Turning dreams into reality

As founder and CEO of Dream University, US coach Marcia Wieder travels the world inspiring people to makes their dreams into reality. The best-selling author of 14 books including ‘Making Your Dreams Come True’ and ‘Doing Less and Having More’ today lives in Lisbon and shared some of her knowledge with the American Club of Lisbon.

Small in stature yet charismatic, Marcia Wieder is a champion for dreamers, urging them to put their dreams into action.
The life coach who has made appearances on Oprah and The Today Show has counselled audiences all over the world from Russia to China, while her books have been translated into several languages.
She has advised US presidents such as Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan and George Bush Sr. and founded Dream University where she has 1000 Dream Coaches to lead her work, some in their own consultancies, others bringing her message to companies, communities and even schools.
Marcia says a dream is simply something that you want and are made up. Some are based on need, others on desire. (like writing a book or travelling around the world), but the dreams that come from your purpose are the most profound.
This means the essence of knowing who you are, and by knowing who you are, the quality of your dreams and life will actually change.
At Dream University they teach C. B. A. – Clarity: get clear about what you do and don’t want; Belief: believe in yourself and your dreams and prove that you are by taking Action.
The life coach says that for most people the hardest step is getting clear about what they want. The skill that she developed, more than any other when it comes to making dreams come true, is discernment: the ability to say enough! No, thank-you or No way! Saying no to those things where you have a choice.
“If someone asks you to do something and you don’t have to do it and don’t want to do it, you could consider saying ‘no, thank-you’”.
“Clearing away space not only helps us get clarity on what we do and don’t want, it also helps get clarity on who we are and learning to say ‘no’ gives us more freedom and flexibility to choose,” she says.

Structural tension

Using the principle found in nature of structural tension, Marcia says tension will resolve itself in whichever direction there is a greater pull. She likens it to an elastic band, with your reality at one end and your dream at the other. Whichever one you are committed to, is the direction in which your life will move.
Marcia also says that what most people do is compromise their dream down. They say, for example, they’ll write a book but then don’t set up realistic timeframes to do the outline or the treatment. “You can’t just take a big dream and put it on your ‘to do’ list without a plan”.
Instead of compromising down by thinking that you don’t have the time, the money, skills or resources, do what big dreamers and visionaries do – they demonstrate they are more committed to the dream than any doubts they may have or the reality behind the action they are or are not taking evert day. “If a dream just stays in your head, it has little chance of survival”.
Marcia Wieder points out that there is a very different energy around dreaming than problem solving.
“The difference between dreaming and problem solving is dreaming can lead to creating something, problem solving is getting rid of something. While problem solving is a useful, necessary and essential skill, if all we’re doing is problem solving, we’re going to lose our passion.”
The dream coach says that what gets in the way of dreaming are self limiting beliefs, doubts and fears. Every obstacle is either an internal issue of a limiting belief about oneself, a dream or the world, or something that requires a strategy, a plan and an action step.
“In order to master manifestation (the ability to achieve dreams) you must master the skill of enrolment. This means sharing your idea, dream or opportunity with others in a way that inspires them to join you, help you, hire you or invest in you. You need to inspire them and invite them and most of us are not good at the latter.”
The magic phrase is not can you help me but ‘would you be willing to explore’ and inspiring to explore possibilities with people is one of the main ways of eliminating the obstacles of not having enough money concludes Marcia Wieder.