Episode 011: Permaculture Dreams

Are You Still a Dreamer?

Hey everyone! Did you hear the amazing announcement on the podcast episode? Our first ever mini-course is LIVE!!! Oh, and did I mention it’s FREE!?!? We are so excited to have you go through this mini-course, where you will learn the tools and go through the exercises so that you can get grounded, and confidently moving forward to achieve your…(you guessed it) … DREAMS!

So definitely head on over and sign up for the Dreamcatcher Mini-Course and get rolling towards your dreams!

But here in the blog post, we’re going to dig a little deeper with our dreams, what they are, what they can be, and why it’s important to shoot for them. You can scroll through countless websites and Pinterest boards, being bombarded by inspirational quotes here and there, but that’s all just nebulous, abstract inspirational words being put together. Let’s get down to the roots and nourish the soil that grows the dreams.

What is Your Dream?

A lot of us had big dreams as a child, whether logical and realistic or not. For a long time as a kid I wanted to be a Navy Fighter Pilot, but after a few years that changed to a vet, then a rancher, and so on. Josh, on the other hand, wanted to fly, and be a professional skier. He got a lot closer to his dream, ski racing for years on the Snowbird and later Park City ski teams here in Utah, making it to Junior Olympics and then coaching kids on the slopes. 

But there’s a time in our life when we “sober up.” It seems like the transition into adulthood kind of smacks the dreams out of us and all of a sudden it’s “childish” to keep dreaming, because… you know… there are bills to pay. It’s amazing the number of people I talk to who don’t really have a dream anymore. They may set short term goals, but they oftentimes are fairly reachable - maybe lose 10 pounds, run a race, plant a garden… but that’s about it. And oftentimes these goals are not REALLY moving them forward towards any particular direction. Let’s face it, a lot of people think dreams are for the successful people they see in the news - Elon Musk, J.K. Rowling, Oprah, etc. And if that’s what you’re thinking, you’d be right. Dreams are for these people, they went after their dreams and are either making impactful progress towards their dream, or they have accomplished their dream, and then it morphed into a new dream they’re striving for. But you know the cool thing? You are totally just as capable to have the same level of success in your life if that’s what you want... If you want to start seriously achieving your dreams...

Is Goal a Four-Letter Word for You?

Are you someone who shies away from setting goals? Or maybe you previously had set a goal, and didn’t hit it, and this “failure” left a bad taste in your mouth with goals and dreams. Maybe someone called you a dreamer, totally discrediting your vision and capability. Regardless of the source, if you have a negative association with goals, you can’t move forward until you clear that up and process that negativity.

There are many ways to process negativity, and we will just cover a few, so choose what resonates more with you and your relationship with goals. 

First off, if you are shying away from setting goals because you will “fail,” there are two adjustments that need to be made so that you can move forward. The first adjustment is changing your paradigm about not achieving your goals equating to failure. Further down in this post we’ll discuss this, so keep reading. The second adjustment is self-perception. People who shy away from opportunities lack the belief in themselves to push forward. You’re lacking personal empowerment. Sometimes when I talk to my clients about empowerment, they hesitate at the word because they don’t want to be seen as vain, self-centered, or self-indulgent. I get it. Society has put a bad label on focusing too much on ourselves. Society also tends to identify “self-care” as pedicures and Netflix… But empowerment techniques are one of the BEST things you can be doing to care for yourself and your mindset 100%.Without going into a whole post on empowerment techniques here, think declarations, journaling for greater understanding and insight, success journaling, exercise, activating chakras, and many more things. 

So for those of you who have been turned off to goal setting or dreaming because of external criticism, let’s get a few things straight. Those who knockdown or criticize others’ dreams and goals are projecting the experiences they have had by their dream getting knocked down. They have lost hope. Talk to anyone who is actually making waves towards their goal, and they will cheer you on the whole way. So check in WHY you have negative thoughts about goals, and what experiences caused them and then ask yourself a question - are you going to let that experience limit your future? 

Why is it Important to Have a Dream?

If you plan to go running tomorrow but have no finish line (like minutes you want to run, or distance you want to cover), how likely are you to go out running?

Not very.

If you plan to go running 2 miles in the morning so that you can build your cardiovascular strength and make your way towards running a 5K with your best friend, how likely are you now to get those running shoes on?

You get the point.

If we aren’t setting goals and working towards dreams, we aren’t progressing. We stay in our comfort zone in the status quo, never moving forward, never growing. Only if we step out of our comfort zone with goals and dreams do we allow ourselves to enter a space of possibility, a space where the impossible becomes possible, a space where we can achieve our wildest dreams.

You can’t fail.

SOOOOOOOO many people don’t set goals because they are afraid to fail.

I get it, failing is the worst!

But here’s the thing, if you only look at goals as a “succeed or fail” process, you’ve reduced your odds of coming out in a positive light to 50%... which is a flip of a coin. That’s not exactly something I’d was to risk my time, attention, and sometimes money on.

But here’s the thing…

Not achieving your goal ISN’T failing. The point of the goal is not to succeed. Sure we want to reach our goal, and if we do reach it, you can bet we’ll celebrate the heck out of it… But the purpose of setting goals is to put us in the space of growth and progress so that we can grow into the kind of person that can achieve ANY goal. 

Let that sink in a minute.

Bonus #2 of not achieving your goal or reaching your dreams… you get to look back, and uncover WHAT WAS HOLDING YOU BACK.

Sometimes we actually learn more about ourselves and the obstacles we face with our mindset by NOT achieving your goals.

So it’s a win-win. You either achieve your amazing goal, achieve your dream, and celebrate, feeling on top of the world!!!! Or…. you get greater insight on what you need to work on so that you can totally slay the next goal. Get it? Awesome.

The Two Big Factors in Reaching Your Dreams.

In the Miracle Equation by Hal Elrod, (which you should TOTALLY read if you haven’t already) he discusses the two big things it takes to achieve your goals, or in his wording, create miracles. These two things are 1) having unwavering faith in yourself, and 2) putting forward extraordinary effort to achieve that goal. 

Unwavering Faith in yourself all comes from your mindset - knowing who you are, what you’re made of, what you’re capable of, and believing in your potential. The extraordinary effort includes doing EVERYTHING POSSIBLE to reach that goal. This is how those successful celebrities reach their dreams. They believed in themselves, and they worked their butts off. Everyone has the potential to believe in themselves, and everyone has the ability to put forth an extraordinary effort.

Here’s the super cool thing, we totally go into this in the FREE mini-course that launches today - the Dreamcatcher. Are you seeing things come full circle now? This course is going to seriously get you started, moving towards your dream. What do you have to lose? Oh ya, we covered that already, moving forward is a win-win, remember? So you have NOTHING to lose, and everything to gain.

So make sure to sign up for this FREE Dreamcatcher Mini-Course, and join us on Slack if you haven’t already :) We hope to see you in the course!

Also, if you feel like you’re one of those super awesome dream chasers, but you’ve found yourself up against a wall… check out the post from Episode 008 where we talk about what exactly that wall is ad how to get over it. 

Keep growing :D

Previous Episode: Episode 010: Getting to Work, Getting Involved, and Making a Difference with Kevin Danaher

Next Episode: Episode 012: Dana Wilson's Amazing Permaculture Journey Through Media and Film