Building a Hothouse for Your Dreams

Dreams are extremely fragile—especially in their early days. They need to be nurtured and surrounded by support. Here are a handful of easy ways to get your dreams off to a great start.

° Passion must be present. While a dream may be born in passion, it’s up to you to keep it alive. If you’re halfhearted and lukewarm about them, your dreams will never come true.

One way to keep passion high is to spend a few minutes every day visualizing the successful completion of your dream. How does it look, smell, taste, sound, feel? Allow your vision to keep pulling you forward.

° Take good care of the boss. It doesn’t matter how great a dream is if the dreamkeeper is too tired or uninspired to bring it to life.

Sometimes the easiest things to do are also the easiest to overlook—like drinking plenty of water and avoiding toxic people. Dreamkeepers have an obligation to create the healthiest and most balanced life possible.

° Make your workspace a place that inspires you. Whether you work on a beach with your laptop or in an extra bedroom in your home, make it inspiring as well as efficient.

Burn incense, play classical music, have a tabletop fountain, and/or cover your walls with art or an inspiration board that pictures your dreams. And if you’re sitting on a beach, pick one with a great view.

° Take responsibility for staying inspired. There are three ways to run a business: Inspired, Uninspired or With Occasional Flashes of Inspiration.

You can identify those things that inspire you and expose yourself to them frequently. Whether it’s music or the words of a particular author or the company of another entrepreneur, know where your Inspiration Well is and go to the Well often.

° Create your own Hall of Fame. Ask a successful actor or musician who inspired them and they’ll probably answer quickly. Ask a would-be entrepreneur the same question and you’re apt to be greeted by a shrug of  the shoulders.

If you’re going to succeed, you need to be inspired by real people. Read biographies or interviews of successful people and pay attention to the philosophies they share.

° Be open to being inspired at all times. You never know where a great idea or solution to a problem will come from. Carry a notebook with you at all times so you can jot down ideas as they occur.

If you spend a lot of time driving, you may want to carry a voice-activated recorder to capture your thoughts.

° Notice what catches your attention, what makes you happy, what causes an emotional response. These are all clues. Don’t miss them.

° Collect entrepreneurial friends. There’s almost nothing more rewarding than spending time in the presence of kindred spirits who can add their own creative ideas and encouragement to what you’re doing. Cultivating such friendships will be one of the best investments you can make.

° Change the scenery. There’s nothing that dulls the creative spirit more quickly than daily routine. You can counteract the dulling effect of that by taking a field trip or creative excursion at least once a week.

Take your laptop to a coffee shop, visit a museum or walk in a Japanese garden. Challenge yourself to come up with new backdrops that feed your soul.

7 Holiday Gifts to Give to Yourself

If you arrived at the end of the holidays last year saying, “Thank goodness that’s over!”, you might decide to take a different approach this year. Although the holiday season is supposed to be a time of celebration, many of us find it the most stressful, even depressing, time of the year.

Since the holidays will go on with or without your participation, why not make them the happiest, warmest time possible? Begin by giving yourself a gift or two.

Here are some ideas for extra special gift giving that will eliminate the hassle and expand the pleasure in the busy weeks ahead.

° Give yourself the gift of plenty of time. No time of year is so fraught with feelings of “so much to do, so little time” as this one. The sooner you begin to organize your activities––allowing adequate time––the more relaxed you’ll stay.

Start by spending an evening writing out lists of everything you’ll have to do. Make a second list of ways to save time such as shopping off hours, ordering gifts by mail or online, letting the bakery provide the goodies.

° Give yourself the gift of saying “no”. Part of the overwhelming feeling that comes with the holidays is the result of thinking we have to accept every invitation, bake every cookie and run ourselves ragged in the process.

Decide now to say no to all those activities that don’t add to your pleasure. Prune your card list, gift list, guest list.

Make “Less is More” your motto this year. Your holidays will be more special if you go for quality, not quantity.

° Give yourself the gift of extra pampering. Pay more attention to soothing activities like a long, leisurely soak in the tub. Pamper yourself, too, by watching what you eat and drink.

Your nutritional well-being may dissolve when confronting a Yuletide dessert table. Maintain a moderate approach and offset the damage with extra vitamins and healthy foods.

° Give yourself the gift of a new tradition. One of the upsetting aspects of the holiday season is that it rarely lives up to our expectations. You may carry around warm memories of Christmas Past and your current reality can’t match those special moments with family and friends.

Your holidays will be more wonderful if you create some new traditions for yourself. If you are far from family, plan a celebration that includes others in the same situation.

Or plan a holiday unlike any you’ve ever had. Friends of mine realized a lifetime dream by spending their holidays in Hawaii. It was nothing like their usual South Dakota Christmas and it won’t be an annual event, but they’re glad that they broke with tradition and gave themselves a unique experience.

° Give yourself the gift of simplicity. The less complex you can make things, the more time and energy you’ll have to enjoy the season.

Unless you’re attending parties with the very same people, pick one great outfit and wear it over and over again.

Simplify your shopping by giving the same gift to several people or by having a theme for all of your gifts. Double up wherever you can.

° Give yourself the gift of hired help. Many enterprising folks start little service businesses to provide holiday help. For a reasonable fee, you can get assistance with party-giving, shopping, and errand running.

Don’t add to your stress by trying to do everything yourself. You and a friend can accomplish holiday chores in tandem, reducing the pressure on both of you.

° Give yourself the gift of laughter. If you want this time of year to be merry and bright, keep your sense of humor. Nothing will do more for helping you handle all of the extra activities with grace and poise.

When things go wrong or not according to plan, don’t  forget to keep laughing. Joy, delight and wonder exist when we make an effort to welcome them.

Determine now that you will, indeed, make this the best holiday season ever. Relax, smile and enjoy all of the giving and receiving that come with this time of year.

In so doing, you’ll give yourself and the people you love a holiday season that will be fondly remembered for years.