Its coming up to St.
Patrick's Day, a day of celebration all over the world.
Who would have thought that a 16 year old boy who was captured from Britain by Irish raiders to work as a slave would go on to have such an impact on Ireland and indeed the world! Apparently his journey to sainthood started with a dream in which the Irish people were calling him back to "walk amongst them once more".
Everyone in this world has dreams.
Do you know what yours are? If not maybe think about them now.
Make them as big as possible.
I'm sure St.
Patrick did not set out to become a Saint, but he must have aimed pretty high to get there.
It is also said of St.
Patrick that he was inspired by the visions he saw in his dream.
This is one of the most powerful tools that I use in my life to go after my dreams.
Can you actually imagine it? Can you get a picture of what it would look like if you actually made your dreams come true? Do you know how you would feel? So you can do this, use your imagination to visualise what you want.
Unfortunately this is where most people stop.
Where would we be today if St.
Patrick stopped? The Irish would not be known all over the world and on a very simple level we wouldn't have a day off from work where mandatory fun was on order for every man, woman and child! I have been thinking over the past month about how complicated people make things for themselves.
To bring this down to the lowest level, it's how we create complicated thoughts in our heads.
We tell ourselves that we can't do something because we don't know how or we just can't.
Well what if you could? What if you asked yourself- what would I have to do first? What if you learn to do something and that brought you to a different question, - what do I do next? And when you get the answer to that question, ask yourself the next question, get the answer to that, which brings you to the next question and so on and so on.
St.
Patrick started his journey by becoming a priest and by doing so surrounded himself with the people he needed to learn from to get him one step closer to his vision or dream.
Personally I have spent the last month doing something similar.
No I did not become a priest, but I spent a lot of time with the people who can give me answers to the questions I am asking.
The questions that when answered will bring my business to the next level and also bring me one step closer to making my dream a reality.
But in order to do that I had to put myself out there.
I had to make some tough decisions and find the right people.
I had to take some risks and I had to fight through fears of failure and rejection.
I had to bring it back to its most simple level - what do I love about my job? I love to see the transformations in people and to be a part of that.
I have also started to realize that qualifications are not the be all and end all of a person.
What people will remember you for are your results.
So yes I have all these titles and qualifications and I'm still gaining them, but when people ask me what I do now I tell them that "I help people take their brain pain away".
And when I do that for them the title behind my name really means nothing to them.
They are just glad they feel better and I am glad I helped them.
This might sound very simplistic, but life is simple really, sometimes we over complicate it with the way we think about and explain things.
So now you have your dreams and you have your goals.
The first question you need to answer is where to start.
No doubt you will need help along the way, but who didn't? Every single successful person in this world received help to get them there.
And if you don't know where to start, well there are people out there too to help find your starting point.
I came across a great quote from Anne Franc the other day, another person who is remembered in History for what she did with her life.
"How wonderful it is that no-body need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world" So just like saint Patrick, start with a dream and start taking the steps to get there.
As the saying goes reach for the moon and if you don't make it you'll land among the stars.
Sounds pretty good right? So when your out there celebrating St.
Patrick's Day, maybe think for a second about what you are celebrating personally in your own life.
How many of your goals have you reached this year, and then imagine, what could you be celebrating next year?