9 Mistakes that Rob You from Living Your Dream Life

Don’t Let “Unrealistic” Kill Your Dream Life

I was in a horrific car wreck this morning. I walked out with a few scratches but the car wasn’t so lucky.

Sitting here, admiring my beautifully intact body – the bruises and all – with all my wits about me, I am filled with gratitude and quietude. If I didn’t believe in miracles, I would now … but I already believed in them and don’t need more proof on that note. (do you?)

The day has been a blur. First, I dived right back into work as though nothing had happened. Then I slowed down, doing my fair share of staring, crying, apologizing, and replaying of the accident in my mind.

And now I’m settling in for the evening, in awe of this utter quiet in my mind – a rare state that an hour of meditation would have trouble achieving!

I feel thrown into a slow-playing boring movie, with nothing at all happening, just time and space and the sound of breath, the chirping of crickets, and tapping on the keyboard.

Tap, tap, tap, my dear reader. I am typing to tell you something good, hang in there. I’m a wee bit slow tonight…

Events like this are expected to make you reflect on your life and re-think your approach to how you are living this one precious life. Well, I’ve done plenty of reflecting, and it makes me thrilled  to know for a fact that I am living my life exactly, precisely, totally and completely as I want to be living it.

A few years ago, I couldn’t say that. I had a list of regrets as long as my sorry excuses (in other words: very long). Until one day, I stopped fooling myself. I finally woke up from my delusions. I decided to put an end to everything that wasn’t making me happy and to put a new chapter in place for life on my terms. It wasn’t easy – easy is totally over-rated by the way – but it wasn’t as impossible as I had made it out to be all those years of excuses.

Truth Blitz: The hardest thing of all is living in wait mode, waiting to be happy, waiting to start your dream business, waiting to quit what’s eating away at you or waiting to walk away from an awful relationship. Waiting until the infamous later arrives. Let me tell you something: LATER SUCKS! And you know it. Later may never come. Later is boring. Later murders dreams. And if you ever want to use the word unrealistic properly, use it with later.

• Pursuing your dreams: nothing unrealistic about it.
• Re-inventing yourself and your whole life to be happy: not unrealistic one bit.
• Believing in yourself that you can: hardly unrealistic.
• Dreaming big and wanting more: the opposite of unrealistic.

Drop “unrealistic” from your vocabulary and start living life the way you want now. It doesn’t mean jumping off a cliff or quitting your job tomorrow but it does mean that you gotta stop waiting and you have to start taking action.

Mistakes are a pain to make. A giant royal pain. Yes, they teach us lessons about life and make us better people but what if you could just learn from the mistakes of others? What if you could skip over the big hassle of making your own?

Tonight, as I am sitting here in one lovely piece after the accident, wondering at the heavenly powers that kept me safe, I will recount these 9 mistakes that robbed me from living my dream life until my wake-up call a few years ago. The car wreck this morning reminded me that I’m  already living my dream life every day and not ready to give up a minute of it. What about you?

9 Mistakes that Rob You from Living Your Dream Life

1. You wait for the right time and conditions:

Waiting is the number one mistake that robs you from living your dream life. There is a difference between waiting and planning. Planning means you are taking action, however small, and creating the dream life every day with doing something about it. Waiting means you are biding your precious time. Don’t! The years won’t come back!

2. You look for approval from others:

Yes, it would be lovely if everyone in your life cheered you on to live your dream life. Some among us are very fortunate to have fierce support from all their family and friends. If that’s not you, take heart. You can still live your dream life. Love the people in your life but don’t wait for them to approve of your choices. They won’t be to blame that your dream life passed you by. You will.

3. You think you need a ton of money:

You need far less money and resources than you think to make things happen but the mind loves excuses and the money excuse is a popular one. Drop it. You can create opportunities and you can look for creative solutions to whatever stands between you and your dream life when you have the right positive can-do mindset. If you need more inspiration, look up a few super stars who started with penniless and explain how they did it without any money :)!

4. You hope it will all happen by itself:

No, it really won’t. Life is not self-orchestrated. You are the conductor. And you are either in or out. You need to take action, honey. A lot of massive action but no need to overwhelm yourself because it starts with a tiny daily step. Be consistent, do something every day and you will make heaps of progress.

5. You question your own talents and brilliance:

Doubt. Oh that sweet ever-present voice in our heads. It’s good to push yourself, to aim higher, to be the best in your playing field, sure. But there’s no reason to doubt that your talents and your brilliance are less than enough. They are more than enough if you only put them to work. Hear me on this: You ARE brilliant enough to create your dream life. If you need more assurance, let’s work together on this!

6. You judge your ability based on your past mistakes:

The past does not dictate the future, and neither should it or else we are all doomed one way or another. Whatever happened happened. Whatever your situation, get on with it. Time to move on, learn from it, starve the doubts some more – see # 5 – and create a new future with a lot of right actions, right decisions, right moves.

7. You don’t believe you deserve to be that happy:

You wonder if you are worthy, if you are special enough, if you are someone that should even dream that big or reach that high. You ARE a thousand times over. Got it? Whichever naysayers told you that you don’t deserve happiness was dealing with their own issues. It had nothing to do with you. And my confidence book will teach you exactly how to get rid of that limiting mindset.

8. You are afraid it will be too hard to achieve your dream life:

You know what’s going to be impossibly hard, darling? Regret. Regret that you had the chance and didn’t do it. Living with that is harder than anything you have to do now to create and live your dream life.

9. You count on luck to come around and leave your life to chance:

You create your own luck. The harder you work, the luckier you get. Don’t leave your life up to chance. It does not have special plans for you. Only you do. Get intentional about your life. Live with intention and drive in the exact direction of your dream life now.

How did you fare on these 9 mistakes? I know that I flunked all in my past life but living with intention and immediacy has taught me to watch out. Life is short. Life is sweet. Life can be grand. Make yours grand. You deserve it. You really do.

I am off to do my guided affirmations before drifting to a grateful sleep. Before you go, tell me, did this resonate with you?  Talk to me in the comments.