Rainbows and Dreams

     St. Patty's day is almost here and many of us will be digging around in our closets for something green to wear.  This is the day we celebrate being Irish or pretend we're Irish. We eat corned beef and cabbage and soda bread and talk about leprechauns and their pots of gold at the end of the rainbow.
     Most of us have some sort of "pot of gold" we'd love to find -whether it's true love or career success, getting healthy or getting out of debt. I can't help you with the true love thing - I stumbled onto mine. But some of those other pots of gold, well, I do have suggestions for how to find them. I think if we're going to get to the end of the rainbow we have to take steps to get there. Here are little leprechaun Sheila's suggestions for how to find your pot of gold at the end of rainbow.
     First, figure out where you are. You can't map out a journey until you know where it's starting. What are your talents? What are your strengths? What is your dream? Walt Disney said, "If you can dream it you can do it." But you have to know what that dream is before you can get to the doing part. Simply saying, "I want to be successful," won't cut it.
     Second, you have to have a plan. What roadblocks do you need to remove before you can get on your way? What skills do you need to develop to get yourself there? Do you need more schooling? If you're in the arts - writing songs, dancing, acting - do you need to move someplace where you'll find more opportunity? And if you need to move, do you need to save up some money for that move? Whatever your plan, I suspect a budget will be involved. And with budgets come sacrifices. Are you prepared to sacrifice to meet your goals? Are you willing to discipline yourself? If you're wanting to get healthy and lose weight or get debt free, there will definitely be plenty of discipline involved.
     Third, find some travel partners, people who are also goal oriented and positive, people who will help you brainstorm ways to get to your pot of gold and who will help you stay on track. You will find more than enough people who have no desire to see you succeed. (These are usually people who haven't succeeded themselves and will feel threatened by your determination. They will also be jealous of your success down the road. You may as well say good-bye to them right now.) You really want travel partners if you're trying to get debt free or get healthy. It's too easy to slip when there's no accountability,
      Fourth, reassess as you go along. Sometimes you have to change direction. Sometimes you're looking for the wrong pot of gold. My own life is a good example of that. Before I became a published author I wanted desperately to be a published songwriter. I spent a fortune on trips to Nashville and song demos and songwriting conferences. I definitely had fun but that pot of gold eluded me. I actually fell into my writing career while trying to make the music happen. Needless to say, I finally realized I was looking for the wrong pot of gold. I still play around with writing songs, but I'm glad I didn't stubbornly stay on the wrong path because I've also very much enjoyed writing books. And that's been where I've found some success.
     So, there you have it. There are my tips. I hope they'll help and inspire you. And whatever your path, whatever your pot of gold, I hope you won't give up looking for it.