How To Come Alive: A Guidebook to Living the Life of Your Dreams

By Katherine Cerulean

“Don’t ask what the world needs.
Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it.
Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”
— Howard Thurman

You’re known disappointment. You’ve taken some chances that didn’t work out. You’ve seen friends, family, and co-workers give up and take the path of least resistance.

And you’ve said ‘Hell no!’

Something told you to keep looking, keep trying, and never settle. Because you knew one day you would find the life you were seeking and become fully alive.

That day is now. All you have to do to start living the life you’ve always wanted can the summed up in one word — action.

How to Come Alive: A Guidebook to Living the Life of Your Dreams is all about getting from where you are — possibly in an unfulfilling job or marriage, an unhealthy body, or a deep rut — to where you want to be — joyous, full of potential and hope, and well on your way to being alive in every sense of the world.
Now, this book isn’t a magic cure — and the main ingredient here is a willingness to work hard. But it is an ingredient you possess, and I guarantee you have enough within yourself to carry you well into the life of your dreams. If you are willing to take responsibility for your life and your future, incredible things are in store for you.
Inside are 25 ways to come alive, each one with the potential to change your life forever, each with three levels of difficulty to challenge you as you grow. These aren’t fads, cribbed from the internet and regurgitated into this slender volume. Instead they are a lifetime worth of ideas — the best, most helpful ‘hacks’ from someone who has never given up believing that we are all special and that the world needs more people who have come alive.

You are worth it.

Please note: this e-book is 14,000 awesome words long.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Katherine Cerulean
• Release date: Oct 4, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301578023

Katherine Cerulean

Katherine Cerulean grew up in the countryside near Athens, GA, home schooled on a farm with dogs, cats, a horse, a pony, peacocks, rabbits, sheep, and many others.She has been writing seriously for twenty-four years, starting with screenwriting, moving into novels, and now returning to her first love of writing for the screen with both film scripts and teleplays.She is the founder of the Athens Writers Association, which had over 200 hundred members, held 400 Meetup.com events and published three story collections.Katherine currently travels the country (soon, the world!) with her sister, who is an amazing artistic genius. They have visited fifteen National Parks and are making plans for more.Katherine and her sister are lifelong students of self improvement, and Katherine has given away over 90% of her possessions, cycled 60 miles in a day, lost over 50 pounds, become financially secure, and continues to transform her life and circumstance in service of her goals. She’s also been on many adventures and has way too much fun.Katherine has written six novels (and self published one), four feature-length screenplays, and numerous TV specs and pilots. She has also self-published a self improvement book call How To Come Alive.

Book preview

How to Come Alive:

A Guidebook to Living

the Life of Your Dreams

by Katherine Cerulean

Smashwords Edition | Copyright 2013 Katherine Cerulean

ISBN: 9781301578023

All rights reserved. No part of this e-book may be reproduced in any form other than that in which it was purchased without the written permission of the author.

This e-book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only.

Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

www.katherinecerulean.com

How to Come Alive:

A Guidebook to Living

the Life of Your Dreams

by Katherine Cerulean

"Don’t ask what the world needs.

Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it.

Because what the world needs is people who have come alive."

— Howard Thurman

Breaking Free

We in America have more time, more money, more freedom, and a longer lifespan than any other generation upon Planet Earth in its history. But we use more anti-depressants, are fatter, are deeper in debt, have more storage units for more junk, and are more cynical and less empathetic than any previous generation also. We have it all, and don’t have a clue how to use it to make us happier.

Most of us think that if we just keep chasing the ‘dreams’ society has laid out in front of us, someday we’ll reach true happiness. That raise, more money, finding Mr. or Ms. Right. We KNOW that these things will make us happy, because we have heard that capitalism-meets-Grimm’s-fairytale bedtime story our whole lives.

And yet in a happiness race between lottery winners and people who were paralyzed from accidents, a famous 1978 study showed that the people who had gone through some of the worse life had to offer and come out the other side reported more, and longer term, happiness than the lottery winners. And 90% of lottery winners are broke within five years, according to the New York Times. It’s enough to make you doubt if money really can buy happiness. And if it can’t, why are we wasting our valuable time on this earth going after it?

Also not buying you any happiness — the Hollywood-spun fantasy of someday losing fifty pounds, taking a cruise of the Mediterranean, and meeting the love of your life. Let me give you a clue — all those things do exist, but only on the other side of your coming alive and living the life of your dreams. Once you’re truly alive — you can’t keep health, adventure, or love away with a stick. Dreams can lead to plans, but fantasies lead nowhere.

And bad news about that promotion. The jobs with the highest levels of satisfaction and happiness are some of the least well paying — teachers, social workers, nurses. So if you hate your job now, don’t count on the next rung up the ladder making the view any rosier. I worked in a retail establishment for years and my observation was that people got a lot less happy the higher in the company they went; that’s why they were paid more. Now, in a great company that you love, it won’t be that way — but if you’re unhappy now, don’t waste another minute moving up in a company that you hate.

In fact, not wasting your precious time is one of the three most important points of this little book. You are too special, too important, and too wondrous (and you know it!) to waste your life doing pointless, careless, and heartless things. You have a destiny, and it’s a great one.

The other two things that it’s important for you to know: you can live the life of your dreams if you’re willing to work hard; and the world needs more people who have come alive and are loving every minute of their lives.

Perhaps a little background is in order. My life is extraordinary mostly in what it has lacked — I never went to any school or college, and grew up in the country, away from other children. Some of this was by design (my mother, a teacher, didn’t like what she was seeing in the early 1980s in Georgia education and so decided to homeschool us), and some just came from my sister and I both being introverts and enjoying our home and family and not feeling a great pull to