A Message To Fellow Dreamers (Part 3)
Building A Toolkit
“I believe that dreams—day dreams, you know, with your eyes wide open and your brain machinery whizzing—are likely to lead to the betterment of the world.”
L. Frank Baum
Some of you have had a dream in your heart for quite some time. The saddest thing you can do is keep that dream locked away; it’s bad for you and it’s bad for the world.
Rronnie Ware was an end-of-life care nurse for years before she wrote her best-selling book, The Top Five Regrets of the Dying. Here is the top regret of dying people:
I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.
What is that dream inside of you saying?
For many years, my wife told me, “One day, you’re going to write a book.” If it wasn’t for her belief in me, I’m not sure I would’ve mustered the courage to do it, but God am I happy I did.
It took months of waking up at 4 am, doing research, and pounding away on the keyboard, but I’d finally written THE EVOLUTION OF A LEADER.
For the book launch, we had guest speakers and chef-prepared appetizers. More than 150 people showed up to celebrate with me. Here’s a highlight of the event.
A funny little thing happened that was totally unplanned. People began traveling with the book as a summer read and sharing pictures on Facebook. At one point I tried to track all the locations the book had traveled on a map I created.
Here are a few of my favorites.
The book ended up in our Nation’s Capitol. Above is a picture of Congressman Kevin Brady and Christian Collins posing in the tunnel leading to the U.S. congressional building.
I need to pause here and explain the hard work that goes into chasing a dream. Sometimes it takes years to write a book or get a business or non-profit off the ground, but I’m telling you, starting is the hardest part, and fortune favors the bold.
“Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, magic, and power in it. Begin it now.” Goethe
Let’s Build A Toolkit
Below are my top three resources I’d offer Dreamers working to make their dreams come true.
The War of Art, by Steven Pressfield - not to be confused with The Art of War. This is a book that I’ve gifted more than any other book. It will inspire and fuel you. I have the print version, but I also own the audiobook, which I’ve listened to more than 50 times.
The Tim Ferriss Show Podcast. I’ve learned more about business and life, and human nature, and what it takes to succeed by listening to this podcast than any other out there. I’ve been listening to it for 11 years. It’s remarkable and it has helped millions of people grow. If I had to choose a favorite episode, it might be Tim’s first episode with Terry Crews.
All My Best: Wisdom and Encouragement for a Better Life. The title of this book says it all. It was written to people chasing their dreams. How do I know exactly what to say to Dreamers? I’m one of them, and this is the best advice packed into a small book I can offer. Get it and read a chapter per day. They are small but mighty.
Here’s a chapter titled Hope from All My Best
Hope is a mysterious thing. At times it hides from us,
then it appears—just in time, in time to keep our spirits
from sinking into the depths of despair. Sometimes it
seems as though hope is so far gone, we can hardly
remember how it felt when it danced with our souls.
When we think back to times filled by hope, we realize
it has since discovered an ability to run from us, fleeing
into nothing more than an idea, a past time to reminisce.
We begin to question it. What is it, this hope, we only
faintly remember?
Hope can be thought of as an expectation of greater
things to come in the absence of any such evidence. It
wanes and surges, fading then filling the mind like a
lucid dream.
Like the wind, hope is hard to take hold of;
even when it is there, it can’t be seen—nor can it be
captured, held ransom, or demanded from. And despite
its elusive nature, it beckons us to greater ideals of the
future. It is this hope that inspires us to march into the
unknown.
In the absence of hope, a nagging reminder of the past
tugs at us, attempting to keep us chained to yesterday and
all its mistakes. If we fail to release the past, the
bleakness of today, in all its shades of winter, sets in.
We find ourselves in constant tension between what is already done
and a small glimmer of promise for tomorrow.
We find it hard to exist today, in this gift of
the present, without hope. But it is all we have—today
that is, this moment in time where we are confronted
with reality, ushered in with all of its chaos, challenges,
and opportunities.
The chaos of the present offers a host of infinite
possibilities; at this moment, we wrestle with urges,
needs, desires, and fears ... still, we have a choice—to
either pursue the direction from where hope beckons us
or to remain in the setting concrete of the past.
This choice stifles many; nevertheless, it is a choice we must
make. Anne Lamott shares that we should live as if we are dying:
“To live as if we are dying gives us a chance to
experience some real presence. Time is so full for
people who are dying in a conscious way ....”
Life without hope becomes merely a nebulous idea,
something with a void. It holds even death at its bookend,
but to live with hope is something much different. Living
with hope is active, bursting with the present despite the
past and because of the future.
True living must be done now; it must be filled with the present.
Living with hope expels inertia. To live, you must ask, ‘What greatness lies within me?’ Then you must answer courageously.
When we lose hope, we must seek it out ... chase it
down, knowing that it is tucked away, buried under a few
pains of this world that want to keep us from its power.
To live, we must release the past—take hold of the
present—while firmly gripping the hope we have found
that pulls us forward.
Emerson said, "What lies behind us and what lies
before us are tiny matters, compared to what lies within us."
What greatness lies within you? What dream have you
ignored that is calling you to stand up and charge toward
it? Don’t wait. Instead, take a small step in that
direction—hope is calling you.
Wake up tomorrow and take another small step.
It’s in these small steps of courage where dreams begin to materialize.
Hope is the language of our dreams calling us to something much greater.
Share this article with someone you know who has a dream inside them.
Read Part 4
