July 2006

Amazing Dreamer Contest

We are seeking Amazing Dreamers, perhaps famous, or your next door neighbor. Maybe even you! Who do you know who is following their heart, taking risks, doing interesting, fun or cool things? This is your chance to tell the world about your dream accomplishments and/or highlight someone else. Who inspires you? Who do you know (personally, or not) who has made a dream come true?

Share your “story” and
Win a Personal Dream Coaching Session with
America’s Dream Coach, Marcia Wieder.

Tell us in your own words why you or this person is an “Amazing Dreamer”. The Grand Prize winner will receive a personal Dream Coaching session with Marcia. The top ten Amazing Dreamers stories will be featured on itunes and will win a year’s membership in My Dream Circle, Marcia’s personal Dream Coaching Club.

To register and learn about two more bonus gifts, visit www.amazingdreamers.com.

Breaking Bad Habits

What’s stopping you from achieving your dreams? Is there some habit or behavior that you keep repeating and all the while continually complaining about it? There is strength in recognizing our weaknesses and power in changing them. If you want to make a serious change in your life for the better, identify your so called “bad habits.”

For some, when the pain gets too intense, the loss too great or they can no longer tolerate a situation, then they’ll do something about it. I get like that when I hear myself whining and complaining about the same old thing over and over. That’s when I must make a change. The more I can’t stand something the more motivated I am to change it.

So being honest with ourselves is an essential first step. When I coach people on the obstacles that may be slowing them down or even sabotaging their dreams, often it comes down to behaviors that can be easily corrected. But it begins with honestly assessing and recognizing what it is.

Common bad habits often include: over scheduling, over thinking, over analyzing. Other behaviors that may stop you include procrastination or never completing anything, saying yes when we mean no and vice versa. The next step is to choose to change or break the habit. Once you choose to change it, you can create a “personal practice” to help you.

A personal practice is something that you can easily do with the intention of changing or eliminating what no longer serves you. I also recommend these practices to develop or strengthen your “Achilles heel” or weak spot.

Here’s an example. One of my clients is a talented artist who complained that she never had time to paint. She lamented that she couldn’t stay focused and often felt distracted.

I suggested a simple practice where for one week, one hour every morning, whatever she was doing, she would complete before she moved on to something else. That meant if she was checking her email and the phone rang, she wouldn’t answer it. At first she thought this was crazy and that this would stifle her creativity. Nonetheless, she agreed to give it a shot.

The first day she couldn’t stay focused and was quite upset. The second day she noticed she was having all kinds of self-judgment, baling and making the practice wrong. She questioned her own willpower, but even more than that, her own personal value and worth. Was her dream worth making a priority? By day three she lasted almost the full hour. By the end of the week, she was enjoying it. She claimed to be feeling freer and breathing a little easier.

She decided to expand this personal practice to 30 days. At the end of the month, she was receiving so much value from her new found clarity, that she expanded the length of her practice to the entire morning. Mornings are now office time and every afternoon becomes quality time to paint. After three months, she had completed more art then she had in the previous year. At the end of six months she had sold many new pieces. She was on track with her dream of being paid for doing what she loved. A little structure actually allowed for more creativity. That’s often the case.

Identify what bad habit you are ready to transform. Create a simple practice that you can do every day or a few times a week. Recognize and celebrate your success, however small. And if you find you can’t make the change alone, hire a Certified Dream Coach to assist you. Click here for info.

Want to learn directly from Marcia how to break a bad habit. Tune in live on August 8th or download anytime. Also receive 10 e-books by joining My Dream Circle.

August's DreamTalk Guests Include:

Marcia Wieder, president of Dream Coach Inc., Creating Personal Practices

Marcia will interview two of the featured speakers for the upcoming Inspiring Speaker workshop.

Jim Pelley, CSP, President, Laughterworks

Arthur Joseph, founder of the Vocal Awareness Institute

Other Guests for August include:

Aldonna Ambler, Ambler Growth Strategy Consultants, Inc, Achieving Accelerated Growth With Sustained Profitability

Victoria Post, Spirit Alive, Where the Spiritual and Practical Meet

Big Dreamers Share

  • Peggy accepted her job offer in France. She wrote, “You helped me deal with my limiting beliefs to see that there was a way to achieve my dream without sacrifice to my family.”

  • Being blind doesn’t stop Vicki Post who now has her own radio show, A Call to Greatness: www.7thwavenetwork.com.

  • At age 53, Judy Henry just earned her Masters in Information Technology, graduating with a 4.0 GPA and fulfilling a live long dream.

  • In the last 3 weeks, Mark Moses raised $70,000 for the Children's Hospital of Orange County. Read how his son’s emergency brain surgery inspired him and others. active.com/donate/ironman4choc

Dream Coach News

We love sharing your dreams and achievements, and we want to share ours with you, too! Here's what's happening in our world:

Next Month: Taking Serious Steps Forward

Dream Quote

“When you come
to a roadblock,
take a detour.”
~Mary Kay Ash

Dear Marcia,

We received many wonderful emails about the article on Faith. Here's one..

You are right, faith is the answer. I am 42 years old, pursuing a Ph.D. and under work and family related stress. I have always bounced back from my “lows" with motivational books. That’s how I transformed from a shy, below average student to becoming exceptional in my studies.

But now, no matter what I do I simply can not "get myself going". I used to pride myself on my will power, but it’s gone.

After reading your article, I realize that once we reach a point in our lives where we have achieved the goals we had envisioned (through our personal will) but our soul tells us that there is something greater, external motivation and will is not enough. We need to draw upon a higher source of divine power because this is beyond our limited vision. Only through faith can we draw from this source. But before we are able to see the light sometimes we have to go through some pretty dark moments.

A. from
Malaysia

*************

Dear A–

Thank you for your generous and insightful email. I could not say it any better, so I won’t try.

Warmly,
Marcia

Need help? E-mail your questions.


MLM Teleclass with Marcia

Dream Coach: Secrets of Leaders & Top Performers: Dream Coaching is a totally fresh approach that ties together vision and dreams with strategies and results. Learn a proven method to personally be more effective, to improve the leadership abilities of your team and to achieve results quickly. Date: 08/16/2006 Time: 9:00 PM ET Click here to register.