Even Superheroes need Sidekicks

As this is a blog for dreamers, I assume that most of us have thought about making something worthy in their life such as changing a bad habit, founding a non-profit organization and saving the planet from global warming.

People all over the world are doing great things, but there are also millions bursting people with bright ideas who fail in turning them into action. Does this mean that some people are better than others?

Of course not! We all have the opportunity to try, try again and then keep trying until our dreams come true and we become superheroes in real life.

Now, I'm developing the superpower to write and post in blogs, share my dreams and inspire people all over the world (or at least I'm trying to). It's great, isn't it? But how is this possible? I have never thought I could do it, before this month!

The answer is really simple: I'm not doing this alone.

Recently I enrolled a Massive Online Open Course in Coursera.org about creativity and innovation. Here is where I met Alessandra, who kindly invited me and Lucy to join her crusade to find dreamers all over the world and collect all their inspiring stories together.

Dreamers, we truly encourage you to contact us and share your experiences, dreams, ambitions and successes. If you are currently working for your dream you will find here people willing to give you advice or a boost to succeed.

Arnoldo Del Toro
Jr. Dreamer

"Just decide what you want and it will happen". Francois Brillon's words.

Two years ago, my life was going so-so. I was going nowhere with my career, my situation at home was difficult as well. Our schedule was sometimes way too crazy and was causing lot of stress. Other parents would know what it is to have 2 young children starting at school while managing our full -time jobs at the same time!

I'm not sure exactly why, but one day, I decided that was enough and that I was going to fix all of it. I had no idea how, just decided that it will get fixed, and fixed soon. That was the turning point. Deciding to fix it make all the difference for what happened after.

Starting from this moment, I stopped complaining to myself and to others. To my surprise, I then started seeing opportunities to fix it. And then, almost without noticing it, I started to act toward fixing all of it, just like I had decided.

I managed to get help from a counselor who helped me understand a few things I needed to change myself. Then, I registered to a course on a related subject and discovered there the neuro-linguistic programming. This is a proven technique in psychology which explains how your thinking influence the way you act and therefore your destiny. I then read a book about it and started applying the principles on my day-to-day life.

This excellent book is Get The Life You Want by Richard Bandler. The title may let you think that this is yet another book selling dreams without giving you practical means to realize them. In fact, it's the complete opposite. The book is well-written, easy to read and is serious at the same time. It gives concrete advice on how to apply the neuro-linguistic programming in your day-to-day life. Those tips are easy to follow and furthermore, they work! Trust me, that's an independent opinion. I'm not at all related with the author, editor or anything. I'm just a fan of this technique!

As of now, I can say that some of my dreams and wishes came true already and I'm in good shape to get to the greatest ones done too, especially now with the CIC (Creativity, Innovation and Change) course I'm attending.

For example: I started and keep exercising, something I never did all my life. The most I lasted in a gym was 1-2 months! I'm now green belt in karate and have been practicing for more than 2 years. I also lost 10 pounds, consulted a nutritionist and am now eating way healthier than before. Taking care of myself was the very first and important point.

Then, new opportunities opened at work, allowing me to shift to do something I like better. As a consequence, the relationship with my colleagues and supervisor improved drastically. I then decided I was going to take great vacation with my family (after couple of years not taking real vacations). Some opportunities showed up as well regarding this shortly after and it happened, 2-3 times in fact, not just once. At the beginning of this year, I decided that I was going to work on improving the situation at home too. I read a book, learned a few things and the situation is improving as well now. :-)

Finally, seeing that investment in funds for retirement are going nowhere and having the profound desire of communicating what I learned over the last 2 years, I started a longer-term project (see Millions of Stories). I had an overall idea, but wasn't too sure where this was going. I paused it for a while but it was still in the back of my mind. I then fall on the CIC in Coursera this summer, decided to take the course and discovered that it is opening me to a wide network of resources which now make my huge dream look closer to me than never before. Would you believe that I decided that for my project I was going to tell more than 1 millions of stories to children all around the world? Yes, that's the goal I've set to myself. Ambitious right? Especially starting from nothing. No longer than 2 years ago, I wouldn't even think of setting myself such a goal. Now, I'm realizing that by simply deciding that it was going to happen, again it is happening!

In short, I learned something very important in those last 2 years : I need to first decide what I want and be convinced that it will happen because I want it. If I do, I can stick to my goals no matter if at this very moment it seems not possible or too far ahead to be achievable. All the rest show up by itself, opportunities come to me and I just have to take them and move on with them.

A simple example to show you this is so true... have you noticed how sometimes you decide you want something, like new clothes, a new car or anything. You start imagining it, how it would be if you have it... then you start seeing it in the real world around you more often than before. That's because by deciding you want it, you setup your brain to be alert of anything around you that would lead you to what you want. We do this all the time for little things in our life without even noticing. Now, you know that this is also possible for greater things, much greater ones!

Just decide what you want and it will happen. :-)

Francois B.

From words to images: Emili's dream.

mujer
posada
en el borde
de los sueños

Emili Bermudez is a Spanish artist from Santa Cruz de Tenerife (Canary Islands). To have a look to her work click here: Emili's photos

She tells us her story:

Since I was born I've been surrounded by love and art, in all their manifestations. My father was a great reader, a professional singer, amateur photographer, and apprentice carpenter. In my house there was always music, books, the smell of sawdust and developing products. With him I learned to appreciate beautiful things: visits to art galleries, walks with him carrying a camera around his neck, car trips with music ... And so I grew up. So no wonder I started scribbling on blank sheets with little thoughts, I got lost in bookstores looking at works of great artists, caressed the keys of a piano. Gradually my imagination, my creativity grew, as well as my need to express myself, to take outside everything that was inside me. I started writing little poems in prose, but felt it was not enough and I needed to express more. Like an iceberg, there was very little that appeared on the surface. Then, out of nowhere, the picture appeared. I used to couple my texts with images of other artists and, after many years training my eyes with wonderful visual works, I was buying my first secondhand camera. Almost without realizing it, I was surprised by merging two passions: I took pictures which I edited until they could almost talk by themselves and I coupled them with my prose. Gradually, without realizing it, I was fulfilling a childhood dream: I wanted to be like all those people who taught me that expressing themselves through art, words, light, sound, enriches the soul and brings us closer to our true selves.

Now I'm really close to realizing my dream: editing a photographic and prose book which shows how I learned to appreciate the world and its beauty: Emili's project.

Why this blog?

Hi dreamers,
this first post aims to let you understand the utility of this blog.
I firmly believe that having dreams is essential to have a good life and to spread happiness in the world. 
This blog wants to collect stories about people who dream, who have managed to realize their dream or who want to learn about the "art of having dreams". Reading about dreams' realisation will generate hope in the world and will help you to think that turning your dream into reality is possible.

Alessandra