An excerpt from our book, “Dream It and Create It: How to Find Your Passion and Realize Your Dreams"

WHAT IS A LIFE DREAM?

A dream is an idea or vision you have about what you would like to be or do in the future. Usually a dream is something that you feel very passionate about achieving. A dream could be creating a project that helps people or animals, starting your own company, inventing something, or becoming a recording artist, an actor, or a professional sports player. These are just a few ideas of what a dream can be. There are no limits to your dream.

Did you know that the visions or dreams you have might be an idea that no one else has had yet? Think about it: new things are created only when someone first dreams up the idea, right? So when you get those ideas that you think someone else has already thought of, think again. Your vision could actually be a new discovery or something extraordinary that is meant to be shared with the rest of us.

FINDING YOUR DREAMS AND PASSIONS

Finding your dream takes some imagination and inspiration. Do you know what inspiration feels like? Give this a try. Close your eyes and imagine seeing yourself doing something you totally love doing. It can be anything—hanging out with friends, playing your favorite sport, or listening to music. Notice how you feel when you are envisioning this. Are you happy, excited, proud, energized, or all these feelings at once? It feels great, doesn’t it?

This is what inspiration feels like. Remember this feeling—the amazing feeling you get when you connect with inspiration— because you will use it as your guide to find your dreams.

To find your dreams, think about anything you have wanted to do or goals you have wanted to accomplish. Focus on what you love to do, what you’re good at, what you feel would make a difference in the world, or even what you think would be awesome to experience. Your dreams can be anything; just let the ideas flow. For example, have you ever dreamed of being a singer or an artist? How about working with animals, elderly people, or kids? Do you want to invent something, start a business, or take an existing idea and make it better? What about cleaning up the environment or collecting toys or food for people who are in need? How about exploring different cultures, learning different languages, or studying different ancient histories? These are all visions; the ones we’ve listed here are general ideas, but yours will be unique to you, so don’t limit your ideas to our suggestions.

Start a list of your ideas. You might have one dream or you might have many. There is no wrong way to dream and there are no stupid dreams, so let the ideas come and write them all down. 

After you have your dreams written down, look over your list. Remember that feeling of inspiration we discussed earlier? You are going to use it now. Go down your list and focus on each dream for a minute. As you are focusing, imagine yourself in that dream. Really see yourself in each dream. Are you getting that happy, excited feeling? (If not, that’s OK.)  Make a note, perhaps by placing a star, next to the dreams that give you an inspired feeling. These are ideas you feel passion about. Creating dreams using ideas that you have passion for will help you in many areas including having fun while doing them and having drive and motivation to make them happen. When thinking about accomplishing a dream, make sure you have that underlying passion!

NOTE: In our book, we walk you through all the steps to accomplish a dream/goal. It also includes inspirational stories of kids and teens, just like you, who set out to accomplish a dream. To learn more or to purchase the full ebook CLICK HERE

Excerpt From: “Dream It & Create It!" by Kristi Stoll & Gidget Clayton. Copyright. All Rights Reserved. No duplication without written permission.