Speaking up about your dreams

Speaking up about what I would love to be doing made me realize how important the act of verbally announcing your dreams are. Through this video, I’m sharing three reasons why you should be speaking up about your dreams.

If video isn’t your thing, or you like to refer back to something (I’m totally like that as well), feel free to check out the post below.

I was sitting in a coffee shop with a friend who is one of those friends where the moment you start talking, you feel like anything is possible. It was the perfect set up to speak up about my dreams. I could feel it in my stomach; that vision that had been circulating, spinning, and wanting to come out. I began to tell her about my dreams, and the more I got going, the more I opened up about what my big dreams were, and I mean dreams that felt huge (and still are). It was unrehearsed, a little shaky and my truth.

Why speak up about our dreams?

1. It brings them to life by giving them a form.

When we think about our dreams, it can feel like we’re looking far ahead, years even, and that they’re just a vision. What takes them out of your head, into your heart and out into the world is the act of speaking up about them. Speaking about what your heart wants gives them a shape, a form and brings them to life. They are no longer sitting there as a possibility, but something that can happen quicker than you could imagine. Once they’re out there, they no longer seem like some big, “maybe someday” visions; they’re real, and the more you speak up about them, the more they seem possible.

The first time I spoke about one of my big dreams, I didn’t have an elevator pitch; it was raw, and unpolished. At the time, it definitely seemed like something that would be far off or happen years from now. Then something shifted; I didn’t stop talking about it after my friend left, I began speaking up about it to whoever would listen.

Speak up about your dreams… a lot.

It’s not about speaking about it once; it’s about speaking about it as much as you can. The only thing that changed between the first time I spoke about it and the 30^th time, was that each time it seemed less of a “maybe someday” or “wouldn’t it be incredible if” and more of a “this is what I’m doing.” Each time, the dream seemed more attainable, and the chills became larger and larger because my energy had shifted; I knew that it could happen, and not happen five years from now, happen now.

2. It makes you accountable.

By telling your biggest dreams to someone else, it gets them out of your heart and into someone else’s. You put the energy of your dreams out there and that energy travels fast. They leave the coffee date with you, and go home to their housemates and tell them the awesome idea that you have. The housemates are then excited by it and the dream has been passed on, and begins to be in motion.

There’s also something about telling your dreams to someone else, where it makes you feel like you need to then go and do it. It’s human nature to want to feel consistent and so by announcing what it is that you would love to do or have happen, you kind of feel a sense of obligation. However, if you’re a month or two down the track and that dream doesn’t feel aligned anymore, give yourself permission to say no to something that isn’t lighting you up. You don’t need to continue to go for something just because you said that you would, if it doesn’t feel right anymore.

Speaking up about your dreams also allows you to be accountable to yourself by changing the way that you think about your dreams. You will notice the confidence in your voice shift, the more you talk about your dreams. Each time you will feel that what you’re saying is truer and closer to where you are now.

3. It builds a community

When you’re excited about something, the people around you can feel it. One of the best things about going for a dream when you’ve told the people around you, is that you have a support network of people that know what you would love to be doing. They can help you, connect you and support you. Give them the opportunity to help you build your dream by letting them know what that dream is.

Now it’s your turn! Go and speak up about your dreams. You can even share them with me in the comments below. Let’s show up for these dreams even if they seem huge or far off. By speaking up about them we can support each other in going for them.