Monday, June 20, 2011

Do You Have a Dream?

News
No new updates for this week.

Quote
"Martin Luther King gave the I have a dream speech, not the I have a plan speech."
-Simon Sinek

My Thoughts
The above quote comes from a TED talk given by Simon Sinek. It's an excellent talk and I highly recommend watching it. It's called "How Great Leaders Inspire Action"

It can be found here:
http://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action.html

How many times have you told yourself I can't do it because I don't know how? Maybe you get all excited about an idea, but then you start thinking I don't know how to do it, or you think of all the obstacles you will have to deal with and you are not sure how you will overcome them.

No one has ever achieved anything great by knowing each and every step on how to get there. But we often think we need to have this brilliant plan in place before we start something. The truth is you often will try and fail, try and fail, try again and maybe see some success. This is why passion is essential if you want to be successful in any area of your life. Martin Luther King Jr. was incredibly passionate about civil rights and he believed in his cause; so much so that he died for it. Think about that for a moment, he traded his life for something he believed in.

As I write this to you I am sitting in my office and the time is 2:30am. Am I sitting here right now for the money? Or in hopes of becoming famous? Or both? No, not at all. The reason I am sitting here is because I truly believe that these weekly messages will touch at least one person and inspire that one person to rise above mediocrity and live to their fullest potential. Maybe that one person will then inspire someone else to do the same, and so on, creating a ripple effect.

It's the passion for doing what I do that drives me. For example, I practice a minimum of 20 times before delivering a speech, seminar, or workshop. If that is a one hour seminar that means at least 20 hours of practice before I deliver it. While I am practicing I usually have no idea how many people will attend. There could be 50 people the day I deliver it or there could be 5, but I know that I've put in my best. It comes from passion.

Everyone of us has something that we would love to achieve. Most people may not immediately recognize what it is because it may seem ridiculous. There is a saying that if the why is big enough the how doesn't matter. So if you have a big enough reason for doing something you will overcome any obstacle. If you're pursuing your passion you know you will know why you are doing it. Because you love it.

Imagine telling Eric Clapton or Jimi Hendrix, when he was alive, to stop playing guitar. How about telling Pavarotti while he was living to stop singing, or JK Rowling to give up writing.
The idea is ludicrous. Why? Because they all love what they do.

As I mentioned before it is not always easy to pursue your passion. Most likely you will meet with many setbacks before you start to see some success. But I can tell you that it is all worth it.

I too have a dream and so do you. The question is what is preventing you from living your dream?

Have a wonderful week.

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