Dream-Believe-Achieve
A couple of years ago, I found this T-shirt that had these three words on it:
Dream
Believe
Achieve
It was after I re-done my NLP courses in Sydney and I was working on different goals for myself. I bought it, as for me it was wearing a reminder that I have the power to reach my dreams. As I do believe I am responsible for my own life.
I was wondering why it resonated with me. Did I achieve any dreams of my own? I did, as living in Australia was a dream for me, and to achieve it, was definitely a journey.
I remembered how I felt when I stepped on Australian ground in Sydney for the very first time in 2004. I was going to visit one of my dear friends, who was only supposed to be staying for one year. But after her travelling around Australia, she found a job and started her life in Sydney.
And as I hadn’t seen her for over 2 years, I booked a plane ticket to visit her for 4 weeks over Xmas and New Year’s in 2004/2005.
What I didn’t expect when I was stepping off the plane, was the feeling I was coming home.
I just dismissed the feeling at that moment, very easy as after more than 24 hours on a plane from my home country, The Netherlands, I was tired, jetlagged and very excited to see my friend again.
During my time exploring Sydney and its surroundings, the feeling appeared again and grew. I also visited Surfers Paradise and Byron Bay and had a great time.
After 4 weeks I said goodbye to my friend and Australia, and I knew I would come back soon. In 2006/2007 I travelled to Australia again with my boyfriend. He loved travelling – like me – but he wasn’t open to moving countries at all. For me, however, stepping on Australian ground for the second time, even amplified that feeling of this is home too.
That knowing he never would move – wasn’t something that changed my belief of I will live in Australia. I might even have thought at that time, that he would change his mind, and of course, he didn’t.
We travelled the East coast up to Townsville and back to Sydney to celebrate Xmas and New Year’s with my friend and her boyfriend.
After returning home, the dream of living in Australia did go to the back of my mind, as I lived my life.
In 2009, I broke up with my boyfriend and I started to remember the dreams I had. I even started my first NLP introduction courses at the community centre.
As I started working on myself, getting back to my real self – I remembered the dream of living in Australia. I started working on a sabbatical plan to travel to Australia by myself. Beginning of August 2010, I booked my ticket to Western Australia, I would travel around WA for about 12 weeks in 2011. I was so excited and started planning the trip.
I would be travelling mostly by myself, and I did have two friends who would join me.
My friend from Sydney and her son would visit me in WA and we would travel together to Augusta for a week. Also a Dutch friend would meet me in April and we would travel together for 3 weeks.
The purpose of the sabbatical was to explore WA, to have fun and also figure myself out. (As I did lose myself in my former relationship, as I put my ex-boyfriend on no.1 instead of myself.) And as the dream of Australia wasn’t gone, I wanted to explore that feeling and what would be my option to make it a reality. And as I was single at the time, I jokingly said I might meet the man of my dreams in Australia.
What I didn’t expect was to meet my future partner at my sister’s wedding on 20 August 2010, exactly 16 days after I booked my almost 3 months Sabbatical.
(And maybe some of you already read my – About me – SPOILER ALERT – he’s my husband now.)
I fell in love before I went on my sabbatical, and I still did it as planned. He wasn’t allowed to visit me during that time – as it was a journey that I wanted to take how I planned it. I remember a conversation with my mum – I think it was during Xmas, and my partner was celebrating it with us.
“So, you can cancel your sabbatical now”, my mum said. I was so stunned when she said that.
“Why Mum? Why would I cancel my sabbatical?”, I asked.
“You are in a serious relationship now; you don’t have to go to Australia to find a man.”
It still makes me smile thinking of that conversation, as I did explain that’s not the reason, I am going mum. And it was just a joke when I said I might find a man in Oz.
I never was quiet about my dream to live in Australia, so most of the people around me knew that I felt and believed it would come true.
I think my mum hoped I wouldn’t go – firstly worried about travelling by myself and secondly the chance I wouldn’t come back. In her mind, it wasn’t necessary anymore, as I found a great guy already 😊. (She was right about that, and it didn’t change that I needed to go to WA by myself .)
I had an amazing time and fell in love with Australia even more, and the belief I would live in Oz just strengthened.
My relationship survived my sabbatical 😉.
And in 2012/2013, my partner and I travelled to Australia. We started in Melbourne – travelled to Sydney by camper, stayed Xmas and New Years with my friend and her family. And the beginning of 2013 we travelled to Perth and I showed him where I travelled during my sabbatical and we also visited some friends in Perth and Albany.
My partner’s dream has always been to live in an English-speaking country for a while, and after our holiday, my dream became a shared dream.
In 2013, I started my NLP Practitioner in the Netherlands, and one of the things I learned was the Well-formed Outcome (WFO) process. A process that goes into details about what you want and what steps do you need to take for it.
In December 2013, I decided to travel to Australia by myself to visit my friend and also look at the possibilities, me getting a visa to work and live in Australia. As I learned, even if I have this belief and feeling I will live and work in Australia, I still needed to take steps to make it possible.
During my stay in Sydney, I figured that my partner would have more chance to be sponsored by a company than me, as the demand for IT specialist was much higher than the demand for Event specialists.
I already mentioned that to him on one of our calls, and he said well if there’s an IT-Conference we’ll just go back. I already joined him a couple of times before when he was going to a conference and we would book some extra days to explore the city together, mostly in the USA and Europe.
That was the reason I had some IT friends on Facebook.
The first day I was back home after I explored the options to get a visa in Australia (13 June 2013), I saw that one of the IT guys posted a new conference date. It was a Conference in Sydney at the beginning of September.
I couldn’t believe my eyes and called my partner.
We booked our plane tickets a couple of weeks later. And on the return of our travels in September, my partner had three offers to work in Sydney.
We moved to Sydney at the beginning of April 2015.
Dream – Believe – Achieve
These three words still work for me (including setting myself Well-Formed Outcomes – WFO). You do need to work for it, and I do believe if you set your goals/outcomes and specify what you want – the energy of the universe lines up to help and support you.
And it does start with yourself!
After reading, you might be curious what a Well-Formed Outcome (WFO) is, reach out and I’ll explain it or book in a ‘Get-to-know-me’ call to explore how I can support you.