People often think that a select few are “REAL” dreamers. While dreaming may come more naturally to some of us that doesn’t mean the rest of us cannot dream; you just may have to dig deeper. You have the capacity to be a dream claimer.

We are all dreamers. Everyone has a dream deep inside them that God has planted. Lysa TerKeurst, in her book “The Best Yes” calls this “Your soul thing”. You were created with unique gifts, talents and abilities.

Until you believe this though it will be hard to dream…dreaming is half the battle. The other half is claiming your dreams.

I know this all too well. For years I saw myself as an implementer. I helped many people with their dreams and visions – which I loved doing. Yet a small part of me was envious that I didn’t have the same capacity to dream. I thought “I’m just an implementer and an operations person. For goodness sake I’m an engineer that somehow became a leader. Why can’t I just be happy with who I am?.” But deep down I knew that was a lie. Operations and only implementing is what stressed me out because it suppressed my creativity.

Through my own transformation I have often thought about the characteristics that helped me to discover and claim my dreams of starting Dream Catalyst and writing books. After much introspection below are what I found to be the 8 characteristics of a dream claimer.

1. Ability to relax: While claiming your dreams takes discipline and tenacity you need to downshift so you can persevere and enjoy the journey. For some relaxing is a skill that needs to be learned.

2. Authenticity: You need to learn how to live without the need for validation. Be kind and be yourself. As you settle into your dream and own your gifts this becomes easier.

3. Discipline: This is a skill that this fly-by-the-seat-of-her-pants woman learned and so can you. There are times when you need to do what you need to do when you need to do it regardless of how you feel. Because there are many things you won’t feel like doing and before you know it your day is gone.

4. Flexibility: This sounds like the complete opposite of discipline but it’s not. Discipline is controlling your actions while flexibility is about going with the flow and not attempting to control other people/situations. Your plan will be derailed – expect it and move on. Sometimes those derailments are better than you plan.

5. Focus: This is why having a plan is so critical – it focuses you on the main thing. You can’t have 10 -15 goals to focus on – that’s called multitasking. Without focus you will be inefficient with the time you have set aside to spend on your dreams.

6. Tenacity: This is not quitting no matter how hard claiming your dreams is or how long it takes. This is being committed and determined to the dream journey which requires persistence and perseverance.

7. Patience: Much of life requires waiting – your dreams are no exception. You try something then you have to see if it works. You wait for others – sometimes you wait on yourself as you process ideas and emotions. With all this waiting you have two choices – either become frustrated and give away your energy or be patient.

8. Ability to See Opportunity in Every Situation: This is a change in thinking for some. It’s taking everything in life and asking yourself “What can I learn from this?”, “How can I help with that?”, “What do they need?”, “What’s missing?”

Which other characteristics do you think are critical to be a Dream Claimer?