After my book, Starting Your Own Business, was published, I spoke a few times to members of Forty Plus, an organization that helps people over 40 find employment. Most of the audience were victims of downsizing.

I always began by asking the audience, "How many of you have ever dreamed about having your own business?" It didn't surprise me that every person raised their hand. "So why aren't you doing it," I asked. "Fear" was the number one answer. When I did a follow up, I learned that only one of the entrepreneur "wanna-be's" ever took the plunge into business ownership.

My father was always in business for himself. He started his most successful business when he was 70 years old. So I don't perceive age as a limiting factor when it comes to starting a business -- or for beginning any new venture.

As a matter of fact, the major limiting factor is our own lack of courage and/or faith in ourselves. I personally believe that each of us has the ability to create a comfortable, rewarding life for ourselves. Yet there are many people who don't like what they do for a living or how they are living their lives because they are afraid to face their fears.

Fear of the unknown is something we all learned from our elders. From an early age, most of us learned to assume a negative outcome. For example, when kids are late, parents worry that something awful happened, even though, in most cases, nothing serious transpired. Or, if something doesn't go right for us once, there's a good chance that in the future we will fear the worst.

However, it is our choice to assume either a negative or positive outcome -- to assume that something good lies around the corner, not something bad.

We create our reality with our thoughts, beliefs and emotions, and as long as you keep fearing a negative outcome, that's what you will create.

Living your dream means facing your Self -- finding out who you are why you are here -- and then finding the courage to create your dream, no matter how many steps you have to take. Creating is often done by trial and error. When error occurs, we have to keep moving forward. (Thomas Edison did over one thousand experiments before he finally created the light bulb.)

The first step in starting to live your dream is to admit to yourself what it is. This is often the most difficult part because most people aren't encouraged to express themselves creatively. I was told, many times, to get my teaching degree so I would always have something to fall back on. After graduating from Rutgers and getting a BA in English, I took a special course that allowed me to teach lower grades. I taught first grade for a year and then had nightmares that I'd have to do it again. It took me years to learn how to open up and let Life lead me to my heart's desire.

I've learned that there isn't just one definable heart's desire. It keeps evolving. As I learn new techniques and dump the emotional baggage I've been carrying around, the more resources I have for creating my life in a new and wonderful way. I have to allow my Self to keep recreating itself on a regular basis.

It isn't always easy, because I often have to struggle with myself and my old beliefs about what I deserve. But it is worth the effort of finding out and following my heart -- no matter where it may lead.

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