I want to talk to the guy who’s hearts desire is to open his own transmission shop but he’s stuck working in retail. I want to talk to the woman who’s hearts desire has always been to open a soup kitchen for the down and out but who’s just retired from manufacturing. I want to talk to the loan assistant who’s days are filled with stress but her heart beats for the people of Kenya. I want to talk to the corporate manager who’s dream is to help people take steps of faith. I want to talk to you.
What are you passionate about? When you think about your future and where you want to go, what do you see? Is it different than where you ARE going? When you look at yourself, what do you want to become? Is it different than what you ARE becoming? What are you doing about it?
I have had to ask myself those same questions. Then I forced myself to answer them with brutal honesty. The truth is:
- I was waiting for someone to give me permission to make my dream come true.
- I was waiting for someone else to care about my dream.
- I was waiting for someone else to give me the roadmap to my dream.
- I was waiting for someone else who knew more than I did to help me.
In all these things we see two things. #1. I was waiting. #2. Someone else had the keys to my dream. In my mind, I couldn’t move forward because I didn’t have what it took to succeed. I needed someone who knew how to get there to become interested in what I was doing & help me. With this thinking, my dream was going to be forever out of my reach. Why? Because that other person, who could do all of those things, was busy making their own dream come true.
I want you to take a serious look at your dream. What one thing can you do that would give you forward motion? Identify one thing. It’s probably not going to be some huge thing, but isolate just one thing that will get your dream moving. Make it something that you actually have the ability to do for yourself, and make it something that you can do now! Every journey begins with the first step. Most of them are small. It takes the first step to get to the second step. Sometimes you can’t even see step two until you’ve taken step one, but I promise, it’s there. Step one has to be first. Are you ready to take it?
Make up your mind in the beginning to not allow yourself to be discouraged by the small steps. Everyone starts at the same place. No one is born with lots of customers. No one is born with lots of influence. Everyone gets to start with one customer. One listener. One faithful supporter – and it’s usually mom. Let your vision and your dream be your driving force. Let it be the reason your feet find the floor every morning. Draw your strength from the purpose in what you’re doing.
Long before you play to a full house, regardless of what your dream is, you’re going to play to a lot of empty ones. Don’t quit. Get your eyes checked and make sure you’ve got selective vision. See what matters, look beyond what doesn’t. – Jon Acuff
Give serious thought in the coming days of what needs to happen in order for you to get from here to there. Form your plan. Nothing is going to get done unless you make it happen but you will need a plan. The truth is that there aren’t really any good excuses. The things you need are available if you want them badly enough. We are living in an unprecedented time where all of the gatekeepers are gone. There are so many tools available to every one of us that we can make our dreams come true if we will take the initiative and stop believing the lie that we can’t do it.
A few years back I was listening to a business man talk about one of his endeavors. He had bought a nursery. In the same area where his nursery was located there was a well established nursery that was larger and well funded. He went out and immediately planted 4,000 trees on his property. in his own words “Now we looked like the 800 lb. gorilla on the block”. People began to come into his business because he looked like he knew what he was doing. He had committed to his course and then he pulled out all the stops. His purpose was to be successful and he didn’t ask anyone else’s permission to go for it. Are you ready to put your creativity to work & make your dream come true? Now – Give yourself permission to go for it, then take your first step. It all begins with that first step. You need to START. On your mark, Get set, GO!
