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The week before the U.S. presidential election, I received a Zen-inspired email called “Obama Meditation.” It envisions America eight years into the future: Barack Obama is the outgoing president. He is reviewing his tenure in office, the challenges, rewards and overall successes that he and the country pulled off together. The end of the email asks the reader to meditate on this vision several times a day, calling a peaceful presidency into action with these positive thoughts…oh, and then forward the email to everyone in your contacts.

My friend, Ro, responded after the election like this: “Yeah, meditation is good to lower your blood pressure. But Obama wouldn’t be president-elect right now if he just thought it was a nice idea, or if he only sat down and meditated on it ten minutes everyday.”

Talking For 10 Minutes

She suggested countries and communities would be a lot better off if people TALKED 10 minutes a day about what they wanted, rather than sat in their happy places and imagined it. Ro draws the line at woo-woo and offers action steps instead.

Sharing is an act of creating

1. Decide what is important to you and talk about it.
2. To whatever degree you are sharing now—telling a confidante, talking to family, emailing friends—expand it. Talk even more, to more people, in more ways about the things you want to create in your life. The idea is that everything you need to create anything already exists in the world, so just start talking about it. Keep talking about it. You’ll find what you need.
3. Check in with people. Do others notice pathways to your dream that you can’t see? If “who” you know is more important than “what” you know, then you’d better get people in the know about YOU.
4. Spend one day a week, one day a month, and listen to yourself. Ask: Are the things I am talking about giving me a great life? If not, pick something else to talk about.
5. If you really want something, but cannot take it on yourself, talk about it anyway…and get someone else inspired to take it on.

Ro maintains that anything can be dreamt. But until people start to talk about it and get others involved, it stays a dream.

Photo by lil’bear.