Dream to Reality Journaling Course
Hi! Welcome to the Dreams to Reality Journaling Course.
I’m Olivia O’Connor, the founder of Don’t Tell Summer, and I am so excited you’re here.
Journaling is an extremely powerful technique for uncovering heart desires and learning to be true to yourself.
Now’s a great time to grab a journal, your favorite cosy outfit and a space where you can have quiet, interrupted, visioning time.
Over the next 5 exercises, I’ll take you through the exact steps that I’ve used to transform multiple dreams into realities.
Throughout this course I may reference the #RadLivin festival I created this year. It was part festival, part conference and created to inspire you to do what you love now. We had speakers, live music and 300 attendees come from all around Australia and the US. I manifested media exposure and sponsorships with brands such as Airbnb, ING Direct, Contiki and Coca Cola and this was all done in under 6 months without any prior experience in events. I can tell you first-hand that this was created from the steps that I’m about to share with you.
These questions were specifically made to help you break free of fear, limiting beliefs and get clear on your heart-filled vision, while understanding how you can go about achieving it.
Now is the time to be open with yourself. What’s in your heart? What’s true for you?
Create a space for yourself where you can be uninhibited and write out your true desires. Take all the time you need.
Let’s do this!
Exercise 1: Creating a vision from the heart
When we have a crystal-clear, heart-filled vision anything is possible.
Tip #1: Centering into your heart’s desires
If you’re unsure on what your big dream or goal is and that’s why you’re here, take a moment to close your eyes and take in a few deep breaths.
Notice where your breathing and if you’re breathing from your chest or your stomach. If you’re breathing in and out through your chest, take your focus down to the middle of your stomach and feel yourself inhaling, expanding and then slowly exhaling.
Move your attention into your heart and think of these questions while you’re breathing in and out of that space.
Journaling Questions
Q: What would excite me? What would light me up with joy? If I could do anything. If I could create anything. If I could be anything.
Q: Who’s there? Is it just me, are friends around? People I just met?
Q: If I have a brand or idea already, if it could tell me what it wants to be, what would it say? (This is the exact question I used to figure out that the next step for Don’t Tell Summer was a festival. It can be pretty powerful if you ask and listen to your first instinctive response).
Q: How does my vision or idea feel? (what words can I use to describe how it feels or how I want it to feel).
Q: How will it feel to have achieved this?
Q: What does it look like? (Draw a sketch. Note – this is extremely powerful as it’s taking your words into another form of visual manifestation).
Q: What would I do or create if I had all the money in the world to create it with? (Often we limit our creative ideas because we immediately shut them down because we don’t believe we have enough money to create it. Use this time to think big – there are ways to get funding).
Tip #2: Can this be bigger?
Something that I personally do when I’m writing out the vision for my dream is after I’ve written out what a vision looks like or feels like, I ask myself: Can this be bigger?
I repeat that step and continue to write out a dream and then ask: can this be bigger? Sometimes I re-create a dream until it feels as big as it possibly can. I then look at what I originally created and realized that I was playing small, but that it helped me get my vision to where it is at the end of it.
By continuing to ask “Can this be bigger,” It allows your subconscious to kick in, which may have not been there when you first started to think of your vision.
Tip # 3: Vision boarding for the 21st Century
Download “Pages” through your App store and then you can grab and drop photos from Pinterest or screenshot images and put them onto your virtual vision board.
I love a virtual vision board because you can bring it with you wherever you are and update it easily. I am constantly updating mine; as humans we are always evolving and changing what we want and desire and so it’s nice to be able to effortlessly update it.
Look for images that describe not only want you want to create in your life, but images that embody how you want each element to feel.
Exercise #2: Find out what’s stopping you, aka what you’re afraid of
We’re capable of achieving greatness but often what keeps us from going for our dreams is fear.
Beliefs that we carry around with us, whether we’re aware of them or not, have a deep effect on us and so it’s important to get clear about what your fearful thoughts are.
If you aren’t making moves to go for your dream or are in the process of going for it and feel a bit stuck, find out what you’re afraid of or what your limiting beliefs are.
Q: Why am I afraid to do this?
Q: If I was to achieve this how would this make my life different? (sometimes achieving greatness is a fear because our life may go in a new direction).
Q: What is the worst case scenario? Can I accept this?
Just acknowledging your fears can help you to overcome them and lessen the power they have on you going for your dreams. Fear is inevitable, especially when you’re going for something that you’re extremely passionate about and hoping for a certain outcome. Once you can call out that fear may be there for the ride, but that you can accept that, it will make going for your dreams much easier.
Along with fear can be conflicting beliefs
Q: Do I have conflicting beliefs? For example, what if your dream is to be in a committed relationship, but you also believe that being in a relationship will take away your freedom? You can see how this internal conflict could continue to keep you from attracting what you want.
Maybe your dream is to start your own business but you have a belief that you aren’t good enough.
This step can be one of the most important steps throughout your journey because if you have a vision and don’t believe that you can create it, the chances are it won’t work.
We often hide fear with distractions.
Q: Am I distracting myself with something I don’t love so that I don’t have to take a risk or be vulnerable to do what I do love?
What I’ve realized in my own journey and the journey of my coaching clients is that it’s often the thing we’re most afraid of doing that’s actually the path that is best and most aligned with our purpose.
Q: What keeps coming up for me? What idea? What are people constantly telling me that I’m good at?
Get clear on the distractions.
Lastly, this is the question I was asked that immediately took my fear out of the equation and brought my purpose back to life.
Q: If I was looking back at my life 10 years from now, what would I regret not going for now?
Maybe it’s a career, creating something, starting a business, traveling, giving love a chance. What would you regret in the future if you didn’t go it for now?
Tip #1:
This is one of the most important exercises that you will carry with you along your journey. What you may be fearful of now can change after moving ahead with your dream and that’s totally normal. Continue to refer back to these questions, write new answers down, and release new fears that come up.
Exercise #3: Setting a Time Frame
Whether your goal is to travel, start a business, write a book or try something new, have a rough time frame for when you want it to happen by. Life is unplanned and it will take different turns, but having a guideline of when you need to achieve something is one of the best ways to help you reach it.
It helps to tell people around you about your goal, as well as when you are going to achieve it by.
Another benefit of having a time frame is that goals like pressure. If you tell yourself that you have all the time in the world to achieve them, you’ll likely never do them. Set a time frame and stick to it the best you can.
Tip #1:
Set a realistic time frame. As I mentioned, dreams and goals love pressure, but you don’t want to completely stress yourself out. Set realistic time frames for yourself and if you need to push things back a little that’s ok too.
Q: When would I love to do this, have this or be this by?
Q: Can I do this in a quicker amount of time if I focus more and get the support I need?
Write out 10 ways that you could be able to make your dream happen at a sooner date. For example, if you want to travel now but are short on cash, can you do some extra projects? Put up a room in your house on Airbnb?. List out as many ideas for bringing yourself as close to your dream and as quickly as you can.
Exercise 4: Grab a mentor(s)
When we’re trying to go for a dream that we’re extremely passionate about, it can feel as though we’re the only one going through it. In reality, there are so many people before us that have done what we want to do, or at least something similar. There’s a way to follow your heart and be completely true to yourself and your vision without needing to re-invent the wheel.
Reach out to those who have gone before you and ask them how they got there. Set up Skype calls, coffee meetings, Facebook messages… people are more willing to be transparent with you and help you to achieve your goals than you think.
If you can, meet with someone that you know or who is a friend of a friend just because it may be easier to get in contact with them. However, LinkedIn is a great way to connect with people and generally if you ask someone to share their expertise, they will be willing to do it.
The biggest part in all of this is to ask exactly what you want to in these meetings. Don’t be afraid to ask the big questions and be open, because now is your time to find out how you can make your dream happen.
Q: Who do I know that can help me with my dream? What part can they help me with?
Q: Who can I reach out to out of my friends and family to ask them about someone with the right expertise?
Q: Although I may feel vulnerable, can I make a post on Facebook asking for help, knowing that everyone feels vulnerable at times?
Tip #1:
Look on Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn. It’s ok if you’ve never met this person before in person. Start up a conversation with them, praise them for their achievements and ask if they would be willing to answer a few questions via email, coffee or Skype.
Q: What questions will I ask them? Write out as many as you can think of and then cross off any that aren’t truly something that you need to ask them. Be sure to highlight the ones that are most important for asking this specific person. Do this exercise for each person you’re going to talk to.
Q: Are there questions I’m afraid to ask but would help me get closer to my dream? (Now is your chance to ask what you need to know. Don’t be afraid to ask what you truly want the answers to – even asking about money.)
Exercise 5: Enjoying the ride!
Remember to enjoy the journey and have fun. It can be easy to get caught up on where you want to be from where you’re standing now. Celebrate the little wins and take it each day at a time.
You can get the best inspiration and creative ideas when you’re living in the moment and doing the things that you love.
Lastly, keep a positive mentality. If fear starts to come up, refer to the fears that you wrote down and know that they are just a part of the journey. We’re human, we’re going to have fear and there will be some days where you might feel that your goal isn’t possible, but it is. The quicker you enjoy the moment now, the more ease you’ll have with getting to where you want to be in the future.
Q: How can I add more fun to this?
Q: Do I need to rest? If you ever feel stuck or that your energy is getting tired and stressed out, don’t push it. Get out and do things that make you happy. You’ll come back rejuvenated and with new creative ideas.
Tip #1:
Make a list of friends that would be willing to help you with different aspects of your dream. Asking for support can feel a bit daunting sometimes but it will only make you closer to your dream. The people around you want you to succeed!
