Are you disappointed, discouraged and discontented with your present level of success? Are you secretly dissatisfied with your present situation? Do you want more abundance, inner peace, joy or happiness? Do you want improved health, a lighter body, or an end to a food obsession or addiction?

Yes, you can have what you want! Of course you can. But accomplishing your dreams and creating change is difficult. Despite this fact, at certain times in our lives, we dare to dream of a bigger life. Courageously we bring an inner desire up into ourselves and feel the magnificence of a greater life. Excitement begins to bubble, our hearts open as we anticipate new possibilities. Using all available skills and tools we set forth in the achievement of this new dream. All too soon, the inevitable occurs: our bubble is burst. Reality hits us between the eyes and tells us we cannot have what we want.

This is exactly what happens when we dare to venture into new dreams. Why? Because a dream is something we have never had before. It is an imagined reality, a fantasy, a made-up pretend world never before experienced by us. We dare ourselves to discover if we are capable of creating new beliefs and a new world. The risk and fear is that since we do not currently have what we want, therefore we are incapable, unworthy, undeserving or not allowed to have more in the future. The soul purpose of dreams is to create new beliefs about ourselves and uncover strengths we did not know we possessed. To get through the challenges of the journey, the following steps can ease the way:

1) Acceptance. Acceptance is simply recognition. Recognition is vitally important, because to recognize what doesnt feel good makes it so much easier to look around and wonder what might feel better. Acceptance is an agreement to appreciate, validate, accept and support who we are at this very moment, even though there are aspects we would wish to change. We face reality head-on without judgement opening our eyes to explore the full, and sometimes messy, truth of what exists in our world without using illusions to pretend otherwise. We stop attempting to lay our problem on someone elses shoulders. We realize no one outside of ourselves will wave a magic wand and dissolve the problem. We also stop blaming ourselves. What we cannot accept, we cannot love. What we cannot love we cannot release.

2) Dream from the Heart. Visualizing new outcomes is the ability to "see ourselves as we want to be, not as we currently are." This involves going inside, sorting through some ideas and deciding which dreams, which desires, which outcomes feel exciting. Then instead of playing victim, blaming others, or dwelling on the worry or anxiety of what we dont want in our lives, we teach ourselves to create an exciting partnership with something important to us. To succeed we must first dream! Dreams give our lives purpose, direction and meaning. What has been placed on the back burner that can now be brought forward? What ideas awaken passion, creativity, intuition, and gut feelings?

3) Excitement Excitement is the power necessary to magnify love, expand spirit and manifest dreams. We are powerful beyond our current beliefs. Dreams help lift us out of current life situations, and guide us down a new path, showing us just how powerful, excited and alive we can actually become. Excitement is not a logical concept but a physical feeling. Excitement is the kind of internal love that says, "Yes! This is a good idea, a fun idea. Ill spend more time with this idea." As we excitedly play with imagined outcomes, we feel good once again. Feeling good makes us glad to be alive. Feeling good connects us with new potentials, new possibilities and new opportunities.

4) Imagination Imagination isnt simply a visual picture of what is wanted. It is a full body experience. Take the time each day to sit and internally create and celebrate a whole new world. We have the ability to pull up exciting ideas and share love, joy and life with ourselves. The feeling good doesnt arrive in an UPS package later in time once the desire is obtained. The feeling good comes now as we allow ourselves to feel good because of our vision. Picture how happy we are living the dream, envision the details of this new expression of self, feel the exciting emotions of having what is wanted in exactly the way it is wanted.

5) Decide Decide to achieve the dream. This may seem basic but many people never decide and commit fully to their dream. They simply keep "thinking" about it. Or as the first obstacle appears they give up. Make a commitment to self that this is what is wanted. Obstacles, many of them, are going to arise. Failures and setbacks will occur. Deciding to succeed helps us develop an internal leader who will carry the vision through the good times and the rough times. An internal leader who can remember the big picture no matter what is going on in the present moment. How and when we reach our destination is entirely flexible, but reaching the destination is no longer up for debate.

6) Take Action For a dream to come true of course we have to take action! Decide where you are now, and what seems like the right place to begin. Action means starting at the right place at the right time. Begin by choosing the smallest, most achievable, or most exciting, steps that will create movement toward the desired outcome. Why the smallest steps? First, success builds on success. Secondly, huge, dramatic life-changing solutions rarely work. Instead, major changes are a result of a series of small steps which are taken, successfully completed, acknowledged and then celebrated.

7) Expectation Believe in the outcome of the dream. We may have no idea how to get what is wanted, but it is essential that we believe, ultimately, we will have what is wanted. The first steps are acknowledging the dream, being excited by the dream, developing a committed relationship with the dream and believing we are worthy of having it. Use affirmations, pictures, positive thinking, motivational tapes, prayer, self-love, visualization and whatever it takes, to reaffirm this dream and the belief we can have what we want. Its okay to have fear. Fear often means we are headed in the right direction. The fear signals that this is something that is wanted. Its just that we dont know how to get what we want, so fear pops up to stop us from risking failure. Acknowledge fear as part of the journey and dont let it sway expectation.

8) Responsibility Feeling good, being excited about being alive involves taking responsibility for our lives and for our choices. Excitement is a choice. To increase how much is experienced involves reaching within and searching for ideas that feel good and inspire. Only we can decide if our dreams are important enough to overcome any adversity we may have faced in life. Excitement is the fire that fuels new potentials. If we cannot bring peace and excitement to our own internal desires, to our own body, what chance do we have of bringing peace into the world around us?

9) Acknowledge Keep a check list of all the successful, wonderful things done in a day. Chart all achievements and efforts, big and small. Without a tracking process, we cant see how far weve come. And if we cant see our efforts, were more likely to quit. Celebrate often. If the celebration is postponed until the end of the journey, we miss the entire soul purpose of having the dream. Which is of course to feel better, more alive and excited in the present moment.

10) Enjoy Creating our dream will require much effort, emotionally, spiritually and physically, to get what is wanted. Fall in love with the journey itself not just the outcome. Fall in love with yourself for having a dream. Self-love is a consuming passion for our own happiness. It is a choice we make to be excited by focusing attention on abundance, peace and beautiful outcomes. Joy is available when we decide we are important. It is not based on any accomplishment and not awarded in some magical moment when someone gives permission for us to feel good. Love and joy are available as we connect with dreams, flow with empowering thoughts, and decide it is all right to develop an exciting, sensuous and enticing partnership with ourselves.