“Dreams are not reality; dreams have the power to create the reality we are dreaming about; all we need is the courage to believe in the power of dreams.”

― Amar Ochani

Have you ever dreamed of doing something and thought about it almost every day of your life? Have you given up on that dream or are you setting goals to achieve them?

I’ve been a dreamer for most of my life. Many of my “crazy” dreams seemed impossible at the time, but I obsessed over them and figured out ways to make them come true.

When my son Kaleb was born, I wanted nothing more than to spend every waking minute with him. At the time, I was working a 9-5 job and was commuting an hour each day. Like all working professionals, I was spending more time with co-workers than I was with my own family.

One morning, I saw him at the window crying for me and it broke my heart. That was the moment when I decided to turn my dreams into reality.

I picked up Tim Ferriss’ book, The Four-Hour Work Week, and negotiated a work-from-home arrangement on Fridays. I knew it was a stepping stone to working remotely full-time.

Keep in mind this was 2015 when the idea of working remotely full time was almost unheard of. 

I asked my manager if I could try working remotely for longer periods of time, but it was shot down. To top it all off, Angela told me, “You’re never going to find a company that will let you work remotely full time.”

Then one day, a good friend tagged me in a Facebook chain on the Dawn Wall or your impossible climb. You simply write your impossible climb and share it on Facebook. Here’s what I wrote:

Writing down your intention is powerful, but sharing what you wrote down on Facebook is even more powerful. 

After I shared that post, I started looking for remote jobs every night. Within a week of applying for a remote job, I had an interview with the hiring manager. Within two weeks, I received the job offer and turned in my 2-week notice to my boss.

That intention turned into the start of a great adventure. We packed up everything we owned and put it into a storage unit so we could take a road trip to the east coast to spend time with our family.

The next impossible dream was to get an RV and live on the road full-time. Angela and I researched every aspect of camping memberships, types of RVs, and getting unlimited Internet.

The prospect of living in an RV was exciting and scary at the same time. We even had family members voice their concerns about the idea, but sometimes dreams are so powerful they take a hold of you.

On my birthday in 2016, we took our maiden voyage in our brand new 5th wheel. We set off on a 5-month excursion to the west coast. When we went to Yosemite National Park and saw the Dawn Wall for the first time, the emotions hit me like a ton of bricks.

Fast forward two years later, I had the same strong emotions when we manifested another impossible climb—spending a few months in Asia to give my parents a chance to meet Kenji. I wrote a post from that experience, which you can read here.

It’s a hell of a thing to see your dreams turn into reality. It’s also a skill that you develop the more you do it. To help you pursue your dreams, here are 4 simple steps that I applied to do what seemed impossible:

1. Start with a strong vision of the future.
   
   To know what you want, you have to visualize what it will feel like. As the author, speaker, and neuroscientist, Joe Dispenza put it, “Be defined by a vision of the future instead of the memory of the past.”
   
   Check out this video on how to reprogram your mind:
2. Share your dreams with others. 
   
   When you talk about your dreams to others, you not only put the thoughts into the universe, you may also get help along the way and increase your chances of stars aligning.
   
   Be prepared for naysayers telling you it’s not a good idea. We had family telling us that RVing was a bad idea and list all the reasons why we shouldn’t do it. Listen to their concerns to help you think through the objections and use them as motivation to prove them wrong.
   
3. Take actions on a daily and weekly basis. 
   
   When I read the Secret while I was in college, I loved the concept of the Law of Attraction. The only problem was, it seemed to imply that you can attract what you want in life just by thinking about it.
   
   It’s your actions that turn you from a dreamer into a doer. Map out a plan with solid dates. Make decisions on a daily basis that align with your vision. I even quit a high-paying job when I wasn’t allowed to work from overseas.

Start Living Your Dreams.

When people say, “I’m living the dream” it tends to be in a joking way. For me, when I say I’m living the dream, I see it as the current state and result of creating a vision and taking action. 

Angela and I have lost many friends and family over the years and they are reminders of our own mortality. Life is too short to not chase your dreams.

If you have something you’ve always wanted, don’t wait for someday. Start taking steps today and do it with all your heart. Whether it’s months or years until it becomes reality, you’ll be glad that you did.