Close your eyes and picture in your mind a path in front of you. Where you are standing is where you are in your life right now. Somewhere ahead of you is where you want to be–when your dreams are fulfilled. You may not readily be able to visualize what living your dream might be like, or you may simply know that there has to be a better life than the one you have right now.

Maybe you can’t see the path toward your dreams. Perhaps there are roadblocks in your mind’s eye. These are your worries, fears, self-doubts and limiting beliefs.

Have you ever had the following thoughts or feelings about yourself?

* “I feel uncertain, even afraid, of what it would take to make my dreams real.”

* “It seems I’m just marking time in my life, without any sense of purpose. It’s frustrating, and I don’t know what I really want or what changes to make.”

* “Deep inside, I sense a nudge — but have no clear idea of what it means, let alone what to do.”

* “I’m tired of wondering why things seem to just HAPPEN to me.”

* “It would be great to have a concise roadmap to help me take control of my own destiny.”

You may even be terrified of…

* Falling flat on your face venturing into something new.

* Stepping beyond what’s comfortable and familiar.

* Wasting your time on frivolous, impractical and unrealistic dreams.

If you experience such unrest, discontent and even crisis … if you are sick and tired of feeling like a powerless victim … then my REACH principles can help you believe in yourself and break through barriers — toward success and fulfillment. Helping as many people as possible transform their lives with REACH is quite simply my mission in life, the reason I was born and am still alive. In fact, my personal mission statement is:

To inspire and empower others to live passionately in love and grace, honoring who they are and where they are in life always.

Here is what my REACH acronym and advice embody:

* Release limiting beliefs and hidden barriers blocking your path to your dreams.

* Envision living the life you want, as if your dreams have already manifested.

* Act on inner guidance, taking purposeful, smart action to fulfill your dreams.

* Celebrate the good already in your life, no matter how small, and attract more reasons to celebrate.

* Honor the current you and where you are in life, as you create from the here and now.

It’s all about clearing the path and paving your way to the realization of your dreams!

HOW REACH CAME TO ME

The message of REACH, came to me as a Divine download! This was after I had tortured myself most of my adult life, trying to figure out why I was born, what I was meant to be and do in this lifetime. At times, the pain was so great that I even questioned the point of being alive. When I received the call to be the author and spokesperson for REACH, I had an epiphany that my life experiences were meant to prepare me for serving the people who struggle with similar existential unrest and discontent. By practicing conscious living, I have transformed my life, and it is my mission and passion to share my learning to help you do the same.

NEAR-DEATH EXPERIENCE

I almost died in a car accident in December 2008. While I was still unconscious in the hospital, before I knew what had happened to me, I had a near-death experience during which I felt an unwavering conviction that I was kept alive because there was more for me to do in this life. I’m certain that the primary reason why I’m still breathing is because I have to fulfill my mission in life to share the message of REACH with as many people as I can serve.

EMPOWERING TOOLS

Ultimately, my overarching objective for REACH is to help people empower themselves — via my talks, workshops and classes (online, by phone and in person), self-paced CD programs with accompanying workbooks, my own upcoming “information hub” website, through social networking, in the news media and, of course, via my writings in English and eventually other languages (especially in the Asia Pacific).

I urge YOU to similarly ask yourself: How can I best use my ideas and talents to serve? How can I help to improve the lives of my family, my community, my planet?

ONE MAN’S EXPERIENCE

Other than my own story, I want to share the case of a young man I coached using REACH principles. He’s a foreign national who had been frustrated for a long time professionally. However, because he needed employment visa sponsorship to stay in this country, it was not as easy for him to make a move professionally, especially when the job market had been tight the last couple of years. Then, he found himself facing the imminent prospect of his position being downsized. I coached him to spend time envisioning being in the job he wanted, instead of wallowing in the fear of losing his job and needing to leave this country. Ultimately, he did get a job in time that not only allows him to remain in the U.S., but it also pays him more and provides the professional challenges for which he was hungry. Essentially, he got what he wanted — AND SO CAN YOU!

SET YEAR-ROUND GOALS, NOT JUST NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS

Don’t just set resolutions on January 1 to stretch yourself and improve your life. Instead, set year-round intentions to REACH your dreams! As a start, I urge you to welcome the second half of 2011 by appreciating the creator you already are — not when you’re better, or more deserving. Even though you want a better version of yourself and/or a better life, you create from the here and now. Honor that!

Instead of being scared off by the enormity of your dream, break it down into bite-size goals that are SMART, i.e., specific, measurable, actionable, realistic and time-trackable. Fulfilling these SMART goals will eventually add up to realizing your dream. SMART is a project management tool used in the corporate world. We can all use it to help us fulfill our dreams — one SMART step at a time!

USE A BALANCED APPROACH

As you proceed, it is important to adopt a balanced approach to REACHing your dream, using both your intuitive, receptive feminine and take-charge, get-things-done masculine sides. We all have both, regardless of our gender. Spiritual teachings tend to focus on feminine energy, while the practical world operates on masculine energy. Our feminine and masculine sides together make a great manifestation team!

APPROACH LIFE DIFFERENTLY

Look at life as a labyrinth. While you may feel lost or judge yourself for having fallen off your path, you are never truly lost or off-track. If you take an aerial view of a labyrinth from the sky, everything fits perfectly, no matter how windy and complex the path may be. The pattern of your labyrinth is your distinctive life path that doesn’t look like another person’s. If you believe in your path, you can trust that the unpredictable windy path will eventually take you to the center goal. You simply cannot miss your life. Then, take inspired, guided and purposeful action to fulfill your dreams. Choose to be in celebratory energy as often as possible. Instead of waiting for a reason to celebrate… celebrate the reasons into existence — by celebrating yourself, your achievements and progress toward your dreams, and by cultivating a habit of appreciation and gratitude for the people and things in your world, whether or not they are direct results of your action.

OTHER IMPORTANT POINTS–

* Trust YOUR empowering inner wisdom, and be mindful of your inner critic.

* Recognize what pushes your buttons — those buttons that need to be released. They stem from forgotten old pain blocking your dreams.

* The people you attract into your life mirror your beliefs about yourself — so, pay attention.

* Tap your way out of negativity and into self-empowerment! One of the most powerful release tools I have used with great success is the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT). It is easy to learn and practice!

* Understand the power of forgiveness and practice it.

* Incorporate meditation (e.g., visioning) in your busy life.

* Choose to live in a state of grace through simple practices of appreciation and gratitude.

* Practice honoring yourself and your life, including other people, distractions, the mystery of timing (patience IS a virtue!), seemingly random coincidences, and your body.

TODAY’S COLLECTIVE AWAKENING

I want to remind everyone that there is a collective awakening happening all around us, and a growing need for resources, tools and services to guide us in this awakening. We are waking up to the knowledge that spiritual laws are at work 24-7. If we allow ourselves to hook into these principles, our lives can be so much easier and more joyful. We have the power to create whatever life we want, if we cultivate the consciousness to tap into this power within us, which is connected to the energy of the universe that creates and sustains all life.

By practicing living with conscious thoughts and choosing only those that align with our dreams, we can create anything we desire. The appetite for learning how to create consciously is growing. There is an ever-expanding thirst for manifestation how-to’s.

When things are not going so well for us and we don’t feel so good, that’s when we especially need to look for reasons to feel good. I tell people to feel the outcome they desire, rather than wait for a specific outcome to induce the wanted positive feelings. Our priority is to get into the state of feeling how we want to feel when our dreams are fulfilled before they come true. This may seem like reverse-logic, but it’s how manifestation works.

We learn, grow and evolve through contrasting life experiences. The more pain we endure, the more opportunities for growth and true happiness exist. If our lives are idyllic all the time, there is very little room for evolution and breakthroughs. Therefore, the painful experiences — past or present — are all ultimately blessings. We subconsciously called them into our lives to learn and grow from them. The difficult people in our lives agreed to play their undesirable roles in this lifetime so that we can learn what we came into this life to learn.

We are not limited by our past. This includes the circumstances into which we were born, the ways in which we feel we aren’t equipped to create the life we want, and the disappointments we’ve had in our lives reinforcing our limiting beliefs. For all of us — you and I included — if we believe in and want anything badly enough and feel the fire burning in our bellies, the path will be paved to take us to wherever we want to go. Let’s all REACH our dreams!

Author Bio: Self-development enthusiast, teacher and coach Alice Chan is the author of the soon-to-be-released book, REACH YOUR DREAMS: FIVE STEPS TO BE A CONSCIOUS CREATOR IN YOUR LIFE. Contact: 408-472-4122; alice@dralicechan.com; http://www.dralicechan.com (updated website with downloadable workbook forthcoming).

Category: Self Help
Keywords: Self-Empowerment, Conscious Living, Dreams, Manifestation, Meditation, Alice Chan, self help