Daily Ramblings – Wisdom Wednesday – Pursuing Your Dreams

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100 List, Achievement, Challenges, Dreams, failure, Fear, Goals, persistance, Planning, Starting, William Longgood

Dreams and dedication are a powerful combination—William Longgood

It is so easy to get bogged down with the trivial in life. We binge-watch television, we explore the postings in social media, or we gossip with our friends. The trivial things in life create nothing, contribute nothing, and accomplish nothing.

If you could accomplish anything you wanted in life, with no possibility of failing, what would you pursue? Keep this in mind while you list 100 things you’d like to do before your life ends. What did you write down? Did it involve traveling? Learning? Building a skill? Starting a business? Getting in shape? Seriously, use your imagination and dream a little. Whatever is on that list you can accomplish it. Dream big!

Once you have a list, go through it. Find that one thing on your list you can get to work on right now. Got your item picked? Good. Now look at what that finished task or goal looks like when you’ve achieved it. Do you have a good picture in your mind? Can you feel how good it will be when you’ve accomplished it? Who in your family is celebrating with you? Where are you when you complete this task? What colors are prevalent in your picture? What smells? How do you feel? Now, go backward from that moment and begin writing down all the things that need to happen to accomplish it. Now go through that list and make sure your tasks/milestones are in place. Is the time you’ve allotted between milestones realistic? Did you make sure your tasks are in order? In other words, are there any tasks that must go before another can be started?

Now commit. Commit to begin working on your dream task tomorrow. Begin working toward your first milestone daily until you hit it. Then look at the next milestone and begin working toward that. Stuck? Look at the milestone and your list of tasks, you may need to break these milestones down into even smaller tasks to get the job done. Do that. Get these milestones broke into small chunks that can be completed in 25-minute chunks. Now schedule these 25-minutes each day. Is it on your calendar? Good.

Does this seem easy? It is. The problem most people have when trying to accomplish something is they fail to take themselves or their dreams seriously. They dream about doing something and it stays in the dream state. The dream stays where it is and we get bogged down with our chores, our day job, or something else. These day-to-day commitments become a ball and chain that prevents us from pursuing what we’d really like to do. We let the mundane become more important than what we dream about. As the years roll by, we are still dreaming and not any closer to achieving the dream.

Everything in our lives become one big distraction, one more reason to delay, one more excuse waiting to happen. After a while we become like the circus elephant trained to believe that the small rope spiked to the ground is impossible for us to break. We learn how to be helpless. We create our own prisons. We give up the dreams that could be ours and replace them with the mundane. Instead of working on our book for 30 minutes a night, we get caught up in a television series about zombies. Instead of taking that trip to Iceland, we waste our money on junk food or material things we don’t need. Instead of pursuing that business idea we play video games. You get the point.

You don’t have to join the crowd. You can begin today and start living your life. Pursue that dream you have in your head. Plan it out as if you could not fail. Begin taking steps to accomplish it. You will be floored when you achieve it one day and the journey you take to get there will be something you will always cherish for the rest of your life.

You’ll wake up one day and look at yourself in the mirror with a pride you’ve never experienced before. You did it. Hell, you may even tear up because you’re so proud of yourself and what you’ve accomplished. Your family and friends will be proud. At the end of that glorious day, while you lay in bed, you’ll begin thinking about the next thing you’d like to do. And you know what? The next day you’ll begin planning and setting up your calendar to pursue your next dream.

Think about Edison, Ford, Lincoln, Washington, Einstein, Disney, Gates, Buffet, and Musk. Think about Keller, Curie, Earhart, Roosevelt, Thatcher, Rowling, Beyonce, and Oprah. The stories are alike. They started from nothing, with huge obstacles to overcome and naysayers in the background. They all had a dream and pursued it. Was it easy? No. Did they suffer at times? Yes. Did they experience failure and shortfall and doubt? You bet. The difference between you and them? They went for it. While their friends were diddling around with the mundane, they pursued their dreams. They stuck with it. When they failed, the got up, dusted themselves off, and started again.

It’s Wednesday, the 24th of April 2019. Over the next few days, put together your 100 list. Pick one thing you’d like to pursue. Get your plans set to begin execution on May 1st. You can do it. I believe in you. You have nothing to lose but the opportunity to learn more about yourself and gain the satisfaction that comes from starting your journey.

I wish you well.

Until next time…

Dave

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Daily Ramblings – Wisdom Wednesday

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Daily Actions, Executing, Goals, Integrity, persistance, Self-trust, wisdom

“Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom. Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power.” Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

Mastering yourself is about keeping promises you make to yourself. I wanted to address this early in the year because this is the time of year we all begin to pursue all of those things we have established are important to us. You, like anyone else, will suffer if you are lied to—even if you lie to yourself!

When you consistently fail to do what you tell yourself you will do, you begin to lose confidence in yourself. You begin to believe that you cannot achieve anything because you have always failed to achieve what you set out to do. This compounds over time and after while you’ll find that you have lost control of everything. You’ll find that you are always taking the easier route. You cannot and will not do what you need to do.

I know this place because I was there. I love video games. I love them so much that during this dark time I could literally get up in the morning and play those games from morning to midnight and beyond. I was out of control. I couldn’t make myself exercise. I couldn’t make myself eat right. I couldn’t make myself do anything—because I didn’t believe that I could or would. If it was easy, I did it. I pursued anything that followed the path of least resistance.

I knew deep down that this was not the way to live and began to look for some answers to turn this around. I ran across a book called Mini-habits and that was all I needed. I started doing small things each day. Each day I did these small things I began doing more than I was required to do. This is called a bonus activity and this is a natural offshoot of Mini-habits.

I combined my knowledge of Mini-habits with other books and began implementing a ritualistic strategy of tackling the things that are important to a balanced life. I began reading, writing, learning, exercising, socializing, and performing my religious duties each day, even if it was just a little effort, I kept doing a little in each of these areas each day.

After a while, your internal self will begin to believe what you say. You will begin to trust yourself again and realize that what you say is what you will do. When you begin to actually do what you say you will do, the bulk of the battle has been won. Now, you can establish goals, set plans, and execute a little each day. This execution reinforces trust in yourself and edges you ever closer to the goals you set. It is just this simple.

Don’t be the person that goes to the gym in January and stops going in a month.

Don’t be the person who wants to write their book and gives up in a few weeks

Don’t be the person who sets out to lose weight and gives up on their diet within a week.

Be the person who can do anything they set out to do, through deliberate, consistent, and daily action. You can do it, just like I did. Start doing little things that build self-trust and you’ll wake up one day doing more than you thought possible.

I wish all of you well as you pursue this year’s goals. I hope all of you succeed!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Ted Talk Tuesday

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Angela Lee Duckworth, Grit, passion, Permanent Change, perseverence, persistance

 

I wanted to highlight this book because I didn’t realize this Ted Talk featured the author of this book–a book I read last year. I think you’ll enjoy both! As a reminder, I am not an affiliate of Amazon and make ZERO if you buy this book. It was just a great read and I believe a book you will benefit from.

Grit is literally the ability to set goals and continue plugging away at them until you achieve them. Grit doesn’t care about failing, missing the mark, or challenges you face along the way. Grit is literally the definition of continuing, regardless of whatever.

If you are having a hard time with a personal goal, kickstarting a workout regimen, changing your diet or anything else you have your sights set on–read this book and watch this Ted Talk!

Changing your life for the better is not about a quick fix. It is not about doing it for a few weeks. Real change– a change that will benefit you forever–requires an internal shift. It requires a commitment to a new way of doing things, a new way of living, a new set of habits that are internalized into your core. You can’t cheat it, you can’t game it, you can’t go around what is required–you have to do it and keep doing it.

I hope each of you has a terrific day!

Until next time…

Dave