Are You Ready to Cultivate Your Dream?

For anyone with a dream!

YOU HAVE A DREAM...LET'S GET TO WORK!

Your creative dreams are not wishful thinking. You know your dream makes your heart come alive. You can see it. It keeps you up at night. It is the truest voice inside of you that says, "I CANNOT not do this." In Cultivating Your Dream, Joey O'Connor helps you get to work to accomplish your dream by clearing the mental, emotional, and spiritual clutter that keeps you from doingwhat you know you are meant to do.

Offering practical advice, insightful stories, and penetrating questions, O'Connor addresses many of the pressing challenges every dreamer, artist, creative, and entrepreneur faces in pursuit of their dreams. With wit and wisdom, O'Connor tackles...

  • Why Your Dream Is Not Wishful Thinking
  • The Evil Twin Stepsisters of Procrastination & Perfectionism
  • Knowing Your Why
  • How We Tell Ourselves We Have No Time
  • Having a Bias for Action
  • Letting Go of Who You Are Not
  • Silencing the Mind Monkeys
  • The Importance of Self-Imposed Deadlines
  • Discovering What Makes Your Heart Come Alive
  • If You Don't Ask, the Answer is Always 'No'

Cultivating Your Dream - Introduction

It's Time

This book is for everyone with a dream. 

It’s no accident you picked it up.

You saw the title. It piqued your interest. 

But there’s something else. Something deep inside of you that has been trying to get your attention for a long time. You know you were made for something more.

You’ve had this longing to create or do something. There is a long-buried, latent desire to pursue the dream you’ve had in your heart for a very long time. 

You might be thinking, “Maybe it’s time I circle back to that dream. Lord knows how much I’ve talked about it…”

Can I jump in here?

It is time. It’s time to honor your dream.   

Someday is no day, and there is no day like today.

Let’s get a little more specific…

I am writing this book for you and every person who has ever held a dream in their heart. I believe every person is naturally creative. Your dream may be wildly creative. Or not. 

Everyone is not an artist, but everyone possesses unique talents,  abilities, and gifts. Life throws enough challenges at us daily that we need creative solutions to every problem we face.

You have unique creative talents, abilities, and gifts that make you YOU. Your dream may be similar to someone else’s dream, but what makes your dream unique is that it’s yours.

Whether or not you consider yourself an artist or not, a creative person or not, a businessperson or not, this book is written for everyone who wants to cultivate their dream. What you think you are or whatever level of talent you think you have or don’t have is not important right now. What matters most is your dream. 

Your dream may be a mission that takes a lifetime to fulfill. Your dream may be a moment like singing a song on stage. Your dream may be a series of moments. Or, as it unfolds, your dream may take on a life of its own in unbelievable ways you never imagined.

Whether you are a teenager, a college student, a stay-at-homemom, a busy professional, or someone who has just stepped into retirement, this book is for you. This book is for you if you’ve ever dreamt of…

◆ Becoming an entrepreneur.

◆ Going to chef school.

◆ A road trip to photograph the country.

◆ Painting 100 paintings in a year.

◆ Buying a ceramics wheel for your studio.

◆ Going to an acting audition.

◆ Serving a humanitarian mission overseas.

◆ Returning to the piano.

◆ Joining a choir.

◆ A career change to pursue your dream.

◆ Getting in the studio to record your album.

◆ Joining a dance studio.

◆ Running for office.

◆ Writing a novel or non-fiction book.

◆ Opening a food bank.

◆ Shooting your film.

◆ Taking a sculpture or glass-blowing class.

◆ Creating a musical band (any kind).

◆ Restoring an impoverished area.

◆ Choreographing a dance.

◆ Starting a non-profit.

◆ Becoming a tattoo artist.

◆ Completing your college education.

◆ Fill in the blank _________________.


What follows are stories and reflections, ideas and inspiration, questions to provoke action, practical tools, and a process for cultivating your dream. There’s lots of white space in this book, so use it. Write your thoughts. Scribble. Doodle. Imagine. There are no rules here—no one right way.

You have a dream, so let’s get to work doing what you were made to do. 

I’ll supply the inspiration. You provide the perspiration.

We’ll have fun along the way.