How to Live Your Dreams- by L.A. Nik

How to Live Your Dreams

Without dreams, you're pretty much giving up on life.

Throughout this book, I’ve tried to tell you about how important confidence, difference, place, people, finesse, communication, responsibility, and persistence are in progressing in your life. Without these essential building blocks, you end up in a comfortable state of hatred.

Underlining everything though, are dreams. Too many people have stopped believing in themselves. They’re stuck in that comfortable state of hatred and they are watching time (and their dreams) slip by.

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Ever since I can remember, I wanted to be a rock star. I knew that from the moment I looked at myself in the mirror. It was all I thought about as I grew up. Eventually, I started to live the dream. I created a look. I became a rocker. I formed bands and played drums in others. 

Living the rock and roll dream.

You have to believe in your dreams until they become so big in your head and so much a part of your life that you forgo everything else. I didn't go to college. I barely went to high school. I cut class every day. Only because I was given the opportunity to do work study did  I ultimately earn a high school diploma. But if I didn't had work study, I would have dropped out. Look, not everybody is cut out to be an academic. Not everyone is cut from that cloth.

My dream and my confidence about where I wanted to go with my dream was so powerful, it overwhelmed my parents. I was so persistent that they knew nothing was going to stop me. Ultimately they built me a soundproof studio in their basement. They supported me. They believed in me because I was confident in myself and where I wanted to go in my life. I formed my first band during that time and my parents came to every show.

If you believe in your dream enough and you have the confidence in yourself to back up that dream, people will support you and help you along the way – just as my parents did.

Not everyone is going to get it though – be prepared for that. My grandfather certainly didn’t understand. He thought I was a devil worshipper.My grandfather warned my parents to be careful because I could eventually kill them in their sleep. I can laugh about it now, but it really hurt me back then.

Luckily, my parents didn't buy it. They didn't believe that for a second. If my mom actually believed I was worshipping the devil, she would have smacked me. After all, I’d been an altar boy.

My grandfather wanted me to cut my hair and carry a briefcase. To this day it just amazes me how much the concept of image is imbedded in our culture and what it means to be respected and successful. If my hair was short and I wore a tie and carried a briefcase then does that mean that I am trustworthy? Would that have made me a morally decent human being?

I think of it this way. Jeffrey Dahmer, the Son of Sam, and John Wayne Gasey all had short hair. They probably carried briefcases and wore ties too.

Enough said.

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If anybody says they succeeded on their own without anyone's help, they're lying. You have to give credit to those who helped you along the way. I’ve had plenty of help.

It’s very important to have confidence and believe in your dreams so much that you get others on board with you. You have to convince them that they're getting a better deal than what you're getting back from them. You have to build yourself up enough that others will want to be a part of your dream

People like to be around passionate, confident people. They want your passion to rub off on them. They want to be a part of the action and learn from it themselves. People gravitate towards strong leaders and want to believe in them. They want to follow strength.

If you have the passion and the excitement you will succeed. It’s really difficult to fail when you have the right ingredients. It’s what happens after success that matters most though. How you define that success makes all the difference.

If the only way you define success is by how much money you make in a year, that’s not passion. Money is an end result of your dream and most of the time your dream might not make you a lot of money. But I can guarantee you that you’ll be happier and you won’t notice what you’re lacking. You’ll only see how much you’ve progressed.

That’s what counts.

Making lots of money should not be your only dream. If that’s your goal, you will never make enough money to be satisfied. You’ll always want more – you’ll become a hamster on a wheel. You’ll be running and running and running but not getting any further in life. I’m passionate about music and cars. Those things are inspiring! I can continue to learn, create, and share with those two passions.

If your dream has the potential to make you lots of money, then great. But your dream should be the thing that you would do and would love to do regardless if you made money from it at all.

Most musicians today make $17,000 a year.

That’s it!

And I’m talking about the working bands who tour all over the country. They don’t make a lot of money, but they love the music. They love the lifestyle. They love the experiences and the people they meet. It’s a shame they don’t make more money, but sometimes that’s the price you pay to do what you really love in life.

People who have a deep seeded dream that drives them every day are excited about life. Excitement is contagious. You have to be excited about your dream and about yourself. Once that happens, you will know what true happiness is.

Remember, when you are on your death bed, there are no do-overs. The switch is turned off and that’s that. During the 60, 70, or 80 years leading up to that switch being flipped, live your life! Learn, create, and share every day. Experience life. And before your eyes close, before that switch is flipped, you want your last thought to be, “Whoa! That was an awesome fucking ride!”