Personal Development Quick-Start Guide - For Teens!

CHAPTER EIGHT - Spirituality

As well as incorporating all your life experiencesinto your dream life, make sure you allow space for a spiritualaspect to develop in your life. Even if you are a go-getting Type Aself-starter, hard-nosed and worldly, with your eyes on the prize,that's no excuse to take your eyes off the ultimate prize, which isHeaven, eternal life and a deep oneness with creation. Ultimately, nomatter whether you are religious or not, you are made of body andsoul and any dream life that doesn't reflect that will always havesomething missing and that lack will make your attempts to achievesuch a life less effective and less happy.

After all, what's the point of going to all of thistrouble, anyway? Why spend a long time, possibly years, building upand learning things and expanding your network and focusing on yourmission and all that jazz, yet ignoring the deeper purpose of it all?

It's good to say, "I believe in myself", butwho's "I"? Who are you, anyway? Are you just a collection ofexperiences, the end result of a bunch of random "stuff" thathappened? Isn't there more to you than that?

Don't make the mistake so many others make, whereyou think you are nothing, to the extent that you feel you have towrap yourself up in things, experiences, opinions and attitudes,treating them like clothes, as though you were invisible unless youcover yourself up with these things to make yourself visible toothers. You came into this life naked, with nothing and for sure, you will leave it the same way.Ultimately, you were still a person then and you are still thatperson now.

One of the major features of living your dream lifeis that it allows you the way and the time to explore this truth. Inreality, it is painful, uncomfortable, upsetting and emotional tocome face to face with the "invisible" you, the you that existsminus all this exterior baggage. Many more people would be willing toexplore this invisible person if they could find something comfortingto hold onto while they do it. A dream life is that comforting thing.In working to achieve our dream life in the areas of Health, Wealthand Relationships, we learn that we have skills we never had, achievethings we never thought were possible and increase in personalself-confidence as a result. With enough money coming in to free upyour time, a range of romantic and personal relationships to supportyou and a body that others respect, that lets you walk with head heldhigh, you can then feel safe to work backwards, reverse-engineeeringwhat you have just done, yet holding onto it at the same time, toarrive at the essence of who you really are based on the values youbelieved in when you first set out on this journey. This is mucheasier than attempting to explore the invisible essence of yourselfwhile you're overweight, stuck in a boring, dead-end job, are singleand alone and hate yourself. That is horrendously painful and verydifficult.

So don't make the mistake of using your dream lifeto escape that invisible essence, the person you really are. In theend, we only have one life. Once you figure out who you really are,you can refine your dream life to reflect this truth more exactly.

Another issue is the sense of direction yourspirituality takes. The wonderful thing about spirituality is theabsolute and definitive be-all and end-all that it offers your soul.It's the ultimate thing to gain, so organizing your dream life so youdirect all your efforts to obtaining it is of number one importance.So always bear in mind that the whole purpose of having a dream life is to obtain and achieve thishappiness, since it continues beyond death into the eternalhereafter.

This truth is expressed differently by variousreligious traditions. If you are Roman Catholic or some otherChristian denomination, you will look at it as eternal life in ChristJesus in Heaven, the reward of a life well-lived. A Buddhist wouldconsider it the achieving of nirvana. The important point is that alltrue faiths teach that eternity is NOW, not when you die; you need toget started on it in THIS life, not sit around just expecting it tohappen when you die.

So get started now by focusing all your dreams ongaining eternity in the end, as you will lose nothing, keepeverything you have worked for and achieve the greatest happiness!