Kellie Frazier

What do you dream of? Do you see it in your minds eye as if it were already a reality? Practical dreamers live what they want to do. They awake in the morning with a burning desire to be and to do.

If you can dream it, then allow no man to stop you from acquiring what you believe in. If you meet with failure along the way, remember that the greatest inventors of all ages failed many times before success came.

If you've gotten off to a bad start, or you're facing a crisis, realize that failure is a part of life and a great part of success. How? You become forced to create another way to use your brain's capacity to discover the creative genius on a deeper level. Use the failure as a stepping stone. Your emotions can be used to re-create and re-construct your dream as another force to be reckoned with.

What does it take to back your dreams? What knowledge do you want to build on?

• Know what state you are in - you have to know what you don't want in order to know what you do want
• Be tolerant - stop fighting against a current that can pull you along if you allow it
  
• Be organized - show you can handle what you've got
  
• Rekindle hope, faith and courage - create the vision and keep it in front of your eyes and in your mind
  
• Be ready to receive what you believe you can acquire - there is a promise that when we ask, we get
  
• keep your mind open - narrow mindedness keeps us blind, allow the flow of knowledge to come in and out
  
• Listen for what you desire - how will you know what direction to go if you do not listen to your inner voice
  

Wishing will not bring about what you want. Only in thinking and feeling you have already acquired what you believe in will propel you toward your goals. Every sunset ends another day, but not another opportunity. Don't let the sunset come without feeling you drew upon another opportunity to move toward your goal.

If you believe......then back your dreams. Back them with desire, back them with faith, back them with those who you know will support you no matter what. Practical dreamers never quit. They know the sun will rise once again on yet another opportunity.

Thank you for trusting me with the next few minutes of your time. I'm not a great blogger, actually I'm not even a good one, but with lots of practice I might be as good as Jason Crouch one of these days. :)

Like most people, my life has been complete with blessings as well as tough challenges. I'm as grateful as anyone can be for my life and wouldn't change a thing. Seeing the blessings amidst trials takes practice, but it is possible.

Four years ago my husband and I decided to open a company for real estate investing so we could teach our eldest sons the trade of construction. We both grew up helping our fathers build so we had life experiences to draw from. Word spread that we were doing this and people seem to come out of the wood work to ask if we could buy their homes to help get them out of tough situations. We saw the housing crisis begin to emerge back then, and felt a bit helpless in handling the distraught callers, but there was definately a blessing to come amidst the trials...

God's hand was guiding. Through sheer determination to be a servant, I had a thirst to understand human behavior, and studied social sciences, years prior to opening the real estate door. After entering the investing world, economics and real estate took me around the country to learn from the experienced gurus. I have no formal degree, but by the beginning of 2006, I was booked one year in advance as a life coach and we had earned a fair share of money by selling the properties we had rehabbed. Life was good until 2007 came. My nephew was killed, my youngest sister died, my partner left the company and I fell on ice and suffered a serious brain injury causing daily seizures and complete bed rest for 2.5 months; but the blessings were still present and more were to come...

A different kind of help. Determined to be grateful under any circumstance, I awoke every morning thanking God for my healing, thanking him that I could still help others even through the brain seizures. I felt it to my core, believing it every time I said it. My healing was painful but it gave me more time to learn where I was to take the residential rehabilitating and coaching even though the simple task of thinking was at times overwhelming. I slowly began to assist people again by 2008, in knowing where to go, who to talk to, what to ask when they get there, and although I would never claim to have all the answers, I know I can help encourage people and bring them hope regardless of my circumstance...and so can you with a GOOD working brain.

Everyone is searching for something, hope, financial solutions, healing in marriages and even help for their children. The problems seem endless, especially when you don't know how to help, but Lord willing, we can continue offering a caring heart, recommendations as to where people can look for assistance and listen, listen, listen.

May 2009 bring you abundant blessings and a multitude of support when you need encouragement.

Do you tell yourself you aren't good with change? Do you, in fact, despise change? You might be surprised to find that some good can come out of what you're going through.

Learning to stop paddling your boat against the current is a start. I'm not proposing a book review, or recommendation, but something Ariane De Bonvoisin said in an interview really resonated with me. She wrote a book called, The First 30 Days, Your Guide to Any Change. Much like what I did primarily in America, she did her research by casually interviewing over 1000 people while traveling the world. She speaks about her important discovery of how people, in general, handled change. She found that no matter where people are geographically, we all deal with good change and bad. We don't acknowledge it as such however.

We graduate, we move, we have children, we get fired, we lose a home, and you can either embrace it or fight against it. Individuals who successfully handle change do so through positive beliefs as they move through life. We're not talking about positive thinking in and of itself. The ‘I CAN' people understand the reality of just how tough things might get, but they remain very positive about getting through whatever the change is because they know that something good will come out of it in the end. Consider this:

Any emotion you resist will rule your life like an unspoken law.

In order to move gracefully through change of any kind, you have to first accept it. Do not interpret that as being a door mat. If you focus on a belief that you can't, then that is precisely whats holding you back from an opportunity to grow. Your brain is producing the feelings of fear, doubt, confusion, and a host of other emotions. Hogwash you say?

Fear paralyzes people throughout their life unless they can move beyond it. Doubt will keep you from moving forward because you have no true conviction that things will work out. Impatience, you can't trust and therefore, will likely give up on something because its not done on your time schedule. Guilt produces feelings of low self worth. Blame, most often induced by parents or spouse, but in casting blame it will further delay your maturity. Shame, how others will look at you is of great concern if a change is made.

You will decide if you live in a friendly universe or an unfriendly universe. Whichever way you decide, it will impact you to your core and you will live out the messages you believe to be true. You will use terms such as "This always happens to me." "Nothing good can come out of this." "Why can't I be lucky like that?"

Deciding to be an optimist will impact the way you move through change, and through life. How people cope is very personal for everyone; some people pray, some journal or exercise, some create a resume' of all the good that came out of their life changing experiences. Whatever method works for you, do it.

I use to wear an elastic band around my wrist when I struggled with negative thoughts. Even when no one was around, if I had a negative thought in my head, or if I allowed one to come out of my mouth, I'd snap the elastic band hard enough to leave a mark. No, I'm not in to pain, but I had to realize that every negative thought I had about a particular situation, or person, caused a feeling inside me that would steal my productivity and growth.

When you begin recognizing the negative emotions, you will begin to ask yourself, "What am I thinking that is creating this negative feeling?" You'll get better and better at it each time if you allow yourself to recognize it, but quickly re-focus your attention to the positive.

Cognitive therapists can teach you the same thing at a much more expensive rate. If you can't do this alone, get that elastic around your wrist, or better yet, is there someone that you can be accountable to? A spouse, a parent, a friend? Let them know what you're trying to do, chances are, it can make them think about their own power to create positive changes. You will have engaged a good habit in your circle of influence by doing so.

Will you fall off course now and then? You might, but so does everyone else. Whatever changes you are faced with making, if you've done all you can and you have no other choice but to accept it, handle it with grace. Accepting change, letting go of total control, and being at peace is a much easier way to live.

Celebrate the small victories! The more you can celebrate small victories, the easier it becomes. Set up weekly meetings with your accountability person(s) and go over the choices you made to move forward, to save money, to talk to the lawyer, to move out of your home, to hug your children every night before they go to sleep. No matter what it is, celebrate the fact that you did it!