Michael Mamas on Pursuing Your Dreams

Michael Mamas, author of The Golden Frog, teaches “life” all over the United States and with masters in India and China. Mamas is the founder and CEO of the nonprofit Center of Rational Spirituality; the founder, director and head instructor of the School for the Evolution of Humanity; and the founder of Mount Soma, a Vastu-architecture community supporting healthy living. Here, Mamas shares his tips for pursuing a dream.

How much progress can a person expect to make in the first 30 days?

The first 30 days of pursuing a dream can be everything. Real learning happens, not over several years, but in the twinkling of an eye. If you work and reflect, you can make huge strides within the first 30 days. It’s said that well begun is half done. Certainly taking on this approach, working with it, exploring it and taking those first few steps are huge. Think of little children; the two or three greatest steps they ever take in their lives are the first two or three. That’s where the joy and passion are.

What can people do during the first 30 days to pursue a dream?

Derive a plan, put something out there and see what comes back. If it doesn’t feel right, you adjust, you tack. When a sailboat goes from one shore to another, it doesn’t attempt to go in a straight line—it tacks. Life is the same. Pursuing your dream requires a willingness to get the boat into the water, set your sail and move in a direction that’s your best guess at the moment. Life is not a series of perfect conclusions, it’s a series of best guesses.

What are the myths about pursuing a dream that hold us back?

One of the big misconceptions in this world is that we believe we can think our way through life. We think we have to figure it out and know, and then do. That’s upside down. You feel, you put something out, you see what comes back in your life and you adjust accordingly. You keep going in one direction because it feels right, or you start to move in another direction. You don’t think your way through life—you feel your way.

How can we handle unexpected or unwanted change?

Things are always coming up. If you’re clinging to a dream, anything that comes up can feel horrific and terrifying. But if you’re resting into the abstraction of your own being, then incorporated into that is the ability to go with the flow because you’re not as emotionally attached to what it looks like on the surface.

How important is a support team?

A support system can be hugely helpful or it can prevent you from pursuing your dream. When you’re working with someone, a critical time in the relationship always comes up when you say, “I see what I’ve been doing, I see how it’s been messing up my life. What do I do now?” and the counselor or coach says, “Now do this.” They’ve taken you out of one horrible box and put you into another. The new box feels good for a while, sometimes just because it’s a change, but we’re talking about a genuine, concrete shift from an old way of being to a new way of being, as opposed to rearranging the same old furniture.

For more information on Michael Mamas, visit www.thegoldenfrog.com.