I have had a tremendously nice response to my Open your eyes and see what is post. Thank you! I’d like to follow that up with further thoughts and tip for those of you who might have read that and thought “Gee, ok. Maybe I do want to make some changes in my life.” The information I want to share with you comes from my work with others as well as my own experience.

There are big leaper coaches! Their philosophy is to just go for it full force. In fact audacity and boldness do pay off in many circumstances and there’s a certain advantage to having to create a way forward when one is forced to do so. However, there is another way – a gentler way. And that’s to build a platform towards the goal. Whether that’s more free time, your own business, or that fame and recognition as a reputable artist, these big dreams start with action. I am currently working on a novel. I know that unless I sit down and create the structure of what I want to have (a storyline) to help me break the project down into a manageable chunks, the book will never form. I’m not aiming for a top chart success. Not at this stage anyway. I am aiming for something tangible. Something I can begin to reread to see what works and what doesn’t. Something I can farm out to my colleagues to get their perspective and maybe one day an agent. At the moment, I’m curious and I have the bit of courage to just sit down and play. To get it wrong. To at least create a storyline from beginning to end and then decide whether I like it or not to pursue it. I reason that if I end up not liking it, I can either change it or start over. Either way, next time I’m talking with someone I will be able to say “I have two or three storylines, would you like me to tell you what they are?” instead of “I’ve been wanting to write a novel for sometime”. The first offers me a chance to get useful insight, a perspective, inspiration; something tangible. The second might get a general encouragement or a vote of empathy or sympathy but won’t lead to anything. In fact, it may well give me permission to dwell in dreaming hoping for inspiration to find me.
Have you ever tried hiding from inspiration? I sure don’t.

In her book The Artist’s Way, Julia Cameron talks about something she calls Filling the form. What this means is that rather than attempt a bestseller, a masterpiece, promotion, recognition and so on, we focus instead on just taking the next small step. I can really relate to that. I wanted and still aspire to be a well known writer. What does this require? Well, that I have a few books that many people read. Few books start with a book: that first one. And a book starts with having an idea and then sitting down and working it up into a structure. Once the structure is in place, working that up into text and so on…My first book will be published in August.  I’m excited and scared also. I hope many people out there will find it useful and enjoyable. Only time will tell but in the meantime, I’m undertaking other writing projects.

Whatever it is you hope to do, whether it’s to ask someone out that you really fancy, pitch an idea to your boss or enter a competition, don’t picture the big end goal of marriage, massive promotion or winning a top prize. Instead, take a small action and trust that it is, in all likelihood, one of gazilion actions you will take. Chances are high that you will end up asking many people out for company, pitch lots of ideas in different contexts, and you may just end up winning a prize or two.  By taking action you will say to yourself and the world that you mean it and in so doing go way further than all those dreamers perpetually stuck in their dream saying ‘one day’.

Today we lay the foundations of tomorrow. If you ask yourself to leap, you might well get scared and say “I can’t”, “I don’t have time”, “I don’t have money”. Leaping can be so scary and overwhelming that it can block. And let’s face it. If change was easy, you would have done it by now. So we need a different way. A safer way. Don’t leap. Take small action instead. You will be doing it. And that is all the difference. Safety in not doing is expensive. It may just cost you your dreams. Time moves on. With every minute, day, week, year you are adding ammunition to that ‘some day’ being never.

So, think big to start with and then take the smallest doable step you can take where you are now. Focus on action. Get into it. Learn from it. Live and be your dream. Only you can!