We all have dreams. But, I'm not talking about having a dream while you sleep; instead, I'm referring to dreams that at the conscious level. These dreams may be of a new life where you have control of your destiny, or dreams of a new career, or dreams about owning your own business where you can reap all the rewards all based on your own efforts. How many times a day, week or month do you dream about living a different existence than the one you are currently experiencing? If you dream of something you want or desire on a constant basis, the question is, why haven't you fulfilled your dream? Or, did you start to take action on your dream only to find that you did not achieve the desired results on your first attempt, and gave up. Here's a true-life example. Several years ago, I had a dream about inventing a board game; those dreams were turned into goals that were translated to action steps. To finally create this board game, it took many hours of our spare time including weekends. Then came financial issues as a major obstacle. Board games aren't cheap to bring to life. Without the personal resources to pay for all of the developmental and printing costs, it looked like we were finished before we even got half way to the end goal. What could we do? Not to be defeated by this obstacle, a plan was developed to form a company and issue shares. The shares were issued in their entirety and off we went again. Then, came marketing strategies, T.V. appearances, newspaper articles, trade show attendance, weekend promotional appearances, magazine advertising, and spot radio commercials. To make a long story short, the company was dissolved after being in business for just a few short years. The reason was simple; too much competition from a major player, and, therefore, not enough sales to continue. How devastating after all the hours of work, the hours of marketing, promotion, not to mention the loss of our own financial investment. Is that the end of the story? Well, it was for one of the game developers; the negative emotions, “it never was meant to be" thoughts dominated any future dreams of a different life. But, did it mean being unsuccessful to me? I didn't succeed to the level I wanted or desired, but, to me, at the very least I lived my dream by turning it into a reality. And, here's the main question you'll ask yourself for the rest of your life if you don't take the bold attempt to mobilize a dream. You'll ask yourself, - what if? The point is that you'll never know what the future will bring if you don't turn a dream into a reality. And, if you don't succeed at first, then try again and again until you succeed. If you don't, you will always have no more than a dream. Failure is our greatest teacher as long as the experience is viewed as lessons, and those lessons are internalized to provide fruits for greater achievements later. It may take a few more attempts, or many attempts but success is only achieved once dreams are put into action, where failure becomes the launching pad for smarter choices, or better action plans. Will success come on your next adventure; who is to say? The important point, though, is that success only comes by turning dreams into reality and utilizing obstacles as stepping-stones to final success. Byron Pulsifer is one of the editors of Inspirational Words of Wisdom where you will find poems, stories and quotes. Plus enjoy the free monthly quote calendar. http://www.wow4u.com