Well…how much? How much time are you willing to devote to your dream each day, week, or month? What about money? How much are you willing to invest in yourself and your dream? Oh yes, and there is effort. I am talking about elbow grease here. The synonyms of effort include: elbow grease, exertion, expenditure, labor, pains, sweat, work. I call it sweat equity. How much of that are you willing to do?
It is amazing how much more of these three things you are willing to invest when you believe in your dream. Do you agree? As you may or may not know, I am reading a book by Jon Acuff and it is blowing my mind. The book is titled START.
But even on the cover, there is so much more to it. Glance over there and read everything on the cover. This book has been a game changer for me.
I started reading it a month or so ago and then life happened and I put it down for awhile. I knew that I wanted to go back to it because in the short time I was reading it, the message was exactly what I needed.
You know what they say, “when the student is ready, the teacher will appear.” I am not sure who “they” are that said that. I have heard it for years and when I looked it up, it was unclear. I can confirm that it is not an original Deb Bennett quote. If you are curious about it, here is the information I found.
Back to the book. It is all about being ready, willing, and able to flip the switch from AVERAGE to AWESOME. For you, that might not be such a big step, but I am learning that for many, it is more like a giant LEAP than a step. I am not going to talk about everything in the book (well, not today anyway), but he does walk the reader through five stages of what he calls the “road to awesome.”
I have to say, I am familiar with and could relate to all of them but had not classified them the way he did. I suppose that is one of the reasons he was chosen to write the book and not me! Haha.
Do you remember the question I asked you at the beginning, “What is your dream worth?” I want you to consider it from all three of the points that I mentioned. How much time? How much money? How much effort? Let’s talk about this for a few minutes.
As a coach, I have people ask me on a regular basis to help them with their business. It might be to help them identify the foundation blocks. Maybe help them with marketing ideas. Possibly even brainstorm ways to increase their sales or add another stream of income to their business.
One of the first questions I ask is, “How much _________ are you willing to invest in the change you want?” Now if they are working a full time job and looking to start a business for extra money, or to grow that business to replace their existing income, the amount time, money, and effort they are willing to invest is often small. Funny thing is, even if they are working their business full time and want to see change, their answer is still a small amount! Where are you in that plan right now?
“If your dream isn’t worth thirty minutes, you’ve either got the wrong dream or you’re just pretending you have one. If the minimum you are willing to pay in order to be awesome is less than thirty minutes, you’d better go back to average. Nobody gets up early on the road to average. Nobody stays up late on the road to average. You can sleep in to your heart’s content or watch late-night TV until the infomercials begin to make perfect sense. Either way, you’re safe on the average road.” -Jon Acuff, START.
Here’s the kicker. He is asking if you can carve out thirty minutes every WEEK to focus on becoming awesome. You laugh, but I have worked with many who say they want to do something but never do anything. So why did this hit home so much when I read it?
He was talking to me. It was me. It hit me with a thunk and the pictures of wasted time rolled before my eyes. Now, here’s the thing. I KNOW how to build a business. I know the foundation steps. I know how to write every day. I know how to market. I have invested in the personal and professional products that I believe I need. Read some of them. Some. Of. Them. But, I was not giving 100% of me in the areas that needed improvement. I got lazy. And the result? My business was not growing the way I wanted it to. The way I knew it could.
After I read that section of the book, I went up to my white board and wrote out the question. How much am I willing to invest to have a better LIFE? Time ______ Money _______ Effort ________
My answer to all three questions was the same. Whatever it takes.
You see, my dream is not to just have a great and profitable business for myself. and a freedom lifestyle. My desire. No, my purpose for being here is to “live life with the zeal that I feel and to demonstrate to others that they too, have the power to empower themselves.” To lead by example. To learn, do, and then teach.
What about you? Are you ready to be awesome? To create a life or business that is awesome? Can you find thirty minutes a week to focus on your dream?
I believe you can be, do, and have anything you desire. Do you believe that? For some people, that is a stretch because they do not know what they want. Or they have so many things they want and are passionate about that they just cannot pick one and start.
Here is my assignment for you. Carve out a minimum of thirty minutes to focus on your dream and how awesome it is. If you have more than one dream or idea, pick the one that will bring you the most joy. Start there. You can check out my video that I recently posted on Facebook about this same topic.
If you do not know how to start, or if you have started and do not know what to do next, reach out to me. I can help you identify the foundation steps and then work with you to put an action plan in place.
Is your dream worth it?
Dream big, Believe in yourself. Do the work.
See you next time.
Deb Bennett