Can a dream come true?

Do you believe dreams can come true? Is it possible for a young person to dream of meeting the perfect partner, falling in love and for that to become a reality? Is it possible to dream of reaching the peak of your profession and for that to become real? Is it possible to dream of becoming wealthy and for that to be realised? Of course, any of those dreams can come true. All three have happened to me. The least satisfying of the three was the last one. Despite vast numbers trying to become wealthy, from my experience, the novelty of the big house, pool and yacht wears off pretty quickly. All now sold and the money donated to more worthwhile causes. Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft and once the wealthiest person in the world, along with others in his ‘wealth club’, has already donated most of his wealth to good causes.

I now have a bigger dream. That it’s possible for life to become amazing for everyone. For this to happen, what changes do you think would need to occur? We’d certainly need a greater focus on removing hardship from the very substantial minority that currently experience it, whether through poverty, homelessness, conflict, oppression or poor health or mental health. There are easily enough resources in the world to achieve this. But for that to be realised, there’d need to be a change of mindset, among individuals, organisations and governments, away from pure self-interest to one that includes a significant component of contribution and co-operation.

Another likely requirement would be a greater focus on making life extraordinary. If by chance you’re an employee, you might like to think what would need to change to make everyone’s working life, within your organisation, extraordinary. The goals of many employees tend to focus on their own success, promotions and pay rises. Nothing wrong with that, but to achieve an extraordinary working life for all, might there need to be a parallel focus on contribution? Might that involve an increased focus on supporting one’s team manager, other team members, subordinates, other staff, the organisation, customers and the community? How about regular meetings to discuss practical ideas of how to make everyone’s working life in one’s team, or organisation, extraordinary, or how to make the organisation’s appeal to its customers and the community extraordinary? I don’t just mean ‘better’. I mean ‘exceptional’ so employees and customers talk to others about it and remain loyal employees and customers.

What else might be needed to make everyone’s life amazing? I suggest some training. In the world of psychology and personal development that I inhabit, there’s already a great deal of knowledge of how to create amazing lives. This primarily involves enabling more positive and productive ways of thinking, feeling and behaving. And it entails creating more powerful mindsets (including self-confidence, motivation, self-esteem and achievement), exceptional resilience (eliminating stress, regret, worry, blame, dissatisfaction and other limiting thoughts and feelings) and the skills to deal with challenges in relating to others and relationships. Those three components (power, resilience and relationship), together with contribution, are recognised through my own experience and the experience of thousands that I’ve been privileged to train, as being the key attributes needed for an amazing life. That training can be found at www.positive-mind-training.com

What else could help to achieve my dream. Might it be possible that working communities could take a greater interest in the welfare of employees outside work? Not everyone would welcome this, so it could be each person’s choice. But there are many for whom receiving help from their work community could be welcomed. There are already examples such as access to mental health advice in the workplace. This could be extended to employers giving employees access to a range of benefits. And it could include providing employees with the ‘work and life’ skills and ‘mindset change’ training I’ve already mentioned.

All the organisations I manage (Abicord, Abicord Consulting, the ‘Association for Acceptance Action Coaching, Therapy and Training’ and the ‘Change a Billion Minds’ project) are non-profit, with all net income going to fund the project’s initial goals of  creating a billion amazing lives and, later, eliminating poverty, homelessness, mental health issues, oppression, conflict, crime and corruption from the world, all of which can be achieved through a universal change of mindset and a greater focus on contribution and co-operation.