Several years ago, a television interviewer asked Sophia Loren the secret of her success. The actress didn’t hesitate for a moment. “I am successful,” she replied, “because I was willing to give up being anonymous.”<\/p>\n
It appears that anyone who ultimately achieves their dreams has a clear idea what the trade-off was that was needed to accomplish it. It’s a characteristic often lacking in those who attribute their lack of success to bad breaks, circumstances over which they had no control or lack of money.<\/p>\n
Money, in fact, becomes a popular scapegoat in stories about failure.<\/p>\n
Most often, however, our dreams are created out of time, not money. In Jean-Louis Servan-Schrieber’s The Art of Time<\/strong><\/em>, he makes this startling observation: “We think much more about the use of money, which is renewable, than we do about time which is irreplaceable.”<\/p>\n Here’s the fascinating\u2014thought often overlooked\u2014truth about what we get in life: everything<\/strong> we have, whether we are living our dreams or not, is acquired by making a trade.<\/p>\n We trade our time, our talent, our experience, our attitudes for the lifestyle we create. Sadly, many people also trade in their dreams, settling instead for a less than satisfying life because it may seem easier or quicker to achieve the ordinary.<\/p>\n Nowhere is this more poetically illustrated than in Paulo Coelho’s little gem The Alchemist.<\/strong><\/em> The hero of this tale is Santiago, a young Spanish shepherd, who has already traded in his parent’s dream for him of becoming a priest for his own dream of traveling.<\/p>\n Along the way, he encounters a wise man who prods him to achieve his personal destiny. To add motivation, the wise man points out a number of people who traded in their dreams for a seemingly secure life.<\/p>\n One of them is a shopkeeper who resists his lifelong dream of a trip to Mecca. At one point he says to Santiago, “Today, I understand something I didn’t see before: every blessing ignored become a curse. “<\/p>\n What the shopkeeper demonstrates so poignantly is a universal truth. When we trade off our dreams for a lesser life, we are doomed to unhappiness.<\/p>\n On the other hand, if we trade off our fears and doubts for our own dream quest, satisfaction and joy that we have never known before are inevitable.<\/p>\n So is there anything you still need to trade in order to be living your dreams? Since all life is a trade anyway, why avoid what you really want? You’re already spending your time and energy doing something. Make it count.<\/p>\n Don’t you think dreams are a better investment than drudgery?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Several years ago, a television interviewer asked Sophia Loren the secret of her success. The actress didn’t hesitate for a moment. “I am successful,” she replied, “because I was willing to give up being anonymous.” It appears that anyone who ultimately achieves their dreams has a clear idea what the trade-off was that was needed…<\/p>\n