Keep focusing on the fullness of your life: Keep remembering your dreams, your strengths, your unique talents and skills. Be absolutely, uniquely, fully yourself and you have everything you need to create the life of your dreams. -Marc Allen

The reason you're not living your dreams is because not all parts of you are in alignment with your promise.

Your dream will not actualize until you have all the skills you need. Since it takes time to cultivate the full glass, you will find your glass only half-full or half-empty.

As you work on developing all your skills, you will also be buffeted by stronger forces.

If you want to be a writer, you have to learn the craft. Assuming you know how to be clear and expressive, you may still find yourself unpublished. So you need the additional skill of learning how to market your writing.

Only when all your skills are complete will you be able to fully express your dream.

This gap between talent and opportunity can be bridged once you discover what you need to learn.

While you're in this state of trying to develop the entire experience, you will face opposition. Stronger ego states and life conditions will press hard against you.

Those ego-states concerned with approval, safety, and control will keep you away from cultivating your dream.

Similarly environmental conditions arising from past experiences will distract you.

These two conditions are sufficient to keep most people living inauthentic lives, where they do what works but not what gives them true self-expression and joy.

It is at these times of trial and hardship that you may be tempted to focus on looking at the glass as half-empty.

Yet the only way to raise your child-genius into full maturity is to persist.

You have to hold your vision despite low moods, alternate desires, and pressing circumstances.

Talent is seldom nurtured in ideal environments. Usually, you have to tend the small flame of your dreams in the face of strong winds. Only by persisting will you eventually have a fire greater than an opposing draft.

You keep your dreams alive by focusing on how far you've come.

You have to hold your vision and practice it.

When you persist in this way, you'll move closer to your goals.

When you persist long enough, you'll find yourself living your dream.

Saleem Rana

Saleem Rana got his masters in psychotherapy from California Lutheran University, Thousand Oaks, Ca., 15 years ago and now resides in Denver, Colorado. His articles on the internet have inspired over a hundred thousand people from around the world. His website features numerous books, courses, and software products to encourage peak performance.