This was a wonderful greeting that met us one Saturday morning at Rainbow Bay Beach where we walk and swim most mornings.
The sign Beach Report is put out each morning to tell swimmers the current state of the swimming conditions.
We don’t normally see the addition of words like Living the Dream.
These words remind us to ask:
Are you living the dream with your life and business?
– Des Walsh & Suzie Cheel
When I was 10, I wanted to be an archaeologist. Something about the King Tutankhamen treasures touring the country inspired me, and I desperately wanted to find dinosaur bones. Then at some point, I found out that archaeology involved a lot of fruitless sweating, kneeling in the dirt, and being bitten by insects. I moved on to dream of becoming a childrenÂs book writer, which involved none of those things.
Are you working toward a specific lifeÂs goal, either personally or professionally?
For example, if one of your career goals is to become a famous speaker, giving keynotes all over the world for big-time fees, have you considered the travel involved? Time away from your family, hotel rooms, TSA inspections? Yep, thatÂs glamorous.
If your corporate goal is to bring in 10 Fortune 500 clients, have you thought through the realities of servicing an enterprise customer? Massive bureaucracy, expectations, slow decision-making…and reliance on a few large customers can be risky as well.
Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it.
The homework today is to review your goals, both written and unwritten. Take a half hour to visualize what your life would be like if you achieved them. Is it the life you want?
If not, you need new goals.
Image via Flickr CC: Mediocre2010
Going into business  for yourself can certainly be viewed as a dicey proposition.
If you are currently employed under the watch of someone else, do you leave the salary, benefits, etc. to venture off on your own? If you do, is it in the back of your head that a high percentage of small businesses fail within the first five years? Lastly, do you have the required drive and available funds to make it through the toughest of times?
With a national unemployment rate of still more than 8 percent, it should not come as a surprise that many people are taking that chance, that chance where they can potentially make something out of nothing and turn a business profit.
As someone who has gone through a pair of corporate layoffs over the last six years, it has become more and more apparent to me that job security for the most part is a thing of the past.
Unlike many of our parents who worked for one company most of their lives, many of us today sport resumes that list a couple of employers, even a half dozen or more in many cases.
Starting your own business can be downright scary, however the rewards can be downright impressive. Yes, the financial rewards are important, but what about that feeling of satisfaction that you built something from nothing and made it work?
While there are courses and coaches that can help the prospective small business man or woman, there is really nothing better than those firsthand experiences.
Yes, you will hit some bumps in the road, perhaps many. Yes, you will question your decision to start a small business at 3 a.m. when your loved ones and neighbors are asleep. Yes, you will sometimes, many oftentimes, wonder if leaving that comfortable corporate check every two weeks was really worth it.
Being someone who has given more and more thought to starting his own content writing business in recent months, I can simply say that I would never discourage someone from pursuing their business dreams.
None of us can say with certainty what the small business climate will be like a year from now, let alone a few months down the road.
If you start a small business and it ends up not turning out the way you wanted, never forget the fact that you tried.
In the end, isn’t trying to succeed at whatever you choose what life is about in the first place?
Photo credit: ehow.com
Dave Thomas has more than 20 yearsâ experience as a writer, covering news, sports marketing, SEO, press releases, social media and more. Youâll find Dave at:Â http://www.examiner.com/news-in-san-diego/dave-thomas
Each and every one of us has the opportunity to define the course our lives will take over time.
Essentially in life you have those who will never move far from their comfort zone and those willing to take a chance or two.
Now before I tell you which one I am let me state that those that choose to not take risks are not doing anything wrong by any means. When they choose to play their life cards close to the vest, they are no better or no worse than those that choose a little riskier proposition.
As for my story, I was always fascinated with California as a kid growing up in a middle class family back on the East Coast.
The Brady Bunch and One Kidâs Dream
Maybe it was watching one too many Brady Bunch episodes or the allure of warmer weather practically year-round, but something hooked me at a young age. Truth be known, I always thought the Brady kids lived in the coolest house, but weâll save that discussion for another time.
So as I worked my way through high school and college, I knew once my schooling days were over that a decision would present itself. Would I stand pat and stay back home for work the rest of my life or would I venture to the other side of the country, roll up my sleeves and give it a whirl?
As I pondered this decision more and more, the thought of starting up a business always appealed to me, but I also knew that financially I was not in a position to do such. Maybe I would join the Coast Guard, become a police officer or involve myself in the sports world, three other career choices that always intrigued me?
When my college graduation day finally arrived, I was then thrust into a little more of a hurry up when it came to making a decision on what route I was going to take in life.
After working part-time to have a little money coming in, I got my first full-time job as a sports writer for a local newspaper. Let me be quite frank, the money was nothing to jump up and down about, but at least I was not giving my parents any additional heartburn as to what their youngest one was going to do with his life once his college days were over.
Working for nearly six years with that publication, I came to the realization that while I enjoyed the work and the ability to stay involved in my local community, I was not totally satisfied. Something was eating away at me, something that I had the power to control.
The Vacation to Change a Lifetime
I decided to fly off to California for a weekâs vacation and check it out, you know, just to satisfy my craving.
After spending a week visiting San Diego and Los Angeles, my life was about to do a 180.
I returned home and told family and friends that I had to do it, I had to go live in California and at least give it a shot. Sure, it may be the dumbest decision in my life, both from a personal financial stand point and also professionally, but I had to take that risk.
So, with marginal savings, no job lined up and the reality that I would be some 3,000 miles from my comfort zone, off I went. I must point out that without two very supportive parents, the journey may not have even materialized in the first place.
Despite some ups and downs along the way, it is now nearly 18 years later and Iâm still calling California home. Whenever I go home to the East Coast to visit family and friends, Iâm always quick to think about what might have been:
Although I would have changed some things regarding this journey knowing now what I did not know back then, Iâm 99.9 percent sure I would have made the same choice today as I did some 18 years ago.
Donât Look Back on Life with Regrets
One of my older co-workers at the time back then told me that she really admired the fact that I was willing to take such a risk. As she informed me, she and her husband had a similar idea to try something completely different, but they did not, and now it was too late in life as they were raising a family and essentially entrenched in their lives back East.
My feeling at the time was quite simple⦠if California did not work out I was always free to come home.
My feeling was also that I did not want to look back with regrets years later that I did not pursue my dream of getting to California one day.
I canât say that Iâm a huge risk taker these days, sitting here knowing that statistically Iâve lived more than half my life.
I can say with certainty, however, that if I died today, it would be as a happy man. Quite simply, my dream in life has been fulfilled several times over.
Sometimes when I look at the palm trees, the ocean, the California license plates and more, I have to pinch myself and take stock of the fact that Iâm actually here.
No matter what life throws at you, donât ever let your dreams be extinguished.
Keep in mind that each and every one of us does indeed have the ability to dream and see those dreams come true.
I know one kid growing up some 40 years ago on the East Coast that saw his dream become a reality.
Photo credit: waycoolmusic.blogspot.com
Dave Thomas, who covers among other items advice on starting a small business and obtaining workers compensation insurance, writes extensively for Business.com.
Every week Suzie and Des send the most amazing thoughts and photographs from the beaches of OZ. The small missives they send may be just slightly more meaningful because of a dream I carry to return to the beaches I walked there 8 years ago.
I started writing this in 2005. This dream was four years old then. I still think about it more often than I might. It waits until more important things hit zero balance. That could take a few more minutes … Usually I don’t talk about it.
I don’t need vacations. At least I don’t lack for places to visit. I don’t spend lots of time thinking about things that aren’t on the schedule to be happening yet. But maybe it’s time that I start doing so.
If I did, I’d be planning to go to Australia. I’d see friends that I miss. We’d reminisce of times passed. We’d plan new times to come. We’d drink Australian coffee and have Australian wine.
I’d choose the coffee shop across the street from Bondi Beach — a table by the window where I could watch the people. I’d have my laptop on the table and fine Australian coffee with those narrow packs of sugar. What a writer I would feel like. What a writer I would be.
My friends would visit me there.
We would drink Australian coffee. I do like Australian coffee.
We’d road trip up the cliff with Australian wine and cheese, to watch the boats in the harbor and talk of Captain Cook — new memories to hold me over until the next time.
And we would drink Australian wine. I do like Australian wine.
A night walk by the Sydney Harbor bridge. I can’t resist the lights on the water. I’d be thinking wishes that could hug a moment into stillness.
Mostly, though I’d be with my Australian friends. The ones I knew before I came online and the ones that I’ve met since. It’s not right always hoping folks will come to me.
Five tiny diamond chips like tiny stars are mine. Two yellow, two pink, one white. They hold a promise I’ll return to see mu Australian friends. Five stars inside a tiny boomerang. I wear it on a chain since before my last visit in 2001.
I don’t need vacations. I need safe harbor with my friends.
Maybe it’s time I dust off that dream and find good reason to be tasting some Australian coffee and Australia wine.
What dream have you to left waiting? How will you know when it’s time?
–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!
This is a guest post from one of our attendees, Gail Lynne Goodwin, Ambassador of Inspiration:
Just a few short months ago, my husband and I had a visioning session together where we dreamed BIG dreams without limitation. We asked ourselves one simple question- “What would I do if I knew I could do anything, and knew that I couldn’t fail?”
That one simple question has opened doors and knocked down walls. Imaginary walls that only we saw- until we eliminated them with an easy change of our thoughts. What if there were no barriers? If you knew you were going to be successful, what would you choose to do? What’s the biggest contribution you could make?
In just 3 weeks we’ll be together at SOBCon09. In the meantime, I invite you to answer that question for yourself. What would you do if you could do anything and you knew that you couldn’t fail? Anything!
At SOBCon, we have the opportunity to get together with mentors and peers to brainstorm ideas, look at the possibilities and make life-enhancing decisions. I believe now is the perfect time to really look at what we choose in the world, rather than what has shown up by default.
Many of the masses lead as Thoreau said, “quiet lives of desperation”. As entrepreneurs, I’d like to think that our lives are more intentional and that we are all following our dream. Even so, when my husband and I asked ourselves this question, things expanded and our lives grew exponentially. Our Global Hug Tour launching this fall came from this exercise.
But hold onto your hat, for when you ask this simple question, your world will shift. Don’t believe me? Just try it.
When you ask this question out loud with another person you’ll be surprised at the result. You might have to remind each other- there are no limitations- you can’t fail.
Share your dreams. Vision together the “what if’s” of life. Pretend that you are ten years old and have that amazing, unlimited imagination where you still believe in unlimited possibility.
I don’t believe it’s possible to sincerely and intently ask this question without all kinds of possibilities coming up for you. It might be scary, but just remember the guidelines of the exercise. You can have anything. You can do anything. You can be anything. Anything! No limits. No restrictions. Just wide open space to fill to your heart’s content. How cool is that?!
The Universe will never give you a dream without the ability to make it happen. Therefore, if you have the dream, you already have the resources to make it happen- even if you may not be able to see it just yet.
This is so much easier than you think. You get to say “WHAT” and the Universe gets to say “HOW”. The most important step is in asking the question, “What would I do if I knew I could do anything, and knew that I couldn’t fail?” and all else flows from that.
Today, take the first step. Act and the Universe will follow. Take one baby step closer to your dream and watch what happens. It’s like the floodgates of the heavens open up and shower blessings down upon you just for taking action. One baby step turns into another until you’re jogging through life with a huge smile on your face, living your dream. Woohoo!
Above all, don’t let your fears stand in the way of your dreams. Your dreams are yours and yours alone. No one else can bring forth the dream or the light inside of you, so go ahead, and let it shine! The world needs your dream so feel the fear and do it anyway!
Please bring your dream to SOBCon and share it with me. I’m looking forward to not only meeting you, but supporting you to help make your dream your reality.
With gratitude and hugs,
Gail