Reaching for Our Dreams

This week we welcome back Karen Jo Shapiro, a licensed psychologist who practices as a leadership, career, and personal development coach. In early December, Karen shared a week of posts on “Taking Care of Yourself.” This week, she is going to share her professional thoughts on “Reaching for Our Dreams.” On February 22, at noon EST, Karen will also be conducting a FemCentral webinar on “Thriving in Your Career Transition“.

Tell me, what is it you plan to do
 with your one wild and precious life? – Mary Oliver

I have dreams, you know. - The Pigeon (Don’t Let The Pigeon Drive the Bus!)

It’s 2011!  Perhaps you have resolutions, dreams, goals, or aspirations for the coming year.  Or perhaps you have the uneasy sense you want to be doing more with your talents and strengths…. But you don’t know where to begin.

As a psychologist who does leadership, personal, and career coaching, I know that many women are so busy meeting the demands of work, house, and family that their inner-kept dreams often remain undeveloped.

Is there a business idea you have had? Do you long to do something artistic? To find some way to help solve a social problem? To make your mark on the world?

What can we do to (in Thoreau’s words) begin to go confidently in the direction of our dreams?

This week I’ll share with you some of the ideas I use in my workshops for women, as well as my favorite resources on developing our dreams.

Sometimes there is a moment in our life when we know that we need to pay attention to the dreams that call for our attention. I have had this experience. In 1999 I was a practicing psychologist with a wonderful daughter who was three. I enjoyed my work and my family… but I felt something was missing as well. What I realized was that I had always written poems and stories as a child, teenager and even college student, but had let that practice go when I became involved in my graduate degree and career.

I was aware that if I never tried to write a children’s book I would feel regret later in my life… and so step by step I began the process of writing the manuscript, editing it, researching publishers, and sending it out. Many rejections later I was lucky enough to find a publisher who believed in the book like I did and it became Because I Could Not Stop My Bike and Other Poems.

Yet dream development is an ongoing process. When we dip into ourselves for what feels most significant, we can freeze, we can flee—because it can be scary to face a real dream. Years after that first book, I still get stuck, feel fear and doubt, and wonder if things are going to work out. Rejections still happen and obstacles rise up. But each time we go confidently in the direction of our dreams through specific actions, we give ourselves an important message about taking our dreams seriously.

BIO
Karen Jo Shapiro is a licensed psychologist who practices as a leadership, career, and personal development coach. In her private practice, Your Next Steps Coaching, (www.ynscoaching.com), she works with individuals and groups, both in person and by phone, as well as lead workshops, ongoing groups, and trainings. She is especially interested in helping women to succeed in their dreams (whether career transition, entrepreneurial, artistic or other), build strong relationships with other women, and take care of themselves.

She is also on adjunct faculty at the Center for Creative Leadership and a member of the Guilford County Non-Profit Consortium.

Karen Jo is a mother of a 14-year-old girl and 9-year-old boy. She is the author of two children’s poetry books by Charles bridge. (www.kjshapiro.com)