well the difference between a dream and a fantasy like winning the lottery is
that in a dream you can actually do something about it when it comes to
lottery tickets short of buying a ticket buying a lot of tickets doing a lot of
hoping there's nothing you can do to make it happen but there's a paradox in
dreaming because if you never go to strategy the dream remains a fantasy or
a nice idea however my travels around the world primarily what I see is that
we tend to go to strategy too quickly the realist in us wants to know where
you're going to get the time and where you're going to get the money and we
wind up compromising our dreams down to what we realistically think is possible
a dream University our mission is to literally change how you think about
speak about and act upon your dreams so instead of it being a maybe someday
after the kids are gone or after I retire the question we like you to ask
is what's important to you and what are you willing to do about it so moving out
of the fantasies your dreams are basically what matters to you now
personally and professionally and what action are you going to take to make
those dreams real now I've had the privilege over the last many years to
actually train close to 1,200 life coaches we call them dream coaches of
course that's our brand dream coaches and I'm really honored to tell you that
this work of helping people get clear about what they do and don't want
believing in themselves and taking action on those dreams is being taught
in corporations school systems nonprofits in the corporate world but
also in prisons and in shelters and if you're here and you have a non-profit
please see me sometime during this day because i have i have stuff i want to
give you to help and support you in making your dream a reality now some
years ago Nine West Shoes sent their HR director from China to California to
study with me to become a certified dream coach and she took this
information back to China and was really using it to help the employees think
about their career development pretty cool and cutting-edge for China when you
think about it and I was invited over a few months
after she worked with me and I spoke to a room like this there about 400 people
in the room and now think about it they were in the shoemaking business so 200
of the people were involved with the tan the tanning and the hides and the
leathers they spoke Portuguese 200 people were involved with the dyes and
the cuts and assembling the shoes they spoke Mandarin and here i am in english
talking to them about their dreams and although people were smiling and nodding
I wondered if they really knew what the heck I was talking about so i opened the
floor for questions and a young girl in the back waves at me and I called her
onto the stage and handed her a microphone and I don't think she had
ever held a microphone before cuz her hand was shaking like a leaf and what
she said was Marcia no one ever told me that I could dream she said people told
me to be a good girl they told me to work hard to get good grades they told
me to be quiet they told me that a lot she said now she's like warmed up with
microphone they told me that a lot she said but now that you've told me that my
dreams matter I'm going to tell everyone I know and I thought about it later you
know on one hand like my heart lept for I was so excited for her and on the
other hand I got a little nervous because after all it is a communist
country like what was the dinner table conversation like that night well she
went on and she organized the first neighborhood cleanup project in her
little community and went on to do some pretty amazing things I left China I
came home to my own beloved America back to California where I live and I looked
out and primarily what I saw was a nation that had stopped dreaming I saw
people who were afraid to get on an airplane and at one level is
understandable I saw people who were afraid to invest a hundred dollars in
their heartfelt dream and that wasn't okay with me I got concerned I got
scared I got sad and to tell you the truth I became a woman with a mission
and this mission thank you you're sweet this mission is called the dream
movement and the whole idea is that with one step you're in action on your dream
over here you're in reality thinking gee maybe someday but with one step you
demonstrate to the world around you enter yourself that you're not just
talking about it you're actually doing something about it and then as I started
looking more closely I realize the dream movement is not just about any old step
there's a very specific and critical step we need to take because most of us
stand with one foot firmly planted in reality be realistic this voice says how
many of you have hardcore realist show hands come on thank you for your honesty
be realistic this part says and the other foot firmly planted in our doubt
and the realist says you shouldn't do that and the doubter says and here's why
and by the way nothing activates that doubt or more than saying you're going
to do one thing and not doing anything at all it goes into the file cabinet
there he goes again talking about his dream there she goes just talking about
it not doing anything about it so this we have one foot in reality and one foot
in our doubt and the work that I encourage you to do with me is to take
one very critical step step into your dream slide this doubter foot over into
reality reality is an important part of the mix you have to know where you are
in order to design the strategy for where you want to go but the question is
what has being realistic cost you it's been medically proven study at Columbia
University that people with passion and dreams live seven to ten years longer
and obviously have a better quality of life there's even a medical term for it
dr. Mehmet Oz taught me this personally apoptosis apoptosis which can come in at
any age is when your brain believes you've outgrown your usefulness we see
it most often when people retire of course get laid off experience an empty
nest all you empty nesters but also when we stopped dreaming the brain sends a
message to the body that it's no longer needed and we start to mentally or
physically self-destruct so what's the cure passion in
dreams connected to your passion you have more energy more enthusiasm
connected to your dreams you have a reason to get out of bed in the morning
and this you know at all ages so we have something on called the million dreams
campaign and people come in there it's completely free people come in they
register their dreams and support each other and taking what we call Wow within
one week what action step are you going to take to demonstrate your more
committed to your dreams than to your doubts fears or reality so this is one
of the posts that we saw Bessie at 70 years old said that she was tired of
being an amateur photographer and wanted to be a world class professional
photographer and I said to her this is a great dream what are you doing about it
and she said well nothing I said why not she said well I think I need credentials
but I don't want to go back to school at this age and I said to her Bessie what's
really stopping you you know it's like you can hear what's in the unspoken she
said everybody is telling me I'm too old my own friends are telling me to be
realistic and I said well that's just nonsense what's a step you can take to
demonstrate your more committed to your dream than to their doubt she goes I
know what I can do she said I've had an application for this Kodak contest
sitting in my inbox for a month i'm going to enter the contest I'm going to
prove to them and more importantly to myself that I'm serious about my dream
so she took this great photograph of a man playing a sousaphone with red golden
tones reflected in the instrument she sends it off to the Kings awards as
Kodak international newspapers snapshots award contest with 500,000 other people
she won first prize she won ten thousand dollars she ran out got business cards
printed I am a professional I get paid her photograph toured around the world
with the journey into imagination exhibit I said to her what did you learn
what wisdom would you share she looked me square in the eye and said it's never
too late to make a dream come true and what I had two besties wisdom is this
that until you get to the end of your life and you look back on what you did
or didn't accomplish how do you know when something is realistic what most of
us do is we compromise our dreams down to what we
think and believe is realistic and let's go to the other end of the spectrum from
70 let's go to 14 so I was speaking at a PTA meeting dad there with his 14 year
old daughter mom's working late that night he turns to he says honey tell me
one of your dreams and with the sweetest little face she says daddy my dream is
to be a teacher and I waited for the response cuz the logical response these
days is the logical head response might be something like teachers don't make
enough money but he gave her the dream coach response honey you'd make a great
teacher anyone that had you as a teacher would be so lucky and her little face
just like lit up and I thought about it later maybe the most important thing for
this child isn't about making a lot of money maybe it's about being a great
teacher you know or maybe because somebody said I believe in you maybe
she'll be the one who revamps the educational system you know so please
please please talk to your kids about their dreams and don't be like a friend
of mine who called me up recently mushroom Asha my six-year-old wants to
be a Kmart checker what should I do so tell her she'll be great and call me
when she wants to be a rock and roll star well have something to talk about
you know and when I think about big dreamers also um I want to share a
little Oprah story with you god bless her she's been through it you know just
the whole range and the first time I was ever on national television i was on the
oprah winfrey show and the show was live and the show was about I'm inspiring
people to go for their dreams good casting yeah and I had never been on
television before and I walked out on the stage and basically blurted out
Oprah what was your dream when you started your business now they told me
after the show that Oprah asks the questions and she was lovely with me she
said her dream was to create a company where people could have fun then she
went on to her big vision her dream was to create an organization where people
would come to Heather together make a contribution and
then give back to the world the audience went crazy ya doing it oh bra and I'll
give you a little hint it was our cine o hall days so what were they doing
they're barking what we're doing at Oprah and when the energy was at this
really high favored pitch Oprah took the microphone and said in Marcia what's
your dream now let me tell you the number one way to experience ease and
shortcuts on any dream is to share your dream with other people but most of us
don't want to if I tell you my dream you might laugh at me I might fail and what
will you think of me you might steal my idea I we hear that one but the really
big reason why we don't want to share our dreams is because if I tell you my
dream you might expect me to do something about it how many of you get
it i just want to see that's why by the way coaching has become a multi-billion
dollar industry because when we tell somebody else a friend a family member
profession we share our dream where you know it's like there's no place to hide
its out that's what we want you to share your dreams and post your dreams go
public with it so Oprah you know you know you know the energies of this
really high fever pitch and Marsha what's your dream and I'm thinking ah 35
million people and my mother are watching I took a deep breath i said my
dream is that will have dreams again and that will open our calendars and
schedule the date that we're going to take action on the dream we went to
commercial break and here's a behind-the-scenes Oprah story so Oprah
came up to me during the commercial break she put her hands on my shoulders
and cut down like this I to I with me and she said to me Marsha you know
something that I know all I could think was I'm having a moment with Oprah
my ears build up with cotton like her mouth was moving I'm hearing nothing I
got nothing here and I could hear my mother in the back of my mind kind of
going when someone's talking to you and you're not listening smile and act like
you are so huntin like then and I snap myself out of it just in time to hear
Oprah Winfrey say Marsha you know something that I know it's all about
believing in your dream oprah winfrey said that if she had to attribute her
success in life to any one thing it was that she believed in her dreams even
when no one else did and what I'll add briefly is this sometimes there's no
evidence that your dream is a good idea or that this is the right time to pursue
it