The Voice of Your Dreams: Turn Down the Voices of Limitation and Turn Up the Volume of Success

By Aaron Anastasi

In a how-to saturated culture, we often know the path to the things we want in life. If we would just stay on that path, then success (vocationally, relationally, and financially) is a likely byproduct... right?! 

The problem comes when we allow our limiting voices, our negative self-talk, to continually derail us from that path.&nb

• Language: English
• Publisher: New Dreamers
• Release date: Apr 12, 2016
• ISBN: 9780997035100

Aaron Anastasi

Aaron Anastasi graduated with a master's degree from Princeton where he studied philosophy and psychology. His previous book, The Voice of Your Dreams, hit Amazon's Bestseller list within the first week of release. Aaron is the founder of Superior Singing Method, and internationally acclaimed online singing lesson program. He is also a prominent success coach for clients in a variety of industry-leading roles.

Book preview

PART 1

GETTING STARTED

1

Where to Start

Well begun is half done.

~ARISTOTLE

The most common place where singers, actors, writers, entrepreneurs, and other creatives get stuck is where to start. This isn’t just a roadblock for the beginner pursuing an endeavor for the first time; the where to start question can strike at any step in the process and on any—or potentially every—given day.

This is one of the reasons Ernest Hemingway always stopped his writing session for the day with one idea left to write about—so that he would have a place to start writing again the following day. Hemingway knew that more ideas would emerge as he sat down to do the work. Starting was the primary stuck place that he was determined to work through. Hemingway was a New Dreamer; he understood this principle of action that often escapes us. Inspiration and passion most often arise while we’re in action, getting busy doing whatever it is that we insist we want to do so badly. Sitting and waiting for inspiration to strike reveals a misunderstanding of this truth. The inspiration we’re waiting for before we start is on the other side of starting.

While inspiration can sometimes strike when you’re not in action, it’s generally a sporadic and unreliable system to count on if you want to accomplish your goals. Usually the best place to begin is…well, anywhere. I know that sounds silly, but it’s the truth. Once we’re in action the path toward our goals opens and inspiration begins to bubble up inside of us.

New Dreamers commit to a few minutes at a time, or less, even. This small commitment gets us into action. It could be five vocal exercises or three minutes trying to figure out a song on guitar or writing two hundred words on a new book.

Let success be defined as completion of a small goal you set for yourself each day. These goals add up, eventually putting you on the path toward the future that you’re creating, which will become a future worth having and living into.

John Wooden, as the head coach of UCLA’s basketball team in the 1960s and 1970s, won more national championships than anyone else in history. In his words, When you improve a little each day, eventually big things occur.

So many of us get stuck thinking we need to make a running leap into our future. In reality, great futures are formed little by little in the present moment. Focusing too much on the future while in the present moment leads to anxiety—another way to get stuck. Setting up short-term goals that allow you to feel accomplished each day leads to the motivation to continue on with your long-term goals. There’s no need to hold your happiness hostage to the accomplishment of the big, far-off goal. You can allow yourself to feel great about accomplishing something today that will eventually lead to the end result you desire. This is how success comes—for everyone.

Part of the trick is to redefine what success means to you. Yes, accomplishing the end goal is one way to define success, but that thinking doesn’t always serve you while you’re in the process of working towards it. Earl Nightingale, a famous speaker and author in the 1950s, said it like this: Success is the progressive realization of a worthy goal or ideal. The primary operative term for me here is progressive. Success is staying on the path toward your goal, little by little. So if you’re on the path, you’re already achieving success, whereas getting out of action temporarily puts the brakes on success.

When I say success I don’t just mean financial or career success but any goal you have in any area, whether relational, physical, vocational, financial, or in terms of attaining your dreams. Small, consistent action is always how we get there.

Another reason New Dreamers implement small actions while working toward a larger end goal is because the mind makes all future tasks seem bigger and scarier than they really are. This is the reptilian part of the brain thinking it’s helping you survive by being prepared for the worst-case scenario. This evolutionary defense mechanism doesn’t serve you when you’re seeking to accomplish your goals in the modern day. And because these future tasks seem scary, we tend to procrastinate. This makes getting into action even scarier, while adding in shame—some I should have and I’ve really got to and maybe even a dose of, What’s the use? I’m never going to see this through; who am I trying to kid?

When we get into action, even three or five minutes at a time, we begin seeing the task differently. It’s not as impossible as it previously appeared. The whole endeavor presents itself to us