I have a confession to make. (I feel like I am always making confessions on this blog, btw...)I am a scribbler.I scribble things down constantly. Every time I get an idea – a flash of insight from the heavens (or so I think) – off I go, scribbling down the idea in my trusty go-with-me-everywhere notebook.

Though sometimes I scribble about clothes I want to buy, a new recipe to try, or a book I want to check out, more often than not I am scribbling about Think & Grow Chick.What can I say, I’m obsessed! This blog has been my baby since 2009. I am ALWAYS writing down ideas, thing to improve, and stuff to try out.The other day, I noticed an interesting pattern in my notes. Under the section where I write my goals and vision statements, I noticed they all say something like this:

“Think & Grow Chick is a burgeoning personal development company for women. Every year, I want to conduct workshops, host conferences, and work with women one on one, all while maintaining a popular blog and authoring books.”“I want to have a successful off-line component to TGC where I do in-person speaking & teaching with women…”“Goal: speak/teach at conferences”

Those are all very real notes that I’ve written to myself. I pulled them straight out of all my various notebooks.What do all these scribbles have in common? Easy: I want to speak, teach, and host workshops. But here’s what bothered me: I haven't spent any time making this a reality. Not for real. As in, I haven’t even written a speech. I haven’t come up with a workshop program. I haven’t taught any “in-person” audiences anything. This is a problem if I’m serious about living my dream.

Are You Living Your Dream?

Take a second and close your eyes. (Well, you can keep one eye open so you can read this.) Think about your dream life. What are you doing? What do you see? What are the reoccurring themes?Okay, open your eyes. (Eye?) Look around you. Look at your appointment book. What does your life look like? Does it match what you envisioned in your mind?If you're like me, it probably doesn't. Despite what my mental picture (and all those scribbles in my notebook) describe what I say I want my life to look like, it doesn't reflect it. I'm being honest here: my dream is to run a personal development company. To host events. To facilitate workshops. To speak in public. But my reality...well, I'm furiously editing this post so I won't be too late (I'm already late, SMH) for my 9 to 5. There is a severe incongruity with my dream and my reality.Why?

Why You Aren't Living Your Dream Right Now (And why I'm not either...)

There’s a quote Rick Warren tweeted recently that completely slapped me in the face: “You can’t think your way out of fear. You have to act your way out.”How many of us sit around, waiting for the day when we aren't afraid of something? Maybe there's a conversation you know you really need to have with your boss, but you're scared. Or an opportunity you really want to take but you're scared it might not work out. So you sit around and do nothing (!!!), waiting for the fear to pass.As the above quote (tweet?) states, that's not how this works. The only way to get over fear is...to be fearless. Yup, even if you're scared, you need TO ACT as if you have no fear. And just like that, you won't be fearful anymore. Your present reality will then match your desired one.This same principle works when it comes to living your dreams. The only way to get your present reality to match you're desired one is to start acting as if it is already the case.

The Power of Baby Steps

Before "The Oprah Winfrey Show" and OWN, Oprah worked hard to become a news anchor at a local TV station in Nashville. Before the NBA Championships and the Olympic gold medals, Michael Jordan practiced for hours over the summer just to make it on his High School's varsity basketball team, from which he had previously been cut!Too often, we set our sights on the results of living your dream. We look at Jordan's Nike shoes deal or Oprah's billionaire bank account and we say, "Yeah, I want that. That's my dream."This is flawed thinking. Endorsement deals, a gazillion dollars, fame -- these things were not the original dream of Oprah and Jordan. Oprah's dream was to speak on stages and be the best she could be in television. Jordan's dream was to be the best basketball player. Both of them started executing on their dreams right away by maximizing those small, first opportunities.What if Oprah was like, "no, I don't want to be a two-bit news anchor on a no-name local TV show!"??? Or if Jordan was like, "Naw coach, I'm too good to play on this High School basketball team..."???Both of them were in on a secret that millions of people will go their whole lives never learning: the road to your ultimate dream is paved with instances of living your dream on a smaller scale, over and over again. Simply put, you can't get to where you want to be if you aren't willing to start where you are, right now.

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Malcolm Gladwell notes this in his book “Outliers” – many of the top people he studied put at least 10,000 hours into their dream before they actually began living the dream. They started where they were.This truth was even more apparent to me as I read our bookclub book, “Life in Motion: An Unlikely Ballerina,” Misty Copeland’s memoir. Even though she had unfathomable natural ability and everyone told her she was going to be a star, she still worked her butt off at ballet from the very beginning. She danced the local rendition of The Nutcracker at 14 with the same passion she does for the world's most prestigious arenas now.

Whatever your dream is – say you want to be a journalist or run your own PR firm or start a photography studio – you need to start doing it, at least on a small scale, now.Wanna-be reporters could start a blog reporting on events or even volunteer for a local publication just to get the experience.Wanna-be PR divas could start by volunteering to publicize local restaurant openings or the launch of a budding author’s new book.Wanna-be photogs should, above all, be outside taking pictures! All the time!I’ll say it again: whatever your dream, start living it, as best you can with the resources you have, now.

How to Get Started

Get Clear on Your Vision. What is your dream? Write it out as a narrative, describing what you desire to do on a daily basis. Note the key activities you see yourself doing.What Can You Do Right Now? This need not be the final, fancy version of your dream – is there a “baby step” you can engage in right now, even for free?Start Doing It. ’Nuff said.Rinse and repeat the above checklist, each time “leveling up” on “what can I do right now?”. For instance, for me, I may start by developing a workshop for high school girls. Once I successfully do that, I could try my hand at speaking to a small group of professional women. Continually strive to improve and challenge yourself and before you know it, you’ll be living the dream!*Now off to take my own advice...*

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Recommended Reading: Secrets of greatness: Practice and hard work bring success

How Bad Do You Want It?

Talk to Me:

What’s one dream you have but you haven’t been acting on? What’s one thing you can do right now to start living your dream? Leave a comment and let me know!

(Original photo of the beautiful singer Ayo by oouinouin. All edits and text by me)