How to Turn Your Dreams into Reality

Most of us harbor dreams of a wonderful life. Mine is not very elaborate. I love to live by the sea and share peaceful times with a few good friends. Your dream might not fulfill anyone else. But then it is your dream. If it comes from your deepest sense of what is right and good in yourself, then it is sacred. You have every right to live your dream.

Transforming dreams into reality is not easy. Otherwise everyone would be living life as an exciting adventure or a pastoral vision. The reality is that most people still live lives of quiet desperation. Only a few find their passion. Fewer still find a profession that expresses their inner aliveness. But I am convinced that just about everybody can experience more great moments, and that over a lifetime that most folks can forge the life of their dreams.

Here is a quick map that will assist you on the path to your version of the good life:

The first step is to discover your true dreams. Most of us are afraid of what we desire. Our visions are tainted with ideas and emotions from our cultures, families and religions. What other people think locks us in a stall pattern. Even when opportunity knocks, we hesitate. That is because our inner dreams only show themselves in shadowy, fleeting, scenes that flicker on and off in our mind's eye. Rarely can we catch them, let alone organize them into a meaningful pattern. Finding the pieces of your life puzzle is daunting. Before you can recognize your dreams you have to have external reminders that give form to your desires.

I coax my dreams to the surface by creating collages from images I collect from magazines. In Sage Theater on Times Square I have hundreds of pages -- images of Maui, Amsterdam, and Ibiza -- images of fine cars, exotic experiences, and beautiful fashion. I have lived virtually all of those dreams. It�fs not the stuff. It�fs the experiences that make life worth living. My life is a mess, but I feel divine love in my life and I continue to manifest one adventure after another. That could have never have happened if I hadn�ft found the reflection of my dreams in the pages of contemporary magazines.

The second step is to turn your dreams into a goal. The instant you identify a goal you create a game. Other people are attracted to play. Some of their skills complement yours. They form a team. Opponents appear. Don't worry. That is how games work. Exciting games attract players, money, coaches, fans, critics and opponents. The going can get rough, but you can only win if you play. Pleasure and pain are inextricably linked in this paint-by-number dream. That is what makes it so poignant and so compelling.

My game is professional coaching. I started out as a psychologist, but that was the profession my family and friends wanted for me. When I broke free to become a coach it seemed as if the whole world turned against me. It was 1980. No one even knew what a business coach was. How could I give up a sound profession for something so radical and unproven? But I made new friends who were drawn to the excitement of the game like moths to a flame. I have never regretted my choice.

The third step is to break your goals down into small projects and get them on a calendar. Deadlines put urgency in the game and organize the activities of the players. Most people think it takes a lot of money to get started. Better to invest time and diversify your project portfolio. Do lots of very different things. Let the projects generate the cash. Free agent entrepreneurs pay the players for the time they invest by sharing a percentage of the profit after the project is complete. That holds upfront expenses down and increases motivation.

My early projects were few and most of them failed. It was discouraging. I needed a lot of years and a lot of mistakes to learn how to get things done. Now I conduct over a hundred projects at a time. Some of those projects earn a little money. Once in a while one earns a lot. The money gets distributed among the players and together we have great adventures that contribute to feeding our families.

The final step in realizing your dreams is to complete small steps, called tasks, every day. A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, and dreams become reality the same way. You can get practically anywhere you want in life if you are willing to devote enough years to keeping your promises and doing the tasks that other people consider beneath them. I don�ft mind cleaning toilets, carrying luggage, training coaches, writing blogs, making calls, or any of the other things that are necessary to getting my job done.

Only a small percentage of the people I have worked with are willing to take that final step. Our generation was raised on homework and other nonsensical activities, so only a few people know how to take total responsibility for outcomes. I learned it on the farm as a kid and perfected it as a volunteer working for training agencies. Great supervisors kicked my ass until I could carry out an assignment from beginning to end with no excuses.

I remain a simple farmer from upstate New York, but I have lived a life beyond my wildest dreams. In my first year at a community college I met a worldly professor who was living his life fully. "There are two kinds of people,�h he told me: "those who talk about their dreams and those who live them. My mind whirled with unexpected images, but I couldn�ft believe any of them. I took a tentative step by enrolling in a degree program that was way out of my league. When I earned that first degree, I also earned the courage to take the next step, and the one after that.

What one person can do, another can do as well. Whether you go for a big adventure or use your life to cherish each day with the people you love, I wish you the best. However you look at it, life is a wonderland.

--Martin Sage