Episode: # 16 Unlocking Your Full Potential: The Journey to Dreaming Bigger

The central theme of today's discussion revolves around the imperative of dreaming bigger and unlocking one's full potential. I invite listeners to recognize that even in moments of profound failure or stagnation, it is entirely feasible to aspire for greater heights and to design a life that resonates with one's deepest desires. I share personal anecdotes, illustrating how the journey towards realizing dreams often necessitates the identification and overcoming of limiting beliefs that may unconsciously hinder progress. It is vital to shift the perspective from what one does not want to a proactive inquiry into what one truly desires, thus fostering a mindset conducive to growth and self-discovery. Ultimately, as we navigate the complexities of our aspirations, I encourage us all to embrace the journey, recognizing that each step, no matter how small, contributes to the grand tapestry of our lives.

The latest episode of the Design Your Dream Life podcast presents a compelling exploration of the transformative power of dreaming bigger and overcoming the constraints of one’s current reality. Kara, the host, shares her personal narrative of adversity, detailing her experiences with financial setbacks and the emotional toll they took on her ambitions. This candid reflection sets the stage for a broader discussion on the imperative of recognizing and articulating one’s desires, even in the face of daunting challenges. Kara posits that the journey towards realizing one’s dreams does not necessitate an immediate leap into the unknown; rather, it can be undertaken through incremental actions that gradually build toward a more fulfilling life.

A significant aspect of the episode is the examination of limiting beliefs, which Kara identifies as critical obstacles that often inhibit personal progress. She elaborates on how these beliefs, frequently unrecognized, can dictate one’s perspective on what is possible. By sharing relatable anecdotes and practical strategies for identifying these mental barriers, Kara invites her audience to engage in a process of self-reflection. This process is essential for cultivating a mindset that is open to possibility and geared towards actualizing one’s aspirations.

In conclusion, the episode serves as an invaluable resource for those seeking to navigate the complexities of personal development. Kara’s message is clear: embracing the journey, acknowledging one’s fears, and confronting limiting beliefs are vital steps in the pursuit of a dream life. By fostering a spirit of resilience and encouraging proactive engagement with one’s aspirations, the podcast empowers listeners to embark on their unique paths toward success and fulfillment, reminding them that the journey is as significant as the destination.

Takeaways:

• Engaging in personal development enables individuals to unlock their full potential and lead more fulfilling lives.

• Identifying and confronting limiting beliefs is essential for achieving one's dreams and aspirations.

• Dreaming bigger can be approached through incremental steps rather than overwhelming leaps, facilitating gradual progress.

• Embracing the journey of self-discovery is crucial for personal growth and the realization of one's dream life.

• It is imperative to shift focus from what one does not want to a clear articulation of desired goals.

• The importance of journaling and self-reflection cannot be overstated in the process of personal development.

Links referenced in this episode:

• designyourdreamlifetoday.com

TRANSCRIPT:

Hey there, I'm Kara and welcome to Design your Dream Life podcast where we dive in and explore how you can use practical personal development to up level your life.

Whether you are looking to have better or deeper relationships, fix your problems with money, learn to love yourself unconditionally, leave a dead end or high stress career, or just want more happiness in your life. My friend, you are in the right place. Are you ready? Hello my friends and welcome to another episode of Design your Dream Life. My name is Kara.

I am your host. Welcome to the podcast. Listen. Today I want to talk to you guys about the ability to dream bigger and how to unlock your full potential.

Even if you have failed miserably, even if you feel like you're stuck, even if you feel like you don't even know what your dream is. Today I want to talk about all of those things. And again, this is not scripted.

Sometimes I play with my episodes and I don't know, it would be interesting to see if you guys know the difference and if you do, which one do you prefer? You can always email me@hellodesignyourdreamlifetoday.com and let me know.

But so, so some episodes I'll map out with bullet points and then I kind of go off the cuff or I'll create exercises and kind of have a couple different things open where I'll have some notes and then I'll do exercise and stuff like that.

And then other times I just show up like right now and I have nothing prepared other than I am just talking to you like I would be talking to one of my dear friends. So let me know if you know the difference, if you can tell the difference in the episodes and if there's a style you prefer.

Because honestly, I am here to help you, to serve you guys. And so I appreciate all the emails and the wonderful things that you guys send to me. It makes me so happy when I see awesome feedback.

And again, it could even be constructive feedback. You know, Carrie, you're talking too much about this.

Or I would really love if you talked about something like this or whatever, open to all of the things. But let's talk about dreaming bigger. And I get it. When I was in bankruptcy and I just, I had lost everything and I felt like just such a failure.

I honestly couldn't have even dreamed what my life would be like in the future or even that I would accomplish anything else. And so I want you to know that if you are not where you want to be and you feel like you can't Even think about that future or something.

It feels so out of reach that that's okay, too. Like, you can design your dream life in baby steps. You can still dream big, but you can do it in little micro increments. You know, some.

Maybe for some of you, dreaming big is just like, I don't want to live this life anymore. And that could be it. Like, that could be like, I don't know what I want yet, but I sure know that I don't want this.

But what I want to encourage you to do is I want you to start thinking about what you do want. And it's funny, I remember this many years ago at a personal development seminar, he's like, I want you to pay attention to this. It's like, I.

I want you to go out. Because he's like, everyone says what they don't want. They definitely know what they don't want. But very few people know what they do want.

So when you ask them a question of like, hey, well, what do you want with this? What do you want with this? Most times, people will be like, well, I don't know. Like, I know I don't want this and I don't want that. And so I.

I challenge you to do that this week. Wouldn't it be fun? Pick something when you're talking to a few different people and be like, well, what do you want?

And see, if they tell you what they want and if they actually tell you what they want, just be like, that is amazing that you said what you want and not what you didn't want. Because a lot of people start with, well, I don't want. And the reason is, is because I think our brains are so programmed. We're programmed to.

These are things I don't want. But I want you to shift your perspective.

And so if you are somebody who's like, I don't know what I want my dream life to look like, or I don't even know how to start. Okay, all right, so what do you want? And if. If you don't know, if you had to take a guess, what do you want? What are the dreams that you want?

What feels so big, fat and scary that you're like, I can't even let myself go there. And I want you to think about that dream or all the lies and all the things you're telling yourself why you can't have that, right?

Maybe it's, you know, your life, maybe it's with money, Maybe it's a vacation. Maybe it's with your relationship. Maybe it's with all of the things. But what are the things that are holding you back?

Because I will tell you this, if you want to unlock your true potential and you want to dream big, you need to start identifying what limiting beliefs are holding you back. Because, my friend, a thousand percent, I guarantee that's what it is. And some of you might not even know what a limiting belief is, right?

And a limiting belief is something that. That you're telling yourself unconsciously, maybe even.

And so unconsciously means it might even just be playing in the background of your brain and you're not even aware. And it's so funny, somebody once told this to me, and it made so much sense to me.

They're like, you have your conscious mind, which is like me talking right now, and then you have your unconscious mind, and you don't know what your unconscious mind is doing, and it feeds your conscious mind.

And so if you think of your unconscious mind as if you have a whole bunch of tabs opening your browser running in the background, that's your unconscious mind. I'm like, oh, gosh, if my unconscious mind is like me, I've got like a gazillion tabs going all the time. Um, but that is your unconscious mind.

And so again, you need to. There's. There's limiting beliefs there. So common limiting beliefs. I'll give you a couple. I failed before, so I'll fail again.

Who am I to dream this big? It's too late to start. It's too early. I'm too old. I'm too young. I'm too fat. I'm too thin. I'm too, like, all of these things, all of these reasons.

Reasons why you can't do what it is that you want to do.

And sometimes those things are just so big that you never even take the first step to achieving what you truly want because you're just like, what's the point? I'm never gonna get it anyways. Limiting belief, right? Those are the things that you're telling yourself. But what if you could have all of that?

What if you could? Now, I think here is the common misconception that people think. They think that if they dream big, then they'll fail big.

And possibly, I mean, I feel like I failed big, but I wouldn't trade any of it, because where I am now is the most amazing place I've ever been. And so what if. What if you had to go through a storm to get to paradise? Would you do that? Are you willing to do that?

Are you willing to go all in on your dreams until you actually achieve what you want. And again, sometimes those dreams shift and change.

Sometimes you have to make little pivots or big pivots and that's all okay, but it's part of the journey. And I want to encourage you to embrace the journey of living your best life. Life. And it's not an easy path. For sure. It's not.

There will be be people who rip you down. There will be people who don't understand you. There will be people who will be like, I don't know who you are, you've changed.

There will be people who want you to stay stuck and stay small because that's where a lot of people find comfort. But on the other side of that is a life that is just magical. And again, I don't want to fantasize or romanticize that there's not.

That doesn't happen in your dream life. Certainly it happens.

But with your ability to conquer your limiting beliefs and get over and build your resilience muscle, you are able to rebound from those situations. There's nothing, there's never going to be a life that there's no problems in it. Right. Again, that.

That famous quote that I really love and I don't even remember who said it, but it's like learning to dance in the storm and not waiting for it to pass. And I think I did it backwards. But not wishing for the storm to pass, but learning to dance in the rain. I love that.

Because the reality is, is that in all of this, in this whole journey that we're doing together, there's going to be moments of setbacks, there's going to be amazing moments of just such joy that you feel like you're vibrating happiness everywhere. And there's all the stuff in between. There's the highs, the lows and all around.

But at the end of the day you have to ask yourself this, is it worth it? Do you really want to change? Do you really want to go after it? Most times people do. Most times people are like, I do, but they use that word. But.

But I, I think I'm going to fail. But I think I'm going to let myself down. But I think I'm going to let my spouse down. I think I'm going to let my family down.

Again, these are all limiting beliefs. And what would happen if you did let them down? Would you be able to move on with that? Absolutely. You would. Because you could figure anything out.

Because you can figure anything out. And if you start like adopting that type of Mindset of, like, you know what? I'm just going to decide to start going for it.

And I know I'm going to mess up. I'm going to fail, and I'm going to be fine with failing.

I mean, I say that, but then I'm going to work through all the shit that comes up when I fail. But I'm going to be open to failing. So let's. Let's rephrase that. I'm going to be open to failing.

I'm going to be open to figuring out what my dreams are and where I want to go. I'm going to be open to receiving feedback along the way. But I'm also going to learn that this journey is about me.

It's about me becoming a better version of me so that I can show it better for myself and for my family and for my friends and for all the people around me. But it's my time to start focus on me. And I want to say, like, if you look at all of the people who are, you know, super successful, like, they're.

If you start looking at characteristics, like, I want you to know there's not a lot of difference between people who are super successful and you or me were all the same. They just happen to work through things a little bit differently. It's not that they're smarter.

It's not that they know and have a secret sauce that you don't have. It's. It's none of those things. You know, when I. And I, like, I always will remember, like, I used to go for lots of walks, and I just.

I always remember thinking, like, I don't know, maybe. Maybe I'm never gonna bounce back from this. Maybe this is it. Like, maybe this is the rest of my life.

And I remember feeling so deflated in that I remember feeling it. So then maybe you're asking me, Karen, what shift? What shifted?

You know, how did you go and turn around from feeling so deflated, feeling like a flavor. Feeling like a flavor, Feeling like a failure, the flavor of failure, to turning it around and getting back on the horse.

And I will say at some point I was just like, okay, I have grieved. I have done all of the things, like, I've gone through this process, and now I just realized, like, I get to decide.

I get to decide what my next chapter is. And certainly I might fail again. And certainly. But what I do know is I don't like it here. I don't want to stay here.

If I'm getting really honest with myself, I Don't want to stay here. So if I don't want to stay here, what the fuck am I going to do? I've got to do the different things.

And then for me, again, it was reminding myself of how powerful I truly am and that I actually do have all the answers if I just get quiet and I just, you know, start going inside. And again, for me, that was surrounding myself with people that I could read things.

Back then, podcasts weren't necessarily a huge thing, but audiobooks were. I remember having the CDs. Oh, goodness, how aging is this of me? But I do. I have the. Oh, my goodness, the CD packs. Oh, man.

I had a bunch of different ones of those listening to CDs. So I was listening stuff to audio. I was reading books, I was taking. I decided that I'm gonna go all in on me. I bet on myself.

And I promise you, if you bet on yourself, you will always win. And even though at times it feels like you're losing at the end, you will win at the end of it all. You will.

Because you only ever lose if you give up. You only ever lose if you throw in the towel. And so if you.

If you go into this with that mentality of, like, I'm going to do this until I am, like, I have it locked in my brain, like, it's decided, like, I'm going to change, like, I'm going to live my dream life. I'm going to and whatever, get, you know, obviously more clear of what that dream life is, you know?

And again, you just have to start taking those first steps. And those first steps give you the momentum that turns into something else. That turns into something else. That turns into something else.

And then before you know it, you're like, whoa, look at what I've just created. Maybe it's taken you months. Maybe it's taking you years. It took me years. I am not like, listen, you guys, it took me years. Years.

I'm gonna say at least five years. At least five years to process all of it. And now, so I'm trying to share all of this so that you guys can speed up.

No matter where you are, you can speed up, speed through this process. You don't have to take as long as I took because I was literally just struggling my way piecing this together.

And so for you, you need to just decide that is the biggest thing. You want to dream bigger. Decide that you're going to dream bigger.

Decide that you're going to start asking yourself what it is that you want on A daily basis. What do you want? What is it? Because I promise you, if you start asking yourself the questions, you will start giving yourself the answers.

And I want you to start journaling. And whether that's even in a notepad on your phone or I love pen to paper, I'm a journal nut.

I want you to start focusing on that and really connecting with your true self and also connecting with what are you afraid of? Because that is part of unlocking your full potential is really identifying what is truly underneath. What. What are you so afraid of?

And let's go there, let's write it down, let's first identify it, and then let's talk through it.

Let's talk through why you don't need to think that way anymore or how can we reframe that limiting belief so that it's no longer holding you back that you've. You've been able to commit and connect with it and been like, okay, I, I get that I failed before, so I'll fit. Like, so I'll fail again.

I failed before, but it doesn't mean I'll fail again. I failed before because I failed before. And I've learned lessons, so I'm much. I, I'm smarter now. I know I have more experience.

Like, there are things that you can do, but if you don't slow down to realize what the heck is going on, you're never going to be able to dream those big dreams and then also unlock your full potential because those things kind of go together. So with that, my friends, that is it for this week's episode. I hope that you. Oh, I really. My dream for you.

My dream for you is that whatever is holding you back, whatever is maybe heavy on your heart or unconsciously in your mind, that you're able to identify with it, connect with it, and start to heal it.

Because being able to heal those things that are going on generally from your past is one other huge step in the right direction of living your dream life. Next week we are going to talk about, I think we're going to talk about small wins. Small wins to big victories.

So just becoming your own cheerleader because, goodness gracious, you are the number one fan in your life and you should be. You should be. And so are you treating yourself that way?

All right, my friends, if you have not picked up the design your dream life e book, you can start there and get ideas. I fully believe that if you want to have a dream life, you really should join the entrepreneur path.

You don't necessarily have to join the entrepreneur path, but you can also just join the digital economy, which will allow you the freedom to work anywhere. And so if you go to designyourdreamlifetoday.com, go to the e book section, you can pick it up.

It's only like, I think, 5.99, so if you want to go check that out, give it a read. Have an amazing week, my friends, and I'll see you on the next episode.