Treasure Your Dreams

It’s SO tempting to give up when the going gets tough — no matter what area of life you might be dealing with. It’s important to remember though that those who push through the hard times are the same ones who get to experience the great times!

Nothing great every comes easily… you must be willing to persevere and stick with it until you see the success you’ve been shooting for!

If you don’t have the motivation to work through the hard times, then your “Why” obviously isn’t big enough — if your WHY (your reason for doing whatever it is you’re doing) is big enough, then you won’t be able to quit… you will want that success too bad to give up!

So whatever you’re tackling in life, make sure your reason for doing it is clearly defined, then remind yourself of that reason every day and get busy working towards your goal! And whatever you do… if you want to win, don’t quit!

The quote I leave you with is this, by one of my mentors and friends, Michael S. Clouse,

“Always move towards your dreams!”

One of my favorite books of all time is The Slight Edge by Jeff Olson. I was first introduced to this book by Michael Clouse at our Vegas convention in March of 09… and in the past year I have read it so many times the pages are already falling apart!

Love, love love that book!

The main concept in it is that your whole life is based on the little things you do (or don’t do) every day — it’s the little things that make all the difference. You are always moving either up the Slight Edge curve, or down it. You are never static.

For example, working out. Wow, do I hate to do it. I’ve ridden horses several days a week my whole life, up until a few years ago. Until I quit riding I never had a reason to do any other type of workout, but now… well, anyway.

I finally found a program that seems to be working for me… and by working I mean I actually will do it (most) days. I tried creating my own schedule, tried attending classes at a gym, tried sticking an elliptical in front of my TV… but so far P90X seems to be the only thing I’ve stuck with for any period of time.

Yesterday, I goofed. I did not do my P90X workout. Why not? Well, I wasn’t sick… I wasn’t injured… I wasn’t being held prisoner anywhere… I was just being lazy. I put it off all day, went to a church thing last night and got home late. Could of done it then, but I opted for bed instead.

So, yesterday, I travelled down the Slight Edge curve just a bit.

Can I tell any difference today? No. Can I suddenly not touch my toes because I failed one time to do the Yoga workout? No. But what if I skip today? Will I tell a difference tomorrow? Probably not.

If I skip the rest of this week though… then I might notice a small difference next week. If I skip the rest of the month… that difference will be a little bigger. If I skip the rest of this year… then I might as well have not ever started at all.

And what if I never workout again for the next 30 years?
And what if I do the opposite… what if I workout 6 days a week for the next 30 years.

A small daily decision doesn’t seem to make much difference. So what if you opt for the pizza instead of the salad? Who cares if don’t put a percentage of this week’s paycheck into your savings account? Does it really matter that much?

It might not matter much today… but those small decisions (or indecisions), compounded over time, make all the difference in your life.

If you think about it, the Slight Edge can be put to work in any area of your life — your finances, your career, your health, your family, your relationship with God, etc, etc, etc.

So my challenge to myself… and you too if you’re up for it… is to make it habit to have the Slight Edge work FOR you rather than against you. Start with one area, then add another, then another.

Before you know it you’ll be moving up, up, up! You might not notice it today… or tomorrow… or even next week. But I guarantee you that 30 years from now, you’ll be sitting up high on that mountain very happy that you’ve been climbing instead of digging!

The quote I leave you with is this, from the Slight Edge written by Jeff Olson (of course)…

“Time will either promote you or expose you”

You know, that light at the end of the tunnel. The one everyone says is there… but for some reason, you’re just not seeing it! With every turn you make you expect it to be there, and you’re imagining it so vividly that sometimes you actually convince yourself that you DO see it… only to have it disappear again.

So, where’s the light? Does it even exist? Believe me… it’s there.

It’s easy to become discouraged when you work towards something for a long time and don’t seem to be reaping the benefits. It’s easy to say to yourself “This isn’t working.” or, “Maybe it’s time to try something else.” But please, don’t give up!

There is one source I always turn to when I begin to wonder if that light is ever going to appear at the end of the tunnel. It reminds me that the light IS there… it always has been — but the only way I am ever going to reach it is by continuing to do the little things, every day, that take me closer to that light. If you’ve read very many of my blogs you probably already know where I’m heading with this… come on, you know what I’m talking about… “The little things that are easy to do, and also easy not to do”

The source I’m talking about, of course, is “The Slight Edge” by Jeff Olson. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again — what a FANTASTIC book!! So encouraging, so uplifting and yes… so realistic. Sometimes, this concept truly brings me back to reality.

You see, what this book teaches is that life’s journey takes place on a slope — and you are always either moving UP the slope, or going back down it. If you aren’t going up, you are going down… you are NEVER staying in the same place! Now of course it can sometimes appear that you are in the same place… for example if you spend 3 days going UP and the next 3 going down… well, at the end of 6 days you are pretty much where you started. My question to you is, do you want to be constantly climbing or constantly sliding? I can probably guess your answer.

Of course we all want to be constantly climbing up life’s slope of success. We want to be healty, successful, financially secure. We want to have great relationships, friendships, careers. We want to live in a clean house, drive a clean car and stay caught up on our laundry. We want to be physically fit, eat healthy meals and take our vitamins.

But do we? Ha… I can probably guess your answer to that one too

Reality is, you are always going up or sliding down. It’s the little things you do (or don’t do) every day that determine whether you are moving towards that light at the end of the tunnel, or walking away from it. Consistency is the key here! You can go along at a steady pace for a few days, then with just a few days of mess ups you find yourself winding your way back through the tunnel towards the direction you came from.

In his book, Jeff Olson gives several examples of how The Slight Edge is constantly at work in our lives…

If you decide not to go to the gym, you aren’t going to get flabby…. today.
If you decide to eat a couple of donuts, you aren’t going to gain 30 pounds… today.
If you decide to go on a shopping spree, you aren’t going to spiral into debt… today.
If you choose not to complete your “To Do” List, your business isn’t going to fail… today.

Get the point? The little things we decide to do (or not do) aren’t going to have that much affect of our lives… today. BUT, compounded over time, it is these little decisions that will determine whether or not you end up on the UPWARD climb or the downward spiral of life’s slope.

What if you decided not to go to the gym, one day at a time, for 20 years? What if you decided to eat a couple of donuts for breakfast, one morning at a time, for 20 years? What if you decided to go on a major shopping spree, every week, for 5 years? By now, I’m sure you get the point.

All that life is, is a compilation of little decisions compounded over time. Good decisions or bad ones, it doesn’t matter — the Slight Edge works both ways! And the biggest secret is that The Slight Edge does not care about tomorrow, or yesterday. It only cares about today, in this moment. Wherever you are on life’s slope, you can make the decision beginning today that you are going to be climbing UP, not sliding down. You are going to be moving towards that light at the end of the tunnel… not walking away from it.

So, if you have been wondering “Where’s the light” in your life lately… take a look at your Slight Edge decisions. Make the decision to do (or not do) the little things every day that will be moving you forward and not pushing you back!

The Slight Edge is my reality check. It makes me accountable to myself, and to my own progress. When I’m not where I want to be, when my goals are being reached as quickly as I would like them to be, I force myself to become completely honest with myself about my Slight Edge decisions… and in those decisions (always) is the answer!

The quote I leave you with is this, one of my favorites, by Jeff Olson:
“Time will either promote you, or expose you.”

What are the areas in which you struggle the most?

If you were to be completely honest with yourself, in what areas do you struggle the most in terms of your business? Is it consistency? What about effort? Follow Up? Follow Through?

In what areas do you struggle the most in terms of your health? What about in terms of your spiritual side, your family and relationships, your finances, your social and cultural side, or your leisure time?

Everyone has struggles in each area of their life. It’s a part of human nature, it’s just how we are! But that does not mean that we should be satisfied with those struggles and stay content with where we are in life, we should constantly be pushing forward… improving upon ourselves daily.

I ask this question to others often, but probably not often enough to myself: Where will YOU be five years from now, if you don’t do something different today?

In my morning devotional today I read a quote that I have heard many times, but it was nice to be reminded:

“If you continue to do what you’ve always done, you will continue to get what you’ve always gotten.”

John Maxwell said those words, and they are very, very true. We are a society that lives for “tomorrow” — tomorrow I will start going to the gym, tomorrow I will spend more time with my kids, tomorrow I will begin putting 10% of everything I earn into savings, tomorrow…tomorrow…tomorrow.

The problem is, tomorrow is a day that is always looming, but never actually arrives. Each day is a new “today”, and if we allow ourselves we forever put off taking the action steps to achieve our goals and dreams until “tomorrow”.

Don’t be one of those people. I do it — far too often. It is one of my struggles. BUT I am constantly working towards improving on myself; finding new ways to stay reminded that TODAY is the day to begin reaching for my goals… tomorrow is simply another day to do it again.

I do my best to wake up and spend 30 minutes reading a devotional of some kind each morning. A few days ago, the lesson I read talked about “NOW” — that too many people wait for “tomorrow” to change bad habits, to wait for God’s Will to become clear in their life. But God wants to change you NOW…. not tomorrow.

When do YOU want to change YOU? Today?…or Tomorrow?

The choice is yours — you can spend another day waiting for tomorrow to begin working towards everything you’ve ever wanted, or you can take the steps that are necessary today, so that if “tomorrow” ever actually gets here, you’ll be ready for it!

The quote I leave you with is this, by Jeff Olsen:
“Time will either promote you, or expose you.”

How many times have you thought to yourself, “I wish I could do _______, but it just wouldn’t be possible”?

Fill into the blank whatever you wish –

I wish I could get a new car.

I wish I could get a new house.

I wish I could walk away from this rat race.

Then let me ask you another question – who told you it was impossible?

The most magical place on earth, Walt Disney World, of course, was created by a man who believed that nothing was impossible. See what can happen when people break away from the self-imposed boundaries they’ve put on their life?

Magical things can happen!

Never choose not to pursue a dream because it seems far-fetched or, impossible. Remember the famous quote from Walt Disney himself:

“It’s kind of fun to do the impossible.”

I once heard a quote that said, “Passion is knowing exactly what you want, and not stopping until you get it.”

That pretty much sums it up, doesn’t it? You can’t be passionate about something, and still be ready and willing to give up the pursuit of achieving it. If you can willingly give up on something, then it’s not your passion — plain and simple.

Your passion is something that, even if for a time it must be put on hold, remains as much as part of you as it was the day you discovered it.

Your passion can be found in the answer to the questions, “What does your perfect day look like?”, and “Imagine the most wonderful place on earth, what are you doing there?”

I believe everyone has a passion — I believe your passion is a desire you born with, a gift from God that is meant to fulfill your true purpose in life; the reason He put you here in the first place.

Some of you may be reading this saying, “No, my passion has nothing to do with God.” — but I have to disagree. God uses people every day in millions of ways; He put that desire (that passion) in your heart for a reason, even if you aren’t sure what that reason is yet.

Your passion is something that makes your heart smile when you think about it; something that makes your heart hurt when you imagine never being able to do it again.

So my question to you is; what’s YOUR passion? What makes you tick, what makes you get out of bed in the morning, what makes you reach for your dreams?

The quote I leave you with is this,

“Above all be true to yourself, and if you cannot put your heart in it, take yourself out of it.”

Everything you do is driven by one of two things — fear or desire. Hard to believe? Not really. It’s actually very straightforward.

Every action you take (or don’t) is determined by whether you FEAR or DESIRE something more. Here are a few examples…

Let’s say you need to go to the grocery store one morning. You decide to go because your DESIRE for fresh food in your house outweighs your FEAR that you will be injured in a car accident on the way.

Or how about this one… You wake up at 6am and leave the house one hour later because your FEAR that your boss will fire you for being late outweighs your DESIRE for sleeping in an extra couple of hours.

Unfortunately, we FEAR a lot more things a lot more strongly than the number of things we DESIRE. For that reason, your life is often driven by fear. You do things to avoid the consequences rather than to acquire the results.

What a horrible way to go through life! To base your daily actions around the consequences that will come from doing (or not doing) them.

Wouldn’t you rather base your daily actions around the DESIRE for the great things you will achieve from doing (or not doing) something?

I know I would!

So many times it is fear that gets in between us and our goals. Fear of rejection, fear of failure, fear of what other people may think. We are so consumed with this fear that we end up not even pursuing our goals at all!

One of the things I like to ask people who choose to get in business with me is “What is your ‘Why’?” In other words — what is it that makes you want to be successful in this venture? What is your DESIRE?

I have found that if your “Why” for anything is BIG enough, it will outweigh any fear that may stand in the way of achieving that goal. The key is to create a DESIRE that is larger and more powerful than your FEAR!

My challenge to you is this: Take a look at the things you want in life. Be completely honest with yourself and determine if fear has been standing in the way of you taking the steps you need to reach that goal. If it has, then reevaluate your ‘why’ and see what kind of difference it makes!

The remedy for paralisis by fear is a greater desire — every time.

Never let fear stand between you and your dreams!

The quote I leave with you is this, by one of the biggest dreamers of all time, Walt Disney:
“If you can dream it, you can do it!”

Texas Tech Football – “I Dreamt It in my Head”

I’m sure anyone who follows college football even the slightest bit has heard by now about the incredible last second (literally) touchdown pass from Graham Harrell to Michael Crabtree that led to the upset of the #1 ranked Texas Longhorns by the #7 ranked Texas Tech Red Raiders this past Saturday night.

What a game!

I had the privilege of sitting on the 50yd line with my cousin, who is a red-shirt freshman for Texas Tech, and to experience a history-making night of football. As I’m sitting here writing this tonight (now 2 nights after the game) my voice is still hoarse from screaming for the Red Raiders.

This is the most talked about season in Tech football history – for the first time in decades Tech is now 9-0 and ranked #2 in the BCS polls which puts them in reach of not only the Big 12 Championship, but the National Title as well. While there are many skeptics, I have to say I believe they can do it – and here’s why.

Visualization.

Let’s start back at the middle of this summer, in July, when the host of a local radio morning show began the countdown to “The Day Texas Tech Wins the National Championship!” – while it was predicted that we were in for a great season, it was by NO means predicted that we would make it that far. The radio station (home of one of the most listened to morning show in town) has embraced this countdown in full force — they have even composed a song (which they play on the radio every morning and usually several other times throughout the day) with lyrics such as “Texas Tech Red Raiders win it all, Texas Tech Red Raiders let’s win that crystal ball!” Needless to say, the radio host is not the least bit surprised that we are entering into the 11th week of the season undefeated.

This past week was the craziest in Lubbock I have ever seen. Over 1200 students spent the week in tents camping outside the stadium gates… news stations were broadcasting from the end-zone… billboards and commercials were seen all over the place promoting “BLACK OUT to BEAT TEXAS”… shirts were made by local retailers, sold out within 48 hours and made and sold out again – excitement was in the air, WINNING was in the air.

Of course, we were all skeptical. But we knew that this was our year – our game – we had as good of a chance at taking on #1 and winning as we ever had in the past. Everywhere you went you could overhear conversations about the upcoming rivalry game, and virtually all were positive.

Let’s jump ahead to Saturday morning, where the crew from College Gameday was broadcasting from Memorial Circle on the Texas Tech campus. This was their first ever visit to Lubbock, Texas and everyone was anxious to see who they would pick to win.

At the end of every broadcast Lee Corso brings out the head of the mascot of the team he has picked to win that day – as #7 going up against #1 we were definitely the underdogs, but he must have seen something in the faces of the fans and in the determination of the team to make him think we had a chance because lo and behold he brought out the head of Raider Red along with two pistols and fired them into the air as the fans behind him went wild!

Excitement continued to mount as the time for kickoff got closer – and by 6:30 the stands of Jones Stadium were black with fans who had shown up in their black-out shirts to cheer Tech on to victory. Never have I witnessed such electricity in the air of that stadium – not only was a new record set in attendance, but all 56 thousand+ of us were on our feet screaming for all 60 minutes. The noise of the fans yelling “RAIDER POWER” drowned out the noise of the announcer, and the only times his voice was understood was when the roaring crowd would join him in announcing another “RED RAIDER FIRRRRST DOWN” (which turned out to be quite often!).

Against all odds Tech led throughout the entire game – that is, up until the 4th quarter with 1:31 left to play on the clock when the longhorns scored the touchdown that put them ahead 33 to 32. Hearts sank and then rose again to pound in everyone’s throats – surely, after all we’ve done, we weren’t going to lose like this.

Tech fans have a reputation for giving up — for the stands being empty by halftime if it didn’t look like the red raiders were going to pull out a victory, or if it looked like victory was eminent. Not this time. Not a soul left from that stadium – for the last minute and 30 seconds every person was on their feet and, if it was even possible, that stadium became even louder.

The sound of the celebrating longhorn band was drowned out by “Fight Raiders Fight” blaring from the instruments of the Goin’ Band from Raiderland, chants of “RAIDER POWER” rocked the stadium and with each gained yard the excitement rose.

Finally, with 8 seconds left in the game, the Red Raiders needed about 10 more yards to put themselves into field goal range before calling their last time out to save the game. Apparently, that wasn’t going to be good enough. As the ball snapped Harrell hurled the ball towards the corner of the endzone where Michael Crabtree was scrambling to free himself of two Texas defenders. The ball flew into his hands as if powered by a magnetic force and Crabtree hurled himself out of the arms of the Texas defender struggling to pull him down. Keeping his feet merely inches apart in order to keep from falling out of bounds the Crab took one step and then another – yard by yard he seemed to effortlessly control his body in what appeared to be a super-hero like fashion as he stepped into the endzone and won the game.

The crowd went wild – fans rushed the field and the band belted out tunes of victory. I remember looking at my cousin, screaming, high-fiving, being picked up and spun around by a complete stranger and finally hurdling over the fence and onto the field to congratulate the Red Raiders on the biggest win in Texas Tech history.

In a post-game interview Michael Crabtree was asked to recap that trip into the endzone – his only words were, “I dreamt it in my head – and it happened!! I do that all the time but it happened – it kind of shocked me!”

That line was quoted in countless articles over the next 24 hours – the game was won because Michael Crabtree “dreamt it in his head”. He later went on to explain that he imagined catching a pass and running it in for the game-winning touchdown. He says he imagines things like that often, and all I have to say to that is do you think it’s a coincidence?

Michael Crabtree is the top receiver in the NCAA – although he is only a sophomore plans are already being talked about of him playing next year for the NFL. He is a local hero here in Lubbock, and has been now since the first couple of games of his first season with the Red Raiders. That just goes to show that talent mixed with “dreaming in your head” (aka: visualization) can really go a long way.

Texas Tech is getting ready to go through what announcers are calling “The Gauntlet” over the next few weeks – playing Oklahoma Sate this coming weekend here at home and then Oklahoma University at their home stadium. Some announcers are skeptical – others, think we can pull through. The fans though have never been more excited or more optimistic. I have yet to hear a negative word as to our fate for the rest of the season – tickets for the upcoming OSU game are selling on eBay for over $1500, and the announcement to “RED OUT” is making its way through the air and dreams of victory bells are playing in our heads.

I can’t say what will happen to the Red Raiders this season… but I can say that if I were you I would keep an eye on this team – and with every victory remind yourself to dream in YOUR head the things you want to see become a reality in your own life. When you dream it, anything is possible!