open ourselves up to the many possibilities in store for us. If we over think each scenario in attempt to unearth all possible problems and outcomes, we really limit ourselves. How? Because the information we image to be current is usually very old. Your mind uses past experiences to help you evaluate you current choices. But what if you want to take a dance class and you know nothing about dance? You can't evaluate the experience of dance until you've tried it. And there's the risk. You have no idea is dance is something you like, and you will never know if you sit how thinking about it.

Write down one activity you always wished to try, but would never dare attempt. Write down what you think you know about it. Then, take the risk anyway and see if your worries and thoughts even hit the mark. Have fun, enjoy life, and try something new.

Set Small Goals

It's very easy to get overwhelmed with the entirety of any process if we look only at the big picture all the time. Often we also feel trapped once we make a decision, feeling that if we don't like our choice(s) we must follow through anyway. One way to avoid this is to set small goals. Give yourself permission to try something for the length of a college course - usually 17 weeks. Many online courses are even shorter. Berkleemusic.com has 12 week courses, and Gotham Writer's Workshop/Courses are only 10 weeks.

 

Stop being so hard on yourself for not finishing projects. If you give yourself something small enough to finish in a reasonable time, before you know it, you'll have one small thing accomplished. It's much better than agonizing over one huge all consuming project that scares you to death.

 

Today think about one thing you could try and give yourself a time limit to complete it in. Knowing you are only trying it gives you the full option to drop it completely once you finish fully trying it.

 

You may be thinking what if I never find something I like long enough to make a career out of it? Or what if I never finish that book, or art project, or? One, you will only know if you try. And two, would you rather do one thing for the rest of your life, or have tried dozens and dozens of things? Set a small goal to try one thing and do it. You'll feel better afterward I promise!