What does it really take to achieve your dreams?

Aren't dreams awesome!  When I was a young lad I dreamed of becoming a firefighter, then a police officer, then a heavy equipment operator and on and on!

As the song "Angel in Blue" by J. Geils Band states "And she (he) never had dreams, so they never came true."  Most of my dreams never came true, but I had dreams and some did come true ... and it wasn't by accident!

There are a few things that determine whether or not you will achieve your dream(s)!

They include:

• Passion
• Commitment
• Focus
• Sacrifice
• Direction
• Magnitude/Speed
• Momentum
• Re-commitment

Truthfully, most dreams will never come true.  At least not until you convert your dreams into goals.  And while you may notice that there are a lot of hurdles and roadblocks between you and your goal the biggest of them all will be the ones that you create.  

More to come on each of the above bullet points in the near future.  So, as the chorus in the Aerosmith song by the same name goes "Dream on, dream on, dream ..."


Have a blessed day!

Tubby

Change your shoes!

Walk a mile in someone else's shoes ... yes, for sure!  It's important to see their perspective and to know why they are doing the things they are doing and making the decisions they are making.  In my business I am reminded of this every single day.  People evolve into who they are and their habits/actions have evolved right along with them.  So yes, walk a mile in someone else's shoes before you judge them or offer them advice.

But ... and it's a BIG BUT ... you can and perhaps should change your shoes.  For the most part you picked them!  Just because you are where you are and you are who you are, doesn't mean that you always have to be that way!  Today you can say "I am {insert career or personality} ... and today you can also choose to say "Tomorrow I will be {insert who you want to become}" by "reading this book  ... attending this class ... connecting with this person ... going to this seminar ..."  If you take a look in the proverbial mirror and don't like who you are then you need to shop for some new shoes!  Walk a mile in some different shoes and become who you want to become!

Here are two examples of life's path for two separate individuals:

Hypothetical example number one (but if I spent ten minutes searching the internet I could probably find ten 'real life' examples):

   A child grows up in poverty, is a minority, struggles with sickness and dyslexia throughout his school years ... yet grows up to be someone very special and influential! How does that happen?

Hypothetical example number two (don't have to research this, it's all around me):
   A child grows up in the majority, with common beliefs, common philosophies, gets average grades, goes to an average college, apparently has average dreams and (go figure) ends up pretty average.  How does that happen?

Someone changed their shoes while they were growing up.  They took off their loafers and put on some hiking boots and started to climb!  It was probably a choice that their friends ridiculed them for.  They were probably told "you'll never make it."  But they no doubt said to themselves "I surely won't make it if I don't try!"

Here's one of my favorite lines from one of my favorite bands that I've been dying to use in one of my blogs and I'm squeezing it in here (I think it's appropriate):
            "She never had dreams ... so they never came true." J. Geils Band from "Angel in Blue"

Have a great day!

Your Dreams

What do you consider the biggest failing of the education system in the United States?

Is it the lower math and science scores that our high school graduates have when compared to other nations?  Is it the number of children who don't graduate high school?  Is it the number of children who graduate high school ... but with a 9th grade education?

For me it's the lack of dreamers that graduate from high school.   Our school system was developed largely to educate the masses so that when they arrived at the factory door they were able to begin work with limited training.  Schools were never designed to help children learn to dream, to set goals and then to pursue their dreams.  Their intent was to make it easy for the barons of industry to grow their business.  In some ways our schools have evolved; however, I believe in the wrong direction.

Gone at many schools are: typing class, home economics, wood shop, electrical shop and small engines/automotive.  Replaced with higher math, philosophy and higher sciences.  But then what do they do with it?  Do we require kids to take classes that will prep them to become rocket scientists?  And now that NASA has been decimated, how many rocket scientists do we need?

I heard today on the news: Entrepreneurship in the U.S. is at it's lowest point in over 30 years!  And business failures/closures/consolidations is at a high point!  The net effect is fewer available jobs, lower real wages, lower production, increase in the gross import of goods to the U.S. and eventually a further devaluation of the almighty U.S. Dollar!  We've seen it in the news for a few years now that college graduates are moving back home to live in mom & dad's basement and in their luggage is $200,000 of student loan debt.  Apparently, there just aren't as many jobs as there use to be for people with double majors in German Polka and Advanced Basket Weaving.

My theory is that not everyone needs to go to a college or university, more should go to tech/voc schools (research Mike Rowe's position) and that all of our high school students need to be taught how to "dream".  We need more dreamers.  We need more dream followers.  We need more people reaching for the stars!  We need to show people how to dream ... how to turn those dreams into goals ... and how to turn those goals into reality!

Paraphrasing a song I heard this morning (thank you J. Geils Band) ... "and [you] never had dreams so they never came true."    The late great Zig Ziglar said "Don't become a wandering generality, be a meaningful specific."  You can't do this without dreams/goals.  Have a great day!