Note: For ten weeks, I am using the Dream Coaching® program to work on my dream of finishing and publishing a book about my trip to Uganda, and I am reporting on my progress in my weekly column. As always, my column is posted on my blog every Friday. To read the series from the beginning, start with the introductory post, dated May 3, 2013.

I realize that my roots are showing as well as my age, but I have to admit that when I hear the expression, “Dream Team,” the first place my mind goes is back to Chicago in the early ‘90s, when the Dream Team referred to Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls. Once I get that out of my system, Dream Team means something very different to me today than it did then.

Session 9 of the Dream Coaching program is about building your Dream Team. The idea is to compile a list of everyone who can help you achieve your dream, and the purpose is not only to figure out who might be able to help you, but to see more clearly the areas where you still need help, and to determine, specifically, what it is that you need.

And there is still plenty of help I need in order to fulfill my dream of finishing and publishing the book inspired by my experiences in Uganda.

I love what Marcia Wieder, the person who developed the Dream Coaching program, recommends as the two types of people you should consider having on your Dream Team: everyone you know, and everyone you don’t know. In this day and age, when virtually everyone – as well as every company and organization – has an online presence and numerous ways to connect through social media, it’s possible to get in touch with practically anyone on the planet. This is not to say you should try connecting with everyone on the planet, or that you should ask them to help you. It just means that you shouldn’t rule anyone out because you think they’re unreachable or that they would never consider responding to you, let alone helping you.

In doing the assignment this week of compiling my list of potential Dream Team members, I’ve included people who have already helped me in a number of ways, as well as people who may be able to help me with tasks and projects that are still ahead of me – formatting my manuscript, for instance, and designing the book cover. I’ve also included the names of celebrities, experts, and other authors who have ties to countries in Africa – especially Uganda – and who might be willing to read my manuscript and provide reviews or blurbs that I can include on the back cover when the book comes out in print. Because of the humanitarian work they do in Africa, Linda Gray, Oprah Winfrey, Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Matt Damon, and Ben Affleck are among those on my Dream Team list. As you might guess, they’re all in the “People I don’t know” category, but that’s no reason not to include them on my list.

By the way, if you are reading this, I’d like to put you on my Dream Team, too. I would appreciate hearing from you – my contact info is at the bottom of this column – if you have and are willing to share any experience, advice, resources, or recommendations that will help me take my project from “polished manuscript” to “published book.” I would also love hearing from you if you have any connections or suggestions for marketing and promoting my book once it’s published. And I especially want to hear from you if you can introduce me to George Clooney or Brad Pitt.

In the meantime, if you’re working on a dream of your own at the same time I’m working on mine, start making a list this week of people who could be on your Dream Team. Include the names of people who have already been supportive and helpful to you, and add those who could be in the future. If there’s any way I might be able to help you, feel free to include my name, too.

While you’re doing this, you should be getting more clear on what you still need to do, how best to get it done, and who can help you do it. Not only that, but you’ll be getting closer than ever to fulfilling your dream.

The column “Find Your Buried Treasure” appears weekly in the Chanhassen (MN) Villager. This column was published on July 4, 2013.
©Betty Liedtke, 2013

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