We all feel disappointments in our lives from time to time.  The reaction we get from others about things that are important to us is disappointing, sometimes even when it is very positive.  But because it did not fulfill our expectations it resulted in disappointment or we lose our enthusiasm for a bit.

This kind of thing happens when we are thinking in terms of expectations instead of possibilities.  So what if someone didn’t react the way you were expecting and hoping?  Things like that are going to happen in your life over and over.  But if your goals are understood to be only a possibility for another higher purpose then you can easily bounce back and get back on track. 

When things like that happen get away from it all maybe by just taking a comfortable drive alone in your car.  Go back to your dream of the legacy of your life.  How does this disappointment affect that legacy? 

Actually it does it no harm at all!  In fact it is an opportunity to enhance that legacy by your example to your loved ones of how you handled disappointments and turned them around into positive possibilities.

Then review the situation objectively without any of the disappointment thinking.  What are the cold hard facts and realities?  Did you do something with the wrong intentions or did you have unrealistic expectations?  What are all the positive results that came from that unexpected reaction and situation? 

Make a list of all the positive possibilities of how you could turn this situation into something powerful for yourself and your loved ones.  What are all of the positive ways that you can think of that will enhance the big possibility of the legacy of your life and help your loved ones and others?

Now begin to select the best ones of these and focus on what you can start doing right now to make that possibility come to life, to be exciting and powerful and fun.  That is an example of how to use the ideas toward the life of your dreams in everyday life when you feel disappointments. Visit this site regularly for more blogs about how these ideas can be used in your life. 

And, go to the following link, fill in your name and email address and click the submit button and you’ll receive a link to download our free e-workbook immediately. It will help you start thinking in terms of exciting new possibilities for your life, which is the first step in believing you “can” do and have what you want out of life.  

Go to:  http://jerrywwillis.com/_mgxroot/page_10744.html and submit your information to receive a free E-Workbook to start the journey to the Life of Your Dreams.  While you are there review the www.jerrywwillis.com website to learn how to order the book explaining “A PIL for Happier Kids (and Parents) - A Purpose in Life that makes sense to people like me”.

Love,

Jerry W. Willis

www.jerrywwillis.com

http://thelifeofyourdreamsbooks.com

Many people want to change their lives, yet they just don’t know how. Here’s a reader who wants to make a BIG life change:

I need to change my life! Currently I work as a restaurant supervisor at a large hotel here in California. I have this dream to work in London. I don’t have any savings at this point. How can I make this dream a reality? I am 52 years young. Thanks!

Wow! It’s good to see that you know what you want, and you are fairly specific about this. You want to live and work in London. If you work as a restaurant supervisor at a large hotel in California, it should be “doable” to find a similar job in London, if that is what you want. However, you need to start doing your homework right now.

You don’t mention whether or not you have ever been to London. If you haven’t actually traveled there, you might first start saving for a trip to London to see if it really is the place you’ve been dreaming about. Then, once you’re there, you can do some investigating. Find out what you need to do in order to move to England and work there. If you travel there, it will be easier to find out this information.

No doubt, you will need some sort of work permit and you might need to actually have a job set up in England first in order to get this permit. But you might be able to get a permit once you get there and start searching for a job. Either way, you need to know this before you can make other plans. So, either make plans to travel there to get more information or use the Internet to find out as much as you can about what is required to live and work in London.

Next, do you work for a chain of hotels? If so, could you be transferred to their London hotel and work in the restaurant there? Find out.

You don’t say whether you want to stay in the same line of work that you’re in now. So maybe you would like to do other work in London. Figure out what type of work you really, really want to do in London. Then, start searching for that type of work on the internet. There are all sorts of job boards. Just scout around on them to see what types of positions are available.

You might also find an online forum with members who live in London. Is there a forum where people talk about the best restaurants, hotels, etc. in London? If so, join it and just “listen” to the conversations there for a few weeks. Eventually, introduce yourself and tell people about your plan to move to London without giving them too much personal information. You might be surprised at how helpful people can and will be.

Any kind of move will require money. Figure out what it will cost to move to London. You don’t say whether you will have household items and furniture to take with you or whether you’d be happy renting a room in someone’s home or you hope to find a furnished apartment. Consider all the possibilities, then see which is the most “doable” option for you at this point. It might not be the ideal housing arrangement at first. But if it will allow you to live in London (which is your dream), once you have worked there for a few months and have accumulated some cash, you can find other options.

You might also look for other online forums related to relocating, then you can find out how other people decided to make a big life change by moving to another country.

Everyone has dreams. But to make those dreams come true you have to start taking action. But taking action can be fun! And, once you start to take action to make your dreams come true, you’ll be suprised at all the assistance that seems to start coming your way.

In my new book, The Life of Your Dreams - Building Your Life and Career Around the Things You Love Most - you’ll find out how realizing your life’s purpose can help you attain the life of your dreams - whether that life is in California or England. The book will be available in 2008, so we hope you’ll read it.

Good Luck!

Go to:  http://jerrywwillis.com/_mgxroot/page_10744.html and submit your information to receive a free E-Workbook to start the journey to the Life of Your Dreams.  While you are there review the www.jerrywwillis.com website to learn how to order the book explaining “A PIL for Happier Kids (and Parents) - A Purpose in Life that makes sense to people like me”.

The other day my wife, Nanette, and I were talking. I said something I want to share here because it is part of my message of living the life of your dreams.

Nanette loves decorating and designing. And me - well not so much. I love money and the ideas I am sharing in my book. And Nanette - well, not so much.

I said something like this: “Nanette, you know how you love decorating and designing things? When you wake up in the morning the first thing you do is look around the room and see things you would like to do and change. When you see me, the first thing you think about is whether my clothes match or not ( which they sometimes don’t). Well, that’s the way I am about the ideas in my new book and about money. These ideas are just part of me, like the way you feel about decorating and designing things is part of you.”

Now, here’s what I’d like to share with you who are reading this right now. I realize I will never become that interested in decorating or designing things. And Nanette will never be as interested in writing and money the way I am. But the beauty of our relationship is that we accept and celebrate our uniqueness, the things that make both of us who we are, even though we are very different in many ways.

The first thing I think of when I wake up is my new book and how I hope to get my message across to people everywhere. I used to wake up and the first thing I thought of was something about money and savings, but this new message has taken its place because it brings together all the things I’ve thought and wondered about my entire life.

Each of us is born with certain unique interests and we just naturally think of them. We haven’t chosen them over people and other things in our lives. They just are. When these thoughts and ideas are accepted and encouraged it makes us even happier.

The Bible calls them “talents.” Best-selling author Barbara Sher has the same message - that we are each to bring out those interests and find our work related to them. She isn’t advocating changing your spouse, just how you spend more of your time. It is motivating and energizing and fun!

My message is the same. We are to find and recognize those talents, our unique potentials, and bring them forth because that is where happiness lives for us. In my mind at least, my message extends the concept that we are to do the things we love but to do them with the purpose of being “in service to” our loved ones. I am to think how bringing forth my best potential at this time is, and can also be, a blessing to my loved ones. Then I am to help them do the same, which means to help them bring forth their talents in service to their loved ones. That is Love (the verb), and it is part of the never ending Circle of Love.

That’s also the Christmas message, which sometimes gets lost in the process of the cultural ritual of buying and giving gifts. The purpose of gifts is to make the person happy. But we all have so many material things. What will make us happiest is acceptance and support as we find and bring forth our potentials.

Happy holidays,

Jerry W. Willis

Go to:  http://jerrywwillis.com/_mgxroot/page_10744.html and submit your information to receive a free E-Workbook to start the journey to the Life of Your Dreams.  While you are there review the www.jerrywwillis.com website to learn how to order the book explaining “A PIL for Happier Kids (and Parents) - A Purpose in Life that makes sense to people like me”.

Love,

Jerry W. Willis

www.jerrywwillis.com

http://thelifeofyourdreamsbooks.com

As the author of The Life of Your Dreams - Building Your Life and Career Around the Things You Love Most, I plan on speaking about my book at many events next summer.

To prepare for that, I’ve enrolled in Toastmasters International to improve my public speaking skills.

Here I am with toastmaster, Rose Sanders-Likes, preparing to give my first speech.

For many people, public speaking is their GREATEST fear.

Yet, it’s only when we step out of our comfort zone - at least to some degree - that we begin to fully live the life of our dreams.

What FEAR is keeping you from living the life of your dreams?

Try to start facing that fear if you want step out of your comfort zone and into the life of your dreams!

Generally, when you begin to face your fears they aren’t nearly as scary as you imagined them to be.

Go to:  http://jerrywwillis.com/_mgxroot/page_10744.html and submit your information to receive a free E-Workbook to start the journey to the Life of Your Dreams.  While you are there review the www.jerrywwillis.com website to learn how to order the book explaining “A PIL for Happier Kids (and Parents) - A Purpose in Life that makes sense to people like me”.

Love,

Jerry W. Willis

www.jerrywwillis.com

http://thelifeofyourdreamsbooks.com

Here’s another question from a reader who’s having trouble building his life AND career around the things he loves most and reaching his unique potential right now:

He says: “I want to spend more time doing the things I love, like writing, and that seems to be the most important thing. But right now I am so busy with family and friends and home that I just can’t spend enough time writing to suit me. What should I do in times like these?”

To answer this question, look back at your mission statement. That’s the beauty of such a statement, it lets you make decisions based on your true mission or purpose in life.

If you haven’t developed a mission statement for yourself, try this one:

The purpose of my life is to reach and enjoy my full unique potential at any given time and to help as many other people in the world as I can do the same thing - live up to their own full unique potential at any given time and enjoy doing so.

Since your family and home seem to be needing so much of your attention right now, look at your mission statement and design your time based on your mission.

Since you wish to reach your unique potential at any given time, right now your unique potential may not be as a writer - because you won’t be helping the people you need to help (your family) at this particular time if you’re busy writing.

Instead, you probably need to reach your unique potential as a spouse, parent, grandparent, etc. right now, devoting your time and energies to this.

Still, you should let your family know that you have other goals to attain, and these goals involve having the time to focus and write.

Help your family realize the importance of these goals - not just how important these goals are to you, but how important they are for the people who will read and benefit from your writing, too.

Discuss your mission statement with your family so they understand your purpose in life.

They’ll realize how important they are to you, just from reading your mission statement since part of your purpose in life is to help everyone reach his own unique potential.

Encourage your family members to develop their own mission statements - or use the one provided here - and design their days around their own missions in life. Once they start doing this, they’ll realize how we all need to work together, giving each other time for private endeavors, yet also making time to be together and help each other.

As your family sees you “living” your mission, and not just talking about it, they’ll grow to respect your mission and want to help you accomplish it.

Living in accordance with one’s mission statement is not a struggle.

Whenever you feel yourself struggling in life, go back to your mission statement and use it to help you LIVE your mission.