Your Personality

Vroom! Being 110% Your Personality

Being who you are meant to be, your unique personality, is a lifelong task filled with many stumbling blocks and crossing guards. If life were always fair and if people were always loving, compassionate, magnanimous and reassuring then your lifelong undertaking would probably be a piece of cake.

Well, there is also another barrier to becoming and remaining who you are -- strangely the last variable in the equation of life is -- you. As you make your way through this Alice in Wonderland world you come to many crossroads and you must decide which direction to take to stay true to your beliefs, principles, objectives and dreams. Most of us want to be successful –though the meaning of success will vary. Individuals who remain true to themselves and their dreams of success are happier.

Reaching your lofty -- or not so lofty- goals increases your self-confidence. Additionally, you are more likely to be perfectly delighted with your portion of the American Dream and feel healthier, more vital. Let's start at baseline -- what would make your life happier and more fulfilling? Are you doing the things that bring joy and satisfaction to you?

Perhaps there is something about which you have dreamed, yet you are not confident you can achieve it. Some of your dreams will not at first appear realistic. However if you look more closely and carefully analyze the dream you may find a path. Steve Jobs found a path. Bill Gates found a path. JK Rowling found a path. It isn't even necessary to be as talented or brilliant as Jobs, Gates and Rowling. Each of us has a path.

To reach your dreams you should have a method of determining what can and what cannot be achieved. I cannot be 20 again, no matter how much thought, labor and planning I apply to finding the Fountain of Youth, no matter what Capt. Jack Sparrow says to the contrary, it does not exist.

I can, however, look and feel healthy and vibrant. That more achievable goal requires exertion (i.e., running, working out) knowledge and problem analysis (i.e., diet, supplements, relaxation). A word of caution here - a dream may appear to the inexperienced eye to be impossible - that does not mean it is impossible. The manager of the grand ole Opry told one young singer,

You ain't going nowhere…son. You ought to go back to drivin' a truck.

How wrong can one be? The singer was Elvis. The first Harry Potter novel bounced all over the place before finally finding a publishing home, and a small advance. The naysayers were not able to perceive the mesmerizing magic. Though these naysayers probably ended up in the unemployment line with a nasty hangover - remember, theoretically they were considered to be experts at the time. I have found - perhaps you have also, that experts are people from out of town who wear a suit. Trust your intuition - after you do your homework and thoroughly research your dream.

You can begin the exciting journey to your dream, your success story, by writing your dream in minute detail and sharing it with someone you respect and trust. Hopefully, this someone will have vision and creativity. Frequently, an objective other can perceive a door or window to opportunity that you have completely overlooked. Perchance, it was hidden behind a limitation or a blind spot.

This is part one of a series of three articles on reaching your goals, dreaming the impossible (Is it really impossible?) dream and beginning the journey. What do you have to lose?

I look forward to seeing you next time as we move toward your dream.

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