The M.A.P. Maker

What are you waiting for?

"Life is short. Don't wait." You've heard it a million times, probably so many times that it goes in one ear and slowly drifts out the other. But it's an important message. 

Sometimes, it takes the raw edge of reality to drive the point home. I heard that voice of reality today in a poetry slam reading by Gabrielle Bouliane, a woman who had been diagnosed with stage 4 cancer shortly before the event. 

Her voice is a raw, pissed off, emphatic, passionate, and inspiring. And she has a message for you in the video below that I hope you stop for a moment and really, truly hear. 

[Hat tip to David Zinger Employee Engagement for the heads up on the video.]

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Time for a career change? Launch it with...
The Occupational Adventure Guide:
A Travel Guide to the Career of Your Dreams

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by Curt Rosengren, Passion Catalyst

Aim for your dream: Out of reach doesn't mean impossible

There is nothing like a dream to create the future. Utopia today, flesh and blood tomorrow.

~ Victor Hugo

If you want to ensure that your life is dull, flat and uninspiring, just repeat this little mantra over and over: "My dreams are out of reach. My dreams are impossible."

A silly idea, you might think. Nobody would consciously try to deflate the potential of their dreams like that. And yet that is precisely what so many people do unconsciously. They look at their dreams and assess them as impossible, or unrealistic, or pie-in-the-sky. And they do it over and over again.

Imagine a world where everyone took that approach. Nothing new would happen. No ideas would ever be developed. Life would be flavorless and dull. We would all be stuck in an endless grey loop of what has always been. 

Here's the thing. Dreams are inherently out of reach. That's where they belong! If they weren't, we would simply call them the next logical step. And yet, the fact that they aren't readily accessible is often used as irrefutable proof that they're impossible.

That's flawed logic. There's a big difference between out of reach and impossible. Unfortunately, many people see them as the exact same thing.That's no surprise, really, since often the only difference between out of reach and impossible is what happens in the space between our ears. 

What is impossible today is impossible tomorrow. It doesn't change. But what is out of reach today might be a little closer to within reach tomorrow, and even closer next month. Think of a ship sailing toward the horizon. How much farther can it see once it reaches the original horizon? What is within reach is always expanding.

Dreams expand your potential. They give you something to grow into. They give you a sense of direction that matters. They also take time, and effort, and persistence.

The question to ask about your dreams isn't, "Can I easily achieve it?" It's, "Can I take a step in that direction?" And then, "Can I take another one?"

Achieving the big dream is almost less important than what happens when you commit to moving towards it. Committing to that direction and taking those steps opens doors, creates connections, and yields results you would never have imagined when you were sitting in the status quo. 

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Time for a career change? Launch it with...
The Occupational Adventure Guide:
A Travel Guide to the Career of Your Dreams

--

by Curt Rosengren, Passion Catalyst

Big Dream Guidance System

The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it.

~ Michelangelo

Stop for a minute and really think about this quote. Apply it to your own life. How high are you reaching? Where are you selling yourself short? Do you have aspirations you won't let yourself pursue? Most of us have potential that far exceeds the goals and dreams we actually allow ourselves to have.

Part of the reason we don't aim as high as we could is that the idea of having a target that is so far beyond the horizon we can see feels scary. What if we fail? What if it really is out of our reach? What if we aim at it and fall short? "See? I told you it was all just an unrealistic pipedream!" Ouch! With thoughts like that, no wonder we avoid the big dreams. 

The Big Dream Guidance System

One way to shift how you think about those big dreams is to see them as a way to define the direction and scope of your efforts. Think of them as a guidance system, rather than goals that must be achieved. 

For example, my big dream might be to be able to reach millions of people and help them create a life that lights them up while making a difference that inspires them. The idea of that many people making the world a better place by living a life they love is incredibly energizing.

To be more specific, I might want to have a string of best-selling books. I might want to be one of the top speakers in the world, touching thousands of people at a time. I might want to be a regular on Oprah and other talk shows.

If I look at that as my Big Dream Guidance System, it tells me that my primary focus - regardless of scale - is to help people make the world a better place through a career and a life they love. That is a constant whether I am doing it at a local level or an international level.

It also gives me a scope: writing and speaking. Again, these are things I want to focus on regardless of the scale I achieve. And as I focus on the things within that scope, I can see that other things I might find really interesting and fun - travel photography, for example - won't necessarily fit. That focus keeps my energy moving in a direction I really care about most.

Step by step with sub-dreams

Having that direction and scope then allows you to dream targeted "sub-dreams," smaller-scale dreams that aim your energy in the direction of your big dream.

One of my sub-dreams might be a single best-selling book. Or even just having a book accepted by a publisher. Or writing a book - published or not - just to show myself I can do it.

This is similar to the idea of identifying a big goal and chunking it down until you get manageable bites. But in this case, it's about harnessing the energy inherent in dreams.

You may never reach your big dream. But when you use it as a guidance system instead of a goal, that doesn't really matter. What matters is that it helps you plot a course for your life that will leave you feeling energized, inspired, and engaged.

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Time for a career change? Launch it with...
The Occupational Adventure Guide:
A Travel Guide to the Career of Your Dreams

--

by Curt Rosengren, Passion Catalyst

Reinvent your story. Reinvent your world.

We are by our very nature pattern-seeking creatures. The patterns we find, whether through experience or education, form the framework for our experience of the world.

Our minds tend to make the leap from, "This is a pattern I see" to, "This is true." And when we make that leap, we start to look for more evidence to support that truth. That in turn can create a filter that no longer lets evidence counter to that truth through. The pattern goes from seemingly true to rigidly true.

Our patterns = Our stories = Our reality

One of the ways those patterns show up in our lives is through our stories about ourselves. We all have them. "I can do anything I set my mind to." "I can't do anything right." "I'm selfish." "I live to give." "I'm misunderstood." "I'm lazy." "I'm hard-working and industrious." And on and on.

Whatever story we have about ourselves sets the stage for how we experience life.

A few years back, I interviewed a guy who had been very successful in pursuing a passion-filled career while thriving financially. I asked him what was behind his success.

He said that it was at least in part due to being lucky enough to have had some early successes in his career. He took some risks and ultimately they paid off. That started creating the story that he has the ability to make things happen, and that risk is OK. That even failure is OK, as long as it doesn't stop you for good.

He contrasted that to his brother's experience. His brother had the same upbringing and had similar talents and gifts. They weren't all that different. But the brother had a series of failures early on that set the pattern for how he perceived the world. His story was defined by that early failure. He engaged the world with more fear, more timidly, and as a result he continues to struggle.

Truth is relative

Neither of those stories were strictly true, of course. They were both based on personal experience and the patterns that were set by how each brother interpreted that experience.

And that's the good news. Truth is relative. Much of it is based on what you believe to be true. And that truth can be sculpted and formed to give you a more positive view of what's possible. If you reinvent your story, you can reinvent your world.

In tomorrow's post, I will offer a simple exercise to help you start sculpting your stories, reinforcing the positive ones, and reinventing the negative.
 
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Time for a career change? Launch it with...
The Occupational Adventure Guide:
A Travel Guide to the Career of Your Dreams

Navigate reality to reach your dreams

When it comes to looking at the future, there seems to be two big ways people get stuck...

Lost in the dream: This one is a pie-in-the-sky wishfulness. Lots of big dreams, but not much happening to make them happen. This is the track that gives dreamers a bad name.

Trapped in reality: The basic message of this one is, "Forget all that dream crap. You're living in reality. Suck it up and accept it - this ain't no dream world." The horizon tends to be full of obstacles that get in the way of anything but the reasonable, pragmatic and dull.

It's probably no great surprise that I'm not a big fan of either of those modes of thinking. Like much black and white thinking, each of those paints you into a corner and keeps you from living a rich, vibrant, meaningful life.

Instead of one or the other, my vote is for both. Would it be nice if you could just snap your fingers and have your dreams fall in your lap? Sure. Is it likely? No. But that doesn't mean they're out of reach.

Navigate your reality

Rather than looking at reality as an impenetrable barrier between you and your dreams, look at it as simply the landscape you have to navigate on the way there. If you're hiking out in the mountains, just because there's a big boulder in the path doesn't mean there's not a beautiful glacial lake to enjoy on the other  side. The existence of one has nothing to do with the existence of the other. It just means you need to find a way around the boulder.

It's the same with your dreams. Just because you encounter obstacles doesn't mean that the dream isn't still possible.

Get off your butt cheeks and onto your feet

On the flip side, sitting on your butt thinking about how nice it would be to someday bask in the sun next to a pristine mountain lake isn't going to get you very far either. You have to actually find the trailhead and start walking. Your butt cheeks will never carry you to your dream destination. You have to use your feet and start taking steps.

Are you navigating reality on the path to your dreams? Are you taking the action you need to make it happen? If not, ask yourself, "What one step can I take today? What one step can I take tomorrow?"

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Curt Rosengren, Passion Catalyst ^TM

Unrealistic, impractical, outrageous dreams!

This morning Making the Impossible Possible by Bill Strickland found its way into my morning reading rotation. After only a few pages, I found myself inspired to jump up and blog.

As I described in a previous post sparked by Lisa Haneberg's podcast interview with him, "Bill grew up in what he describes as a very bad inner city community. Today, he is the President and CEO of Manchester Bidwell Corporation, an organization that blends business and social change."

In the book, he describes one of the underlying keys to his transformation from "just another aimless kid, coasting through school, bored, and disengaged" to CEO of an organization that has been the subject of multiple Harvard Business School case studies and recipient of a MacArthur Foundation genius grant:

...one of the greatest obstacles blocking us from realizing that potential is that we believe, or are told, the things we want most passionately are impractical, unrealistic, or somehow beyond our reach. The story I have to share with you is the pursuit of one unrealistic, impractical, outrageous dream after another, and the remarkable consistency with which those dreams have come true. That didn't happen by magic. It happened because I refused to be limited by what conventional wisdom, or other people, or the cautious little voice we all have in our heads told me I couldn't do.

I love the idea of serial unrealistic, impractical, outrageous dreaming. Turning one dream after another into reality. It recognizes that, as we get closer to one dream, there's something else that seems way out there. Something else to make us stretch and inspire us.

And it always starts with where we are right now. Sometimes pursuing a dream means jumping in and starting to build it right away. Other times we first have to start filling in the hole we're standing in so we can stand up and scan the horizon. Sometimes the dream comes rushing up to meet us. Other times we have to diligently chip away at it to make it happen. Whatever the situation, it starts by taking steps.

What's your unrealistic, impractical, outrageous dream? What dreams are you saying no to because you don't see an obvious, readily attained path to get there?

What one step could you take in that direction today? What one step could you take this week? This month?

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Curt Rosengren, Passion Catalyst ^TM

Adjust and adapt on the path to your dreams

A venture capitalist once told me, "I can tell you one thing about the business plan of anyone who comes through that door...it's wrong."

His point wasn't that the people who were seeking investment were bad at planning, or stupid, or unreasonable. It was that the business plans inherently represented best guesses. And as the companies move forward in the real world, the reality they encounter gives them more information that either confirms the plan or shows its flaws. And based on that information, they adjust and adapt. 

As this VC saw it, the company is rare that has the dream, executes it, and ends up with exactly what they intended. They have to make course corrections all along the way.

It's the same in our own careers as well. Often success isn't a matter of identifying a goal and rigidly grinding away towards it. It's identifying a goal that inspires you, taking steps towards that goal, and adjusting and adapting based on what you encounter.

Part of that process is taking the time to stop and evaluate. "What do I know now that I didn't know then?  How does that affect what I'm doing? Are there steps I'm taking that aren't working? Are there steps I need to take that I'm not currently taking? Does my goal need to be revised? Are there opportunities I see now I didn't recognize before?"

The more you can pay attention to what's happening and adjust and adapt accordingly, the greater your potential for turning that dream (or something like it) into reality.

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Curt Rosengren, Passion Catalyst ^TM

Reflect your vision of the future today

Are you living your past, or becoming your vision of the future?

It's a question prompted by a fabulous podcast from Lisa Haneberg where she interviews Bill Strickland, author of Make the Impossible Possible.

Bill grew up in what he describes as a very bad inner city community. Today, he is the President and CEO of Manchester Bidwell Corporation, an organization that blends business and social change.

During the interview, he talked about something his art teacher in high school said to him that would have a profound impact on his life. "You don’t have to be a reflection of your environment exclusively. You can be a reflection of your vision of the future."

Be a reflection of your vision of the future. I love that! What if we started making decisions and living our lives like that future has already happened, and the ripples of that vision are reaching back to us. What would we do? What wouldn't we do? Who would we strive to be?

The thing I love about the idea is how it turns the conventional way of looking at life on its head. We often give so much power to what has happened in the past, and what our current "reality" looks like. The result can be a little like walking in gumbo - sticky and slow-going. Maybe even completely stuck.

Being a reflection of our vision of the future, on the other hand, lets us focus on the potential. It is also a way to bring that dreamworld of the future (which can too easily remain always somewhere in the future) into the reality of today.

If who I am and what I do today is reflecting this future, what does that look like? Where am I at odds with that future? What steps can I take to bring myself back into alignment with the future?

What if you committed to living into your vision? What would you do more of that you're already doing? What would you change? What would you do differently?

 

Check out 101 Ways to Get Wild About Work

Curt Rosengren, Passion Catalyst ^TM

 

Daydreaming: Indolence or inspiration?

“Cherish your visions and your dreams as they are the children of your soul, the blueprints of your ultimate accomplishments.”

— Napoleon Hill

As we worship the gods of BiggerBetterFaster at the Temple of High Octane Achievement,  there seems to be little room for anything as unproductive and slow-paced as daydreaming.

But that's a short-sighted and, ultimately, self-limiting perspective. It's a little like being so busy that you don't have time to stop to eat. In the short-run you can do it, but in the long-run it's going to put a damper on your potential.

I started pondering the role of daydreams in M.A.P. Making after reading a post at I will change your life. As Peter points out, daydreaming can be a double-edged sword. It can be the beginning of something wonderful, or it can keep you good and stuck.

Ultimately, whether it is indolence or inspiration depends on you. Stop for a minute and think about your daydreams. What role do they play in your life? Are they planting seeds for amazing things in your future, or are they just something for you to focus on while you avoid taking action? Do they open doors, or are they just another installment in an endless tail-chasing loop?

Of course, we all have daydreams that never become reality. There's nothing wrong with that. But when our daydreams become an avoidance tactic for actually moving forward, then they deserve that bad rap they've gotten.

Try this. For the next month, pay attention to your daydreams. You might even start a daydream journal to keep track of them. Then look back over those daydreams and ask yourself, "Where is my future?"

You don't have to turn all of your daydreams into future reality, but if you ignore them completely you're selling yourself short. Somewhere in those daydreams are nuggets of possibility you can start to act on. And taking action is the first step in the alchemy of turning those dreams into the substance of your everyday life.

Check out The Occupational Adventure Guide

Curt Rosengren, Passion Catalyst ^TM

Embrace your blue sky vision (Don't hide your big dream)

In a recent conversation with a friend about where we want to go in our respective career paths, I asked the question, "What's your blue sky vision?" That is to say, in your ideal world, where do you want to take this? What do you want it to become? What do you want to achieve? What role do you want to play? Who do you want to be?

While she shared that blue sky vision with me, she also admitted to being hesitant to share it with most people in case they laughed, or thought it was stupid, or that it was over-reaching.

My response to her blue sky vision was, "Why would you even bother doing all this if you didn't have that big dream?" I loved hearing about the potential she saw.

Far from being silly, for me that blue sky vision sets the stage. It defines what you'll even allow yourself to reach for. It shapes how you think about what you do and where you're going. It expands the scope of your perceptions of possibility. It helps you get beyond the nitty gritty of making things happen and draw inspiration from where things could go.

As with most things, that blue sky vision needs room to grow. Rather than hiding it and only sharing it with a select few, I say lead with it. Let it out into the open. Let it help define people's perceptions of who you are and where you're going. Let it help define your own perceptions of who you are and where you're going.

Not everyone will get it, and that's OK. As Bill Cosby once said, "I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody."  But if you don't let it out into the light, the blue sky vision is almost guaranteed to stay overcast.

Check out The Occupational Adventure Guide

Curt Rosengren, Passion Catalyst ^TM