So far, we’ve discussed the three things it takes to pursue your dream. 1. Decide. 2. Commit. 3. Discipline. What’s next? Well, brace yourself. If I didn't scare you off yesterday then I might today.

Number four is: sacrifice. I already see you cringing. I know, I know. No one wants to even hear that word: sacrifice. Today, we like easy, comfort, instant, drive-thrus. We don’t like to wait and we don’t want to have to give up anything. We like to eat our cake and have it too. Well, if you’re going to reach for a dream, sacrifice is demanded.

There will be things you have to give up. For me, when I first decided and committed to becoming a writer, I sacrificed a lot financially. A decent paying job for one. Teaching won’t make you rich, but it will pay the bills. Without that teaching job, I had to figure out a way that I could pay bills and live and eat. But I didn’t eat at fancy restaurants. I clipped coupons. I didn’t go shopping. Yep, and for me that was a HUGE sacrifice. I didn’t get to see my friends as much. Still don’t. I have deadlines. When my kids were little, other moms were calling their friends during naptime and catching up, but I was writing so I could meet deadlines. Neither is right or wrong. But chatting with friends would not have gotten a book written and my dream was writing. Olympic athletes give up a lot to reach for their dreams. They wake up early and work hard. Some go to school part time or homeschool. Therefore, they often give up Friday nights at football games and prom. They give up hanging out with friends and eating fattening desserts. So before making that decision and commitment, figure out what you are going to have to sacrifice.

What is your sacrifice? Is the payoff worth it?

Labels: chasing dreams, commitment, discipline, goals, sacrifice, what it takes to reach dream

We’ve talked about making THE decision and making a commitment to pursue your dreams. So, let’s talk about the third thing it requires to pursue your dream.

Discipline. This is a huge topic and we may have to revisit this one later. But it takes discipline to pursue a dream. Malcolm Gladwell who wrote The Tipping Point says it takes 10,000 hours to get good at something. 10,000 hours. Think about it. That’s a lot of time. If you worked on your dream 40 hours for 52 weeks of the year, that’s a little over 2,000 hours. At that pace it’s gonna take roughly 5 years to get to 10,000 hours. Now don’t get discouraged. Remember, you’ve made a decision. You’ve committed. And now you gotta get as tough as a drill sergeant. Olympic athletes discipline themselves in how they work out, eat, and challenge themselves beyond their endurance. Any athlete who has won the gold medal would say, “It’s worth it.” At some point they had to get disciplined. Discipline is a muscle and requires working out to strengthen it. You won’t be disciplined over night. You’ll mess up. But recommit and begin again. Discipline yourself.

If you struggle with this area, we will talk about this some more because there are strategies for becoming more disciplined. But for now, begin. And if you need someone to help you, a partner in crime, so to speak, try to find someone you can trust with your dream (remember, no one who is going to laugh or harass) and ask that person to keep you accountable. Maybe you can help your friend if he or she is struggling too.

So does discipline come easily for you? Or do you struggle? What are some techniques that have helped you be more disciplined?


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Labels: career, chasing dreams, discipline, goals, setting goals

(This is a continuation of yesterday's post: What it takes to go for your dreams)

So you’ve made a decision, right? You’re going to pursue your dream. Or you’re going to find out what that dream is. It all starts with a decision.

But what’s next? So you’re sitting on the couch, checking email, maybe googling how to climb Mt. Everest or where to find local writers groups. But what next? What to do? Don’t get up from the couch just yet. The next thing you need to do is make a commitment.

Yes, I know, you said you made a decision. Yay! That’s great! That’s the first step. But frankly, millions of folks decide on New Year’s Resolutions every January, but it takes more than a decision. It takes a commitment.

You have to push beyond all the questions and doubts and fears. Those are roadblocks that are going to immediately pop up in your path. Here’s a decision I often make: I’m going to get up at five a.m. and write. That is a sure-fire guarantee that one of my kids is going to wake up sick in the night or the cat is going to wake me. If you make a decision, a roadblock is going to immediately pop up and block your way. What are you going to do? Sleep in? Get up anyway? Commitment will get you out of bed when the alarm goes off and you’re muzzy headed and bleary eyed.

Or maybe you have different roadblocks. Maybe your mother just called as if she instinctively knew you made a decision to chase down that ridiculous dream you’ve talked about on and off since you were six. And she sets you straight. “You,” she says, “have responsibilities. You don’t have time to go chase a dream. Forget it. Be responsible.” Maybe pursuing your dream is being responsible to your Maker who planted that dream in your heart.

Or maybe as soon as you made the decision that little voice inside you started talking. Come on, you know the voice. It says, “Who do you think you are? You’re no (fill in the blank—writer, doctor, mountain climber, etc…). You’re too (fill in the blank—stupid, lazy, broke, etc…) to do that!” Don’t listen. Plug your ears, sing, “lalalala” and ignore that voice. It’s been telling you what to do for way too long.

Or maybe you mention your decision to your husband/boyfriend/significant other/best friend and they give you that look. You know, the look that says that’s ridiculous. S/he doesn’t have to say it but you know what s/he’s thinking, “Here goes another hair-brained idea.” Or maybe, “We can’t afford that!” Well, I can’t tell you what to do about your relationships but relationships should be supportive and encouraging. Or maybe that person laughs at your dream. Really, are you going to listen to that person? They’re probably too scared to pursue their own dreams.

Back to the commitment. This is a solemn commitment to yourself as sacred as a marriage vow that you are going to devote time, resources (including money), and courage to pursuing this dream. It’s not for Mom or Dad, hubby or kids, or best friend or worst enemy. This commitment is for you. If you’re a believer then make the commitment to God. I believe God planted that dream in your heart, so give it to Him, commit to follow that dream wholeheartedly. When I decided to write, I quit teaching. Not in the middle of the year. I fulfilled my contract. But I knew I had to commit fully to my dream of writing. Not everyone needs to take that drastic of a step, and you obviously have to figure out a way to feed yourself and live, but I made that commitment. And no, I didn’t have a husband to depend on to make the money for food and housing. I figured out a way to make it work.
Taking that step, I knew there was no going back. So, are you ready to make that commitment? If not, what’s holding you back?

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Labels: chasing dreams, commitment, decision, goals, reaching for the moon, setting goals

Do you dream of doing something spectacular, something important, something beyond the normal nine-to-five job? Maybe, like me, you dream of writing a book. Maybe you dream of dancing, or painting, or sailing around the world. Maybe you dream of making an impact by helping the homeless or orphans. Or maybe you dream of learning a foreign language, like French. Or maybe you simply dream of losing weight. Everybody dreams of something, even if it only seems like a pie-in-the-sky kind of dream. Whatever your dream is, I believe you can and should reach for your dreams.
Twenty years ago, I decided to quit teaching and become a writer. Twenty years! I can’t believe this is the anniversary year of that pinnacle decision. It changed my life in so many ways. So after pursuing my dream for 20 years, and publishing many books, I hope I have a little bit of knowledge from the hard knocks I’ve suffered and the mountains I’ve managed to climb to offer you hope and encouragement on your journey, whether that’s writing or climbing Mt. Everest.
One thing I’ve learned: sitting around and dreaming will not put you on the path to making that dream a reality. You have to get up, you have to take tiny steps forward in chasing down that dream.
The first year I taught school, there was a teacher two doors down from my classroom. She’d been teaching thirty years. The same grade. The same classroom. Now, don’t get me wrong. Teaching is a noble profession. I admire teachers. I was one. But teaching was not my dream. For some, that is their dream and I honor that. The fact was: I didn’t know then what my dream was. And maybe you don’t either. But maybe you simply feel like: what if there’s more…what if I’m missing out on something. That’s how I felt when I thought of myself in the same classroom for thirty years. One person’s dream can also be another person’s nightmare. So teaching the same grade for thirty years scared me more than the risk of trying to find what my dream might be. So during my five years of teaching, I tried to figure out what my dream might be.
So if you don’t know what your dream is, fine. Simply commit to finding out what your dream is so you can pursue it. If you do know what your dream is, then decide today that you’re going to go for it. Because that’s the first step in pursuing your dream: making a decision.
Over the next few days, I’m going to tell you the five things it takes to pursue your dream. So today, the number one thing you need to do is: make a decision. No one can decide for you. No one can push you into it. That’s why you see kids rebelling when their parent decides they should be a football player (or cheerleader or sorority member) like the parent was. Sometimes parents push their kids into their own professions, like being a doctor or dentist or even a writer. But that desire has to come from within you. It can’t be external any more than a doctor saying, “you need to stop smoking or eating fried foods.” So the patient might attempt to stop smoking or to eat healthy but until that desire throbs within their own heart it won’t work. You simply have to decide you’re going to pursue your dream.
Twenty years ago, I made a decision to become a writer. I didn’t know anything about writing. I didn’t know anything about the business. I didn’t know anyone IN the business. I simply had a dream. And I made a decision. Are you ready to make that decision?
If you don’t know, it’s okay you can just say you don’t know but you’re going to find out. Resolve to find out. Maybe we’ll discover it together. Or if you know your dream, then decide today before it’s too late to pursue that dream. So what’s your dream?



Contest: I’m going to be giving away a book at the end of the week. To enter, just post a comment on my blog here. You can enter as many times as you would like.

Labels: dancing, dreams, goals, painting, reaching for the moon, setting goals, writing