What is your dream?

That was the theme of the meeting and of my presentation at GROW last week. GROW stands for “God Renewing Our Women,” and it’s a new women’s ministry that was started at my parish last September. Because of my background and experience in helping people achieve their dreams, I was asked last August if I could do a presentation on the subject.

I still remember the day I received the request. It came in an email I received while I was in Uganda –pursuing a dream of my own that, not so long ago, I would never have believed was even possible, let alone that I would be living it.

So I emailed back my response: “Yes, I think I can do a presentation on that.”

At the start of the program, I told the group that it was my intention for everyone at the meeting to go home that night with a big, bold, brave new dream to start working on, plus three specific tools for achieving it. We then spent some time going over the “tools” – which are non-traditional, yet crucially important for success – and I explained how they work, and why they’re so necessary.

And then it was time to dream.

A dream isn’t the same as a specific goal, at least not at first. It starts out as more of an exploration. It isn’t where you decide precisely what you are going to do, how you are going to do it, and by when. That part will come later, but first you need to take time to imagine and consider all the possibilities without putting any limits, boundaries, or conditions on them. Only by dreaming in this way can you discover what you are truly capable of, what you really want to accomplish in your life, and what it is that will give you the most satisfaction, fulfillment, and reward.

The work I am doing in Uganda didn’t start out as part of any dream that I had, but it grew out of my dream of becoming a professional speaker. It’s nothing I could have anticipated when I started, but had I NOT started pursuing that dream, I would never have discovered what I now see as a calling to Uganda, and something that has enriched my life in more ways than I could ever have imagined.

The dreams that many of the women at the GROW meeting created for themselves were powerful, ambitious, and exciting. And for those who weren’t quite able to come up with a dream of their own in the time we had, I suggested they start out with, “My dream is to discover gifts and talents that God has given me, and use them in a way that honors Him, benefits others, and brings me personal satisfaction and fulfillment.” They could use that as their own dream, or as a “launching pad” into an exploration of their own.

I drove home from the meeting thinking about what life would be like if everyone pursued a dream like that, or some variation of it. Can you imagine what a wonderful world that would be?

It would certainly be MY dream come true!

The column “Find Your Buried Treasure” appears weekly in the Chanhassen (MN) Villager. This column was published on January22, 2015.
©Betty Liedtke, 2015

I welcome your comments, but please be aware that all comments will be moderated and approved before appearing on this blog. This is to protect all of us from unwanted spam.