What is Your Dream?

Yesterday I went to a thing at my school for the dream share project. For more info on that just go to www.thedreamshareproject.com. It was very inspiring but I kind of didn't understand their story but the people they had interviewed were very helpful. First i'll talk about the people who did this presentation. They were a couple who had graduated a few years ago and got stuck at desk jobs they both hated. One day they decided to quit their jobs and go on a road trip. On this road trip they decided to stop at different cities and interview someone who had followed their dream and became a success. The main person that stuck with me in their different interviews was a blogger who started the Operation Beautiful. Her information can be found at www.operatonbeautiful.com. Her mission consists of writing positive messages letting people know how beautiful they are on a sticky note. After you write something positive put the sticky note on the inside of a bathroom stall, a mirror in the bathroom, on a door, a bulletin board, locker, or any public place were people will see it. I love the bathroom stall location the best because lets just think back to the last time you cried at school or work, were did you go? The bathroom stall. It is a great place for people to be uplifted and told how important and beautiful they are.
I am telling you about this because I feel it is my purpose in life to spread inspiration in some way. I feel this is the way. I can post it on the door of every bathroom stall at my school and uplift hundreds and thousands. I realized through share your dream project presentation yesterday that it is really important to me to make a difference in one person or multiple peoples lives. I want to better myself, I am a huge believer in continual growth. I want to continue growing as a person for the rest of my life.
Some of the quotes they gave were very inspiring to me so I thought I might share some with you:
1) "Decisions made very quickly can be every bit as a good decision made cautiously and deliberately." - Malcome Galdwell, Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking
2) "Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safer harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." - Mark Twain
3) "If you want to see your future, look into the mirror." - Buddhist proverb
4) "Seek out successful people and ask their advice. Often times, you will be surprised abot how eager they are to share their stories." - Catlin Boyle, Operation Beautiful
5) "It's okay to feel anxious about challenges. You should start worrying when you don't have any anxiety or challenges because that means you aren't doing anything passionate." 
-Todd Kashdan, Psychology Professor, George Mason University


After the presentation they had a workshop. Me and Garrett were adamant to stay because we didn't want to have to talk about our dreams in front of strangers. We thought it was going to be an open discussion but to my delightful surprise it was not. They gave everyone a booklet (pages stapled together). With in these pages were various exercises.

The first one was of course the "Warm-up Exercise." We were told we were going to have to think fast. We were given 10 sec. to think of an answer.
1) The first question was "What is one thing you want to do before you die?"

• The first thing that popped into my head was go to Greece. I was kind of surprised but I went ahead and quickly wrote it down. 

2) Then the said STOP and asked the next question which was "What makes you get out of bed in the morning?"

• I simply put down Garrett's name. The reason being yes he is my best friend and my everything but also he likes to get up 30 min before me every single morning. I think its because he gets joy out of rudely awakening me and likes to bug me, you know to satisfy his evil side. Inside joke, kinda lame, anyways.

3) They yelled STOP a few seconds later then asked the third question. "What did you want to do as a kid?"

• Suddenly I wrote Farmer. My dad, grandfather, and great uncle were all farmers. 

4) Then he asked everyone "quickly write down your dream job as of today?"

• I wrote open an online accessory store. It has been a dream of mine for a little over a year now. I have other dreams but that is the first one to pop in my head so I quickly wrote it down. They informed us that the reason they wanted us to only have 10 seconds to thing was so we put the first thing that came to mind which usually is were your heart truly lies. 

The next exercise was kind of morbid when I first read it but then realized the meaning. Ill go ahead and tell you so you can think for yourself. "Imagine the end of your life and write your own obituary, including: what you will have accomplished, how you will be remembered, and what your legacy will be." I put down some random stuff but I will share:

• Travel the world
• Graduate from LSU
• Survive two children
• Stop animal cruelty
• Open one of the top accessory stores
• Built a beautiful home
• Wrote a motivational book
• Motivated millions
• Saved lives
• Changed many lives
• Successful Fashion Blogger
• Successful YouTube Guru
• Spread love and happiness
• Lived 100 years
• made every mistake in the book 
• Inspiring woman
• Very loved woman

I was shocked at some of the things I found important in my life. To write a book has been something I have joked about for years but never really thought it was that important to me. I never realized how badly and passionately I wanted to effect a life in a positive way. I was surprised and I learned a lot about myself through this exercise.
The next exercise was the "Time Analysis." They gave us a picture of a chart labeled with the hours from 6 am to 9 pm. We were to write down by each time slot what we normally do at that time everyday. You know on average. Then in another column beside each hour were your wrote what you were doing you write if it is a necessity or a leisure thing. Sleep and eating and watching TV being leisure. There was one more column and it was aligned with what you wanted to to or not. After you fill it out you look at the necessary and aligned items and I realized I do a lot more leisure things that don't align with what I wanted to do than necessary things that had to do with my dream.

Our next exercise was to "Identify Roadblocks"

• I wrote down Support, money and a path.

With this exercise we had to get into groups of 4-5 people and discuss possible solutions: This is were everyone had trouble. We didn't put anything down so im just going to brain storm here and see what I can come up with. Here we go:

• 1st thing I put was Support. One thing me and others need to realize is people are always going to be unsupportive of your dreams. Its up to you to make a difference and make your dreams come true. It is very hard to admit that but the solution I feel is to read motivational books, and self motivate and support yourself. You do not need anyone to bring you up. You are enough and you are worth your dream. That is me motivational voice inside me I have been practicing. I hope it works for you.
• 2nd thing is money. Money was a hard one because money will always be an issue for most and you could look at it like go get a job you will be miserable at to make enough to start your dream business or pursuit your dream but I wouldn't recommend that because people tend to get comfortable and think to much and brush their dreams under the rug. So I guess my advice even though I haven't been there. But for listening to all the people they interviewed and words they said at the dream share project, I would say you just need to jump regardless if you have the money or not. If you truly are passionate then money will come in time. Key word "In Time."
• 3rd thing was a path. I struggle with finding which path do I take. I know were I am and I know were I want to go but I don't know how to get there. So as of right now I am just writing about what I am passionate about and filming myself style different things and trying new things on my youtube channel and taking pictures of my journey here on my blog. I hope in time I will make a career out of this and become a success.

Which brings me to the last exercise "Defining Success."
They had a Dictionary.com definition which stated:
Success [suh k-sess]
1. The attainment of wealth, position, honors, or the like.
They then asked us to write our own definition of success. I put:

• Finding true happiness and doing what you love.

I would highly recommend checking out these web-cites:
www.thedreamshareproject.com
www.operationbeautiful.com

I am truly inspired and I hope you do this exercise and become inspired to follow your dreams and inspire others to do the same. And don't forget you are beautiful and don't let anyone tell you any different! <3 <3 <3