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[Note: This is the 3rd article in the series How to Make Your Dreams a Reality.]

Growing up, I spent a lot of time thinking about the purpose of life. In church they would tell you the purpose is to go to heaven and to be a good person. “Why?” I always thought. There’s no question that being a good person is essential for living a fulfilling life. But what’s the point? Why do anything at all?

Why is a meaningless question. The reason being, why always leads us in an infinite loop. You can always repeat the answer to “why” with another “why.” The only time the question really ends is when you answer “because it’s fun” or “because I enjoy it.”

This took me a while to accept, but the purpose of life is to enjoy it. If you’re trying to find the purpose of life, by looking for something outside of life, you’re never going to find an answer. That’s because the purpose of life is life. Read more

[Note: This is the 2nd article in the series How to Make Your Dreams a Reality.]

I’ve wasted a lot of time in my life doing what works. I can’t count how many times I’ve used this excuse to stall pursuing my dreams.

• I went to college because that’s just “what works.”
• I go to a job and sit in a cubicle for 8 hours a day because “it works.”
• I don’t work on the weekends because I feel I need to reward myself for a week’s worth of drudgery. I have to say… “it just works.”
• I do the expected things. I try to make art because I’m supposed to be creative. I read because I’m supposed to learn. I dress a certain way because I’m supposed to be cool.

It’s not working. Read more

[Note: This is the 1st article in the series How to Make Your Dreams a Reality.]

We have all had incredible dreams at some point in our lives. As children there are no limits to our imagination. We want to become a space ranger, a superhero or a magical medicine woman that saves lives and whisks people off to safety in the face of impending danger.

When we’re young we’re told that we can be that space ranger or have that amazing life that we dream up in our racecar bunk bed. We can do anything we want if we put our mind to it. Right? Read more

Let’s face it, in our society the dreamer isn’t usually the most popular person. Contributing to the economy (shopping) and being productive (being a cubicle slave) are more esteemed than people with silly dreams and frivolous aspirations.

But if we can’t live our dreams, what the point of life? Simply to survive?

I want more than survival. I want more than security. I want to actually wake up and be excited about my life.

In order to do that, we have to shed ourselves from all the shoulds society has placed on us. We have to have the courage to do things that are beyond our known powers. We have to have the guts to forget what we think we can do and what others think is possible.

You can’t solve a problem at the same level of thinking as you created it.

We need to move to a different level of thinking if we want to live our dreams, instead of fantasizing about them. We have to transcend the mindset of limitation and ascend to the mindset of liberation.

So that’s why I’m starting this series on Living Your Dreams. Over the course of the next few weeks I’ll be posting each article in this series. You can bookmark this page to check back for new articles, or simply subscribe to the feed for updates.

Here’s what we’re going to need to learn::

1. How to Create a Dream Sanctuary. (How to start believing your dreams are possible, again).
2. The Number One Dream Killer: Doing What Works. How to renounce the mainstream and embrace the unstream.
3. How to Find Your Purpose. Because if you don’t know what your purpose is, what’s the point?
4. Making Your Dream a Reality. Ie. how to stop making them just a fantasy.

Check back here in the next few days for the first post in the series. Let’s make our dreams a reality and not just a forgotten wish.

For free updates on how to live your dreams subscribe to Illuminated Mind.

Marrying my wife was the best decision I ever made. We have an amazingly close relationship, and we’ve also had our share of ups and downs like anyone else.

Despite the luck I had marrying my wife, our relationship still takes a lot of work and patience. I’ve made plenty of mistakes. I’ve also seen the ugliness that is failed relationships (I’ll spare you the details).

I’ve avoided writing about this subject for a while for a couple of reasons. Firstly, I don’t want to seem like a know-it-all or that I have relationships figured out any more than anyone else. They’re a very personal thing and your relationship will inevitably be different than mine. Secondly, just like anyone, I’m still learning myself. Read more