In 2024, dreaming can be our New Year’s resolutions. For you and me, habits may have replaced resolutions and are healthy good, but they too only get us so far in our daily routines.
This article is all about re-awakening your dreams so they can come alive sooner.
Let’s start with the tradition many of us grew up with…
New Year’s Resolutions
It was the conversation starter for the last week of the year. And for traditionalists, still is. I started that way but then stopped cold turkey one year after I caught on like many others… that resolutions are nothing more than a Fun Wish List.
I became aware that it’s self-defeating to come up with a list of arbitrary projects and meeting lofty self-improvement challenges before the end of January when life went back to usual… and to come up with dreaming visions that aren’t ours and don’t work on annual timelines.
That all sets us up for disappointment.
Mid-February is when most of us have stopped our well-intended new year crusades if not sooner.
Often, our ideas are not aligned with what’s actually in our lives, and we don’t know what’s ahead in life’s uncertainty and opportunities.
And that doesn’t just ring true for resolutions, it’s also for our daily planning and future aspirations we have.
I found one of my life’s work one year by accident during a transition. And that’s how it is in most of our lives.
Creating an arbitrary list doesn’t enlist our higher thinking into our plans. Or what the future holds for the world.
What we really want to know is: what’s best for us in this season?
We’re not the ones best to answer that. The Universe knows before we do and can align us if we pay attention to the signs.
We only have a limited view of what we know today and our past experiences. Our job is to connect-the-dots in our lives.
New Year’s Habits
A better way to set us up for success (where we’re better off by year end) is creating better lasting habits as a productive way. It’s less about meeting goals and more about the process and progress we make.
“Progress over perfection” became the mantra circa 2020, that I think is here to stay.
And habits are at the core of making progress even though habit making is not a new concept.
We’ve been making habits since we were kids, getting up, brushing our teeth, and going to school.
And if we were lucky, we had caretakers who helped us make and form good habits. Or we had a chance to start fresh as adults.
This is when we learned habits can turn into manifesting what we want into our lives as labors of love down the road. They’re the keepsake dreams we hold deep down inside us and that are meant for us.
Manifesting Our Dreams
Because manifesting is not something that happens overnight or when you snap your fingers with a calendar date in mind. It doesn’t work like that as much as we want it to. Darn!
…It’s years in the making. But then it turns out better than expected. Because in the slow cook dreaming process, you’ve become the person ready for the dream.
…And in perfect timing like a warm stew with balanced flavors.
When you look at it like that, then you’re less discouraged today. You keep on dreaming! You have a newfound purpose.
Dreams can take seasons and sometimes decades to manifest. And while waiting, we wisely stay productive developing skills, traits, and experiences we will need.
That’s always in our control until the timing is right for the dream again to reappear.
…When I was a kid, we threw birthday parties and I always got great gifts. One happy memory I barely remember was a tea set that I enjoyed with my stuffed animal friends. I dreamed of my sophisticated adult life when I was a toddler. 🧸
And that was part of manifesting today’s life where I still enjoy a fine cup of tea (while interestingly no one else in my immediate family ever got the tea bug!).
But, we do share the travel bug and shared a family vacation to Europe. After that, I no longer saw my neighborhood, town, and school as the only places I could live or be.
And that set the wheels in motion to manifesting travel dreams in my adult life. I saw the possibilities of adventure and excitement of visiting new places from my younger vantage point.
But I had to connect-the-dots from my younger past experiences, because I wasn’t taught to dream.
So here’s some of the things you can do in your new year that will ring out the old resolutions and bring in the new dreams (back again) that haven’t manifested.
1.Create space for dream ideas to come in. Space needs headspace. So if you start today, you can have better answers tomorrow when you sleep on your dreams and gain new ideas throughout the day.
If you never start with new ideas, then you can stay stuck. But if they’re in you, they can come alive. Like the travel bug I developed.
That’s why it’s good to feed the good bugs (gut ones too, but that’s for another healthy article 😉). Give the good ideas energy and let the bad ones pass through.
2.Dream like a kid. When we were kids, we had aspirational dreams from touch points in our lives even if we weren’t taught to dream.
I couldn’t wait to grow up because most my young life wasn’t on my terms. But knowing there was more out there, helped me to get through those years. Because then maybe in possibilities, I would have the resources and way to make potential happen even if I didn’t know what my dreams were.
And if we were taught to dream, we know how to take those ideas further to the moon 🌙 and give them daily life even if they haven’t panned out.
All we need is the belief that there’s a grander life out there for us than the one we’re currently in. Then there’s a good chance to turn our dreams into motion picture reality. 🎥
3. Night dream with intent. I used to think sleeping dreams were useless. But they can be a part of our thought life that can be used to our benefit.
If you look at night dreams as unique to you (just like thoughts), then you can pull out the good ones and come up with new ideas. And some of them are meant to be yours as most have you featured in them as the star. 🌟
Take the good ones and manifest a good morning. Let them inspire you to keep dreaming and believe for your real life dreams.
4.Dream with inspiration. When you see new places and ideas, your thought horizon expands. You get glimpses of how others live and what others have come up with as their dreams.
America’s Got Talent is one show that showcases dreams do come true and can become reality.
And sometimes inspiration from others is our dream play land and fairytale life that we can aspire to and sets our dreaming in motion.
5. Dreaming with your eyes closed. Bring out a scent that reminds you of a happy childhood memory to help bring alive your imagination.
Maybe hot cocoa, a candle, or something nostalgic from your hood. 👧🏻
Think of the details of that memory. Bring out what childhood or younger self dream can be fulfilled from the memory and still ring true in your life today.
Keep dreaming in the New Year! ✨I’m writing a book on the big dreams that were specifically meant for you and can be manifested for you as you develop YOU. If you want to know when the FREE book is available, signup to be on my list.
