Dream It, Write It, Live It: Building a Vision That Moves You

So hey, guys, listen, we're all trying to get more productive. And the question is, how do you find a way to get an edge? I'm a big believer that if you're getting mentoring or you're in an environment that causes growth, a growth-based environment, that you're much more likely to grow and you're going to grow faster. And that's why I love growth day.

Growth Day is an app that my friend Brendan Bouchard has created that I'm a big fan of. Write this down. Growthday.com forward slash Ed. So if you want to be more productive, by the way, he's asked me, I post videos in there every single Monday that get your day off to the right start. He's got about $5,000, $10,000 worth of courses that are in there that come with the app. Also, some of the top influencers in the world are all posting content in there on a regular basis, like having the Avengers of personal development.

and business in one app, and I'm honored that he asked me to be a part of it as well and contribute on a weekly basis, and I do. So go over there and get signed up. You're going to get a free tuition-free voucher to go to an event with Brendan and myself and a bunch of other influencers as well, so you get a free event out of it also. So go to growthday.com forward slash ed. That's growthday.com forward slash ed.

Welcome back to the show, everybody. So before we get started this week, just a thank you to all of you. My heart is filled with gratitude right now. So many of you share the show every single week and towards the end of the year, the show has won so many awards for being the number one show in the world in our category.

And that's because of all of you sharing the episodes. And so thank you for doing that. My ambition is that this week's episode improves your life equally or more than anyone we've done all year. And what we're going to talk about today is really your dreams. And a little bit more specifically about that, we're going to dig deep when it comes to dreaming this week in terms of being consistent with our dreams and auditing our dreams or what I would call your vision for your life.

There's too long of a gap of time between most people evaluating and being aware of whether they've got a current vision that moves them in their life. They wait too long to evaluate it or they don't do it enough at all. They don't audit their vision and their dream often enough. And that's so critical because I want you to remember this in life. It takes leaders with vision to help people with dreams. And you may say to yourself, but I'm not a leader at all. You know, I work in a cubicle. Well, are you a mother? Are you a father? Do you intend to ever be a leader?

Are you leading yourself at least through life? You know, you're a person with a dream. And in order to fulfill that dream, you've got to have a clear, compelling vision that moves you. And oftentimes in life, we just haven't looked at it in a long time, if ever. And maybe we need to do that at this time of year right now, no matter when you're watching this video, this applies, but particularly towards the end of the year as you enter a new one.

But I think as you enter a new week, as you enter a new day, it's appropriate to do this. And so let's just take a look at a few things with dreams. And I know most of you watch this show because you want to get into the top 1% in your life at whatever it is you do, top 1% in your industry, top 1% as a mother or father, top 1% in your fitness, top 1% in your happiness level. But you want to get to that top 1%. I want you to write this down.

So getting into the 10% is where most of you've gotten. You've already laughed about 90% of the people in life. Remember this right now, when you're 90% there, you're only 50% done.

when you're 90% there, you're only 50% done. Ed, what the heck does that mean? There's this fallacy that people think, man, if I work really, really hard and I get to the top 10%, I beat 90% of the competition, 90% of my former cell, that the same effort level, because I've got momentum, is gonna get me to win and dominate in that 10%.

And it's not true at all. When you get to that last 10%, you're 50% done. And the great athletes, the great human beings, the great achievers, the great competitors in life, the great executives, the great entrepreneurs, no. Getting to that 10% really is not that difficult.

beating 90% of the people is not that hard. You can beat 90% of the people by having a great attitude, outworking them, living right, and just being consistent and staying after and not quitting. You do those things long enough. You're probably going to beat 90% of the people. So that's one game. The other game though is this 10%.

See, new levels, new devils, right? That's a totally different game right there. You're at the 10% in life. You're competing in that 10% category, which is where all the fun is. That's like being a professional athlete. You beat 90%, but now you're in that 10% dogfight, same with business, same with fitness, same with, by the way, even same in our faith. You want to be competing in faith, but you understand what I'm saying. You get to that 10%, so many people don't know the secret. The secret is you're only halfway done when you're 90% there.

And I'm probably the first person to tell you this. This 10% is different game altogether. You got to be great. You got to be focused. You got to bring energy. You got to be innovative. And one of the things you really got to do is you have to have a clear, precise, fresh, current, current vision for your life.

not one from two years ago. Maybe not even one from a year ago. Have you not ever gone through a year where the beginning of the year, you thought you wanted something really bad. And by mid year, you're like, this isn't what I'm after anymore. Yet we still chase the same things or keep the same opinions of the same beliefs just to stay consistent.

So one of the things that holds people back in life is trying to be consistent in the way that they think. And I know that sounds counterintuitive, but trust me when I tell you this, too many people try to stay consistent with the beliefs they have, believe it or not, and the vision they have for their life and they cling to old views simply to stay consistent. And by the way, could it be that your current viewpoint, your current beliefs were good enough to get you into the 10% but won't be good enough to get you to the 1%?

and reauditing. What do I believe? What are the positions I've taken? What are my dreams? Usually it requires reauditing and reevaluation, but so many people are unwilling to change their position on something. Look at people when it comes to politics. They're just, they just believe what they believe what they believe or about life or about success or about winning or about their company or about themselves. Most importantly, they're unwilling to change their beliefs because they think that makes me inconsistent.

One of the things that drives me most crazy in politics is watching political leaders and they'll just never say, Hey, I changed my mind. Right? I've got more information now or circumstances and conditions have changed. So my opinion has changed. To me, great leaders do change their opinion. Great people change their opinion. They change their position. They change their viewpoint. And yes, they do change their dream and their vision.

Gandhi has this great quote he said, constant development is the law of life. A man who always tries to maintain his dogmas in order to appear consistent drives himself into a false position. And so one of the things people won't tell you is that to get to that new level, because you're going to be facing a new devil, more than often requires a reevaluation of what you intend to believe about the circumstances, your business, yourself, your life, your belief in yourself.

And this idea of staying consistent is something that's talked about in personal development business all the time, but it's taken too far. Here's what I'm basically saying to you, what it took to get through the 90% to where you are now in the top 10% in your life or in your field.

isn't what it's going to take to get to the top 1% or the top 1% of 1%. And so it is true. Let me say it again. When you are 90% there, you're 50% done. So what happens is you end up taking false positions. It's a place where you try to cling to your old views in order to appear consistent.

Well, you realize within yourself, you've outgrown them and they no longer represent who you really are. So remember this, transformation has changed. You're not just addicted to an old habit, you're addicted to an old story. And this old story has become so familiar, you've mistaken it for who you are.

Let me say that to you again. You're not just addicted to habits. You're addicted to a story, a story about yourself, a belief about yourself or a story about your product or a belief about your product, a story about your children or a belief about your children, a story about your husband or wife or boyfriend or girlfriend.

A story about so many things you get addicted to this story, and this story becomes so familiar, you've mistaken it for who you are or they are or what the circumstances are. And let me say this very clearly to you. That's why you're stuck.

Most of the people that listen to this show, not all of them, but most have gotten to that 90% where, man, they are more focused than most. They do care about life more than most. They have worked on themselves more than most. And they developed some beliefs that have allowed them to get to a place as a mother, as a father, as a business leader, as a human being, as a successful person that's got them past about 90% of the people.

And what they think is, oh, if I can just stay consistent, that's not what everybody tells you, just stay consistent. It's a totally different game. It's like graduating from the minor leagues to the big leagues when you get to that 10%. And by the way, for those of you that aren't at the 10% yet, isn't this great information to know how to get there? And isn't it great information to know that when you get there, someone's going to tell you how to flourish to get to the top?

And so what happens is this story becomes so familiar, we don't evaluate our dream. Now, here's the cool thing, right? Man, this is going to be good this week. Here's the cool thing. If you read in the Bible, the Hebrew word for dreaming is actually almost simultaneous with health or healthy.

same words to use to be healthy and strong or to restore health are very closely correlated to dream in the Hebrew. And the reason that I think that matters is I believe you are reborn and healthier when you're dreaming. In my life, I've been the most unhappy when I'm not dreaming, when I'm not envisioning my life. I feel the most unhealthy. And I mean this, it's because I haven't reevaluated my dream in a while and it might be

millimeters of change in the dream. It might not be a massive course correction, although it could be, but it might be just a next level, a new insight, a deeper focus.

and you become healthier. You become stronger. So you end up becoming a healthier and stronger version of you. So let's evaluate our dreams for a minute. It may not be, you may just have a wrong dream. It may be an old dream and maybe one that doesn't serve you anymore. And here's some barometers or some tests you can give yourself as to whether it is. So it may not be a wrong dream because it's bad. It could even really be a good dream.

It's just not the right dream for you. So if what you're dreaming about right now is fun, but it's not fulfilling, if you fall in love with doing something that has no fulfillment attached, there's nothing wrong with that, but you were made for way more than that. D. L. Moody has this incredible quote. He says, our greatest fear should not be of failure, but it was succeeding at something that really doesn't matter.

that really doesn't matter. And so really evaluate that. Maybe this dream is fun. Maybe having that Lambo or that car or that jet is fun. And you should have that dream. You should have fun dreams. But if you don't have a dream that's fulfilling, that nurtures your soul, and that dream could be as simple as, you know, you getting in shape or getting closer to your faith or anything like that. But if it's fulfilling,

It's enduring. They're be terrible to get to the end of our life and go, man, I made my dreams come true. I was successful at things that didn't matter at all. As opposed to getting the end of our life and man, I was successful at things that mattered. And so my challenge to you is to evaluate your dream. Is it an old dream? Is it an old story?

And when I say dream, I think people always think, well, that's my like goals. You got lots of dreams. You got dreams of how you just want to feel. In fact, so many people pick the things they want to do or even the things they want to contribute. And they don't realize what they're really trying to do is just get an emotion or a feeling like, do you really want the jet? Or do you want how you think the jet would make you feel? Do you really want to have your dream home? Or is it more like how you think it would make you feel even relationships? Do you really need that dream person?

or what you really dreaming about is how that person would make you feel. Is it really just giving money to a charity that you believe in? Or is the dream more like, how would I feel if I could do that? And if that's true, should we not be more focused maybe potentially in our lives or at least equally focused on how we want to feel? What I found out in my life is I love having things I want to achieve. I've wanted a jet before and I was blessed to get them.

I wanted a dream house. I was blessed to get that. I wanted to give. I've been blessed to do that. But I got to tell you, I wish I had been more focused along the way on what I wanted to feel because I have a feeling that a hallucination rather, that if you could feel those things, the material part of it would be easier to get. I think we always put the cart in front of the horse. I want that thing so I can feel this. I want that person so I can feel this. I want that body so I could feel this.

would be interesting if you could work on and focus on having the feeling. Would it be easier to get that thing and that person and that body? And so I just want to challenge your thinking this week is what you're looking for in your life more minutes or more moments. Is every single minute count or is it the moments of your life? Is it the dreams that the memories that you want in your life? This is a message from sponsor Intuit Turbo Tax. Here's the thing.

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And I can tell you how I think you get most things in life. I was just talking about this with a great John Maxwell. He said, Ed, who do you know that I should know? And I thought to myself, what a powerful question. Maybe the most important business question or life question you could ask somebody. You know in my book, The Power of One More, I talk about how you're one decision away from changing your life. But I also say you're one new relationship, one new contact, one new hire. You're one person away from completely changing your life.

And as I've looked back at the last 50 years of my life, I can tell you that almost all of the answers, almost all of the next levels, almost all of the key things in my life, the beautiful things in my life have come from other people, other people, people matter, things don't. And so this year, I want you starting to think, who do I know?

that they should know and who do they know that I should know and begin to have more of that in this community and in the people that you meet. Your answers are there. Let me give you an example of this. So I was on a flight a while ago with some different guys. We went to a company called the football feast. It was a bunch of different people. John Maxwell is actually one of them.

And all the guys know I've had a debilitating injury to my back for a while now. And I won't get into all the details, but my L3 L4 is like just blown up. And so I've explored all kinds of different things, stem cells, disc replacement, fusion, you name it.

And so it's been a real battle debilitating. Oftentimes I have a hard time walking, sitting. I haven't been able to lift weights like I normally do golf. It's been a really difficult time in my life. Long story short, I described this situation and I just threw it out to the group. I said, who do you guys know that I should know?

Sure enough, one of the guys on the plane goes, I don't know. Let me check. He sent a text to somebody. He goes, your situation sounds just like a buddy of mine. And anyway, that guy, ironically, the guy he texted is a fan of the show and knew me and said, Hey, I actually had the exact same thing. This is the procedure I done. This is the place that I went to.

And he referred me the place that he went to. Now, most people don't take action, right? So he gives me this referral. We land the airplane. I call the place. I said, Hey, here's my stuffs and the scans, et cetera, et cetera. They're like, we got a six month wait list. I'm like, I don't know. That's not how I roll. The long story short is I'm this next Wednesday going to have that procedure done 10 days after the introduction. So not only is the who do you know that I should know important, but following up right away,

So many people get referrals and they wait forever. I waited like until we landed and then I took immediate mass of action. Now I don't know whether or not it's going to fix my back, but what I do know is the stuff I have been doing isn't working and the answer is going to come from another person.

I also have a great friend who's I think the top neurosurgeon in the world and he's helping me as well. And so he's sort of piloting this and shepherding it and he's done some work on me. And so I've got him sort of shepherding this whole thing and I trust him with my back. So the bottom line is I know somebody who can help me and someone knows someone who can help me in life. Your next level is going to come from someone else. And by the way, it might be the client. It might be a referral. It might be a hire. It might be a recruit.

But I can tell you, starting to get good at asking the question of who do you know that I should know about my show. This podcast exists to the level that it exists because I asked one of my guests, who do you know that I should know? And they said, my gosh, you've got to get connected with Sirius XM.

And so I immediately ended up getting with them and then I had an agent hire and et cetera, et cetera. So through that person, I met my agent. I met them. I'm not with SiriusXM anymore, but that was the first place the show took off. Who do you know that I should know? My business career isn't because I'm great. It's because of the incredible people I came into association with that I hired in my business.

So you're one person away from changing your life, one introduction away from changing your life. It is the catalyst for change in life is almost always other people. Other people give you information. Other people give you a new thought. Other people give you energy. Other people give you love. They give you belief. They give you their introductions. They give you their wisdom. They give you everything. So who do you know that I should know? And here's B. What do you know that I should know?

And if you can have those questions running on the background all the time in your life, you're gonna be positioned to change because it's gonna be a who or a what at some point. And so this year, don't have the same old conversations and the same old thoughts. Who at this lunch you're about to go to know someone you should know and start thinking in terms of that and just do this, believe in the law of reciprocity. Who do you know that they should know?

And as long as it's reciprocal, or at least you attempt it to be, I believe that vibrates at the highest frequency and the best things will be attracted to both of you. I think other people are the key. I believe people matter. Things don't. Having said that, if there's going to be nice things and you want them, you should go get them. I have them and I'm glad I do, but they've never fulfilled me. They have made me happy temporarily. There's a big difference between happiness and fulfillment. I want both.

Hey, if you can have both in life, get both. But if I had to pick between one or the other, I'd take fulfillment all day long because it's enduring. When I get to the end of my life, I want a fulfilling life. I believe fulfillment. Happiness is almost certain. But I don't know that just when you do things that bring you happiness that you get fulfilled.

And so most of the things we want in our life are by updating our vision, updating our dream, getting clear on what that is. And at the same time realizing how to get it. And most of the time in life, it's someone else that can help you get it. Another human being, someone is the key. Who do you know that I should know? In life, who do you know that I should know?

And that opens up all of the doors of our lives. And I think we don't look to other people to help us enough. The people want to help you. And they know someone you should know. If you want to get fitter, who do they know that you should know to get fitter? If you want to get closer to God, who do they know that you should know? If you need that connection to that relationship because you're one decision away from change your life, one new relationship, one new contact away, as I look back at my life, the vast majority of the great things that have happened have come through other people. I was one new relationship, one new contact.

One new friend, one new associate, one new hire away from completely changing my life. Other people are the key to bringing us these dreams that we need to be regularly auditing. Oh, and warning, as you begin to dream, here's what the adversary is going to try to do. So doubt into you. And by the way, maybe you just think your mind's playing tricks on you. Here's what the big mistake about dreaming is. You think you have to have it all figured out.

in order to dream. Don't you? You think you have to have it all figured out before you do it? Every single step. I mean, if I don't know what I'm going to do in step 19, I can't really start. Well, that's just ridiculous. And by the way, you also can't ask advice on this stuff from other people. Think about Henry Ford when he started Ford Motor Company. You know what would have happened if he would have asked the public, Hey, what do you guys want right now? You know what they would have said? A faster horse.

That's what they'd have told him, a faster horse. But luckily he didn't take his dreams from other people. He took his dreams from his heart and his inspiration and he wanted to do something that mattered. So he started Ford Motor Company because if he had done what everybody else thought he should do or bought into the visions of everybody else, he'd been looking for a faster horse.

and oh, what if he would have not started because he had to think about every single step that was gonna come along the way? What if he was gonna wait till he knew everything he needed to do? Think about that for a second. What if he waited? Who's gonna fix all these cars? There's no repair shops because there's no damn cars. Where are we gonna get all the tires from? Where are we gonna get all the gas stations? Where are we gonna get fuel? What are we gonna do when there's an EPA and they wanna work on emissions control?

What if what if what if someday they want to do electric cars and not burn fuel fossil fuels? If you thought through all of that stuff, he never got started. You can't possibly think through every step. That's a dumb excuse not to start. Stop it. Stop doing that. What happens is you know to get going and there's momentum and you got to have faith that when you get into the next room in the next level and there's a new devil, you'll find your way through that room because in every room you step into, there's a way out.

And the winners in life are willing to step into the unknown. You know, I was talking to a race car driver. We used to sponsor a race team and I was asking him, I said, what's the scariest part of being a driver? You're going 200 miles an hour on these corners. He goes, Ed, I'll tell you the scariest time. The scariest time is when there's a crash in front of me and there's smoke everywhere. You know, you can't break.

Did you know that? You can't break. You got to accelerate through the smoke and I don't know on the other side of that smoke. If there's a car stalled, I'm going to hit head on and end my life or end their life or break my neck. I don't know, but what I have to do is drive through the smoke. I can't see. I don't know where I'm going. I'm going way faster than I want to, but there's no break. You can't break and if you could, you'd get rear ended. So there's no breaking.

Right? I gotta go right through, because I'm gonna get rear-ended otherwise. And so I gotta go through that smoke, not knowing what's on the other side, and just believe that when I get to that other side, I can steer my way through it.

And that's life and death. All you're doing is trying to dream. You got to drive through the smoke. You can't know every step. There's all these things that your mind is trying to play tricks on you to get you to believe that you have to know everything to get started. That's a bunch of crap. When Steve Jobs started Apple computer, they were at board company. You think he knew at that time that the internet would be accessible to everybody and there'd be iPads and this or that and pixels on can't know all that stuff.

Now, at that time, although there's a great video I show about his vision for the iPad 10 years before it happened, but that's different than when the company started. So you don't need to know every single step. You just need to dream and you need to get started. And those of you that like, Ed, I got all that. I'm already rolling, man. I'm already 19 steps down the road. I got it. What's the next level for you? What's the next vision in dream? Have you updated it lately? You try to still play that small old dream you had eight years ago or five years ago?

Some of you patting yourself on the back because you achieved that little dream you had in the beginning. You're like, I made it. Really? How old are you? You're 35 years old. You're 55 years old. You made it. See that top 10% and the 1%, which I'm a part of, blessed to be. I could tell you, we ain't made it. I don't walk around thinking like I've made it.

I don't feel that way at all. I want to go to the next level. I want to help more people. I want to grow. I'm addicted to the expansion of my being. I want to meet the next best version of me. I want to know who I'm cable will be coming. Right? I've made it. So many of you that are listening to part of the podcast, you're like, Hey man, this stuff about, you know, driving through this. I already drove through the smoke. Okay. Once what five times? What's the next level for you? Too many of us keep patting ourselves on the back for previous dreams achieved.

That stuff's in the past. What are you doing now? Nothing drives me more crazy than when I sit down with somebody and they want to talk and talk and talk about what they've achieved. I can tell you this, the greatest winners in life have almost an inability to do it because they don't feel like they've made it. They don't feel like they've achieved. They tell you what they're focused on now, where they're going in the future. It's almost impossible to get them to talk about the past. Some of you just listen to the show, listen to the show. I've done 800 episodes. I'll talk about my past. Unless it's a lesson,

But I don't talk about like it's some great achievement. Who cares? It's probably a figment of my imagination. I want to go forward. I want to do something great now. I'm talking about this Ed Mylette, not the 30 year old, not the 50 year old, not the 52 year old, this guy. And so I want to challenge all of you at every level.

Get a new vision. Get a bigger dream. Step up. You're not tired. You're just unfocused. You're not fatigued. The dream doesn't fulfill you. I think one of the direct lines that you can connect between people that are successful and fulfilled is their ability to step into the not known. Their faith, I'm going to step into a place I'm not familiar with, and I'm going to figure this out when I get there.

I'm just telling you, you got to have part of that. This next year, as you navigate this dream of yours, there's going to be multiple situations where you're going to have to just drive through the smoke. You're going to have to put your head down and accelerate through it and believe with faith on the other side of it, you will steer around the trouble. It's the only way you can become successful. There is no success without that smoke.

By the way, there are wrecks and accidents on the way to success as well. And you'll have a few of those. You're going to take some dings. You're going to blow a tire. Some unfair things going to happen. It's just part of being successful. The successful people go into the race of life knowing that's part of the race. There are breakdowns. There are crashes. There are times you have to do scary things. The other thing he told me, by the way, is that when he's driving near the wall,

And you're doing 200 next to the wall. You are taught to never look at the wall. Because if you look at the wall subconsciously, you begin to steer into it. You have to look straight ahead and not look over here at your worries and your fears. If you start to stare at these fears, you move towards them. You've got to stay focused on where you're going, not the wall. And that is true this year as well in your life. You've got to stay focused on where you're going on the race ahead.

not the wall of your life. There's going to be a wall the entire time and that wall was trying to get you to look at it so that you'll subconscious begin to move off your game, move off your vision, move off your dream and into the wall and crash. Most people in life don't win because of the smoke or the wall.

not because they weren't capable, not because it wasn't there for them to take. And a lot of them quit right before they're about to make it. So many people have made a deposit and a deposit and a deposit and they don't wait around to make the withdrawal because it didn't happen quick enough for them. It didn't happen when they thought, I could tell you this, my experience is it's going to be harder than you think and take longer than you think. And third, it'll be more worth it than you think. I can promise you that.

So with all of that, let me give you three steps that can help the vision become more real. Number one, write it down. And I don't mean type it. There's new data that tells us that actually writing down pen to paper through your own hand onto a paper and transferring that experience down.

has impact and power. The stats say that you're four more times likely to achieve the dream than if you don't write it down. I have no idea how they know that, but I can tell you in my own life, I can't give you a direct percentage of why it raises the probability or even how much it does, but I can tell you in my own life,

that there has been a substantial difference in the things that I have written with a pen on paper as opposed to just thought in my head or typed into my phone. I think there's some connection that happens when we go pen to paper that is different than any other part of our lives. So number one, write it down. Number two, you have to attach a standard to that goal.

You must attach a standard to that goal. And most times in life, we do not get our goals. We get our standards. So, and you definitely won't get your goals. They are just wishes if you don't have standards for them. So once you've written that goal down, the thing that you must attach to it is the standard that will deliver it for you. Meaning this, let's just assume that right now I said that one of my goals next year was the way 205 pounds with 6% body fat, right? That's a great goal. It's also specific.

So when we write it down, it needs specificity. What I'm not going to write down is I want to be in shape. To general, my mind can't go to work on that. So specifically, what do you want when you write it down? That's number one. Number two, then, is what's the standard? So if it was 205 pounds and 6% body fat, what's my standard? And I would write the standard down or the commitment down to deliver on it. It might be drink a gallon of water a day.

eat 200 grams of protein a day. Make sure my caloric intake is 10 times my body weight. And I'm going to do red light therapy five days a week. Let's just assume that those are the standards. If I deliver on those standards, I've dramatically increased the probability of getting the goal.

You following me now? So let's just go through one and two again, because this is so critical. By the way, as I teach this to you, 90% of the people will not do it. And that's why beating 90% of the people is so easy in life because they just won't do the things they're taught. They don't take immediate massive action. They're going to get around to it. They find some hybrid watered down way to do it, but they don't do what they're taught to do. And so that's why winning is not really that difficult to get to the top 10%. Now, remember, once you're in that 10%,

You are only 50% done. That's a dog fight. But this part here, most people won't do. But you will, right? So 90%. Here we go. Write them down with specificity. No vanilla goals. I want to be happier. Nope. What's that look like? I want to be in shape. Nope. Specifically, what is it? I want to make more money. Nope. Exactly how much money I want to be rich. What does that look like specifically? Then number two, you write the standard or the commitment down. And then third, it's got to be tied to an emotion.

The level of emotion tied to a story is what drives that story. And so the emotion part is absolutely mandatory. And typically the emotions is attaching it to someone you love. Who? Who are you doing this for? Who are you doing it for? Picture their face because most people won't quit on people that they love. You won't quit on your kids if you're doing it for them. You won't quit on your God if you're doing it for God.

Maybe you're doing it for you and write that down. Maybe you're doing it to honor somebody in your family who's passed away. Maybe you're doing it in someone in your life who's alive right now and you want to make them proud of you. And I could tell you, adding this massive why to this new dream you've got with specificity and writing it down and having a standard, we have now dramatically increased the probability of this dream becoming a reality in our life. And remember this, this vision that you have requires some time.

And so what I would encourage you to do is to find an hour or two of quiet, of alone. Usually when you ask somebody to dream, you know, the first thing they'll do, if I said, please dream, you know what they do? They close their eyes. Why is that? Why is it that they close their eyes? And why is most dreaming done when we sleep?

because it's the time in our life with the least amount of noise and distraction. You've reduced what I call sensory acuity. When you close your eyes, you're not seeing the stimulus around you. When you're asleep, you're not seeing and hearing and thinking things responding to emails or texts. It's easier to dream. It's easiest to dream when we've cut out the most distractions in our life. And so when you can get to a quiet place or take a walk or get alone and have some solitude,

I believe the answers come. I believe most of the great things in life are done in silence. There's a beauty to silence. And so many of us, we've just so noisy around us, the kids, work, emails, texts, social media, politics, the friends getting back to, we just never get quiet. And when you get quiet, you can listen to your spirit. You can listen to your heart.

You know, in my overall opinion, in general, God speaks to our hearts and the adversary, the devil, whatever you believe, and speaks in our mind.

They attack our thoughts and we begin to believe the things we think. And when we can get alone, our heart opens, our spirit opens. To me, the Holy Spirit enters. For some of you that aren't that way, you begin to empty your mind. That's meditation, the emptying of the mind, which I also meditate and you can plug into an energy field. When I empty my mind, I plug into the Holy Spirit. But it's the emptying of the mind, the quieting of the mind,

slowing down the distraction or eliminating the distraction of the mind and allowing the heart to enter. Believe it or not, when I do a lot of my goal planning, I just put my hand over my heart and I breathe. I focus on my breathing. I try to connect to my heart. I find most of the answers I want are there. And most of the dreams that have purpose come to me that way. And for the record, there's nothing wrong with dreaming about material things.

If it's your dominant dream, though, you'll have an empty hollow life that won't be fulfilling. But there's nothing wrong, and for many of you, you should, to increase your stage in life to want a nicer home or a safer car or to be able to eat in a great restaurant or to be able to travel or be able to do things for your parents or your church or your charities that you believe in is noble and wonderful. There's nothing wrong with that at all. In fact, it should be celebrated.

But if it's the dominant dream, it'll be empty. We don't want to get to the end of our lives and have become successful at something that doesn't matter. We want our lives to matter. And if you could choose between having a life that matters with no material possessions, but it mattered, and a life with a bunch of material possessions with nothing that mattered, I know you would choose the one that mattered. The good news is you don't have to choose. You can have both.

But for so many people, they choose this other path. Get quiet. I'm really sure that when you get quiet, put your hand over your heart, control your breathing and eliminate distractions. What will occur to you is not a Lambo. It'll be something far more profound. And it's okay that we add the Lambo to the list, as I've told you. And so remember this, where there is no vision, the people perish. We are literally dying.

when we're not dreaming, when we're not envisioning our lives, when we're not looking forward, dreaming is free. It's the freest thing you could do. So if you're going to dream, you might as well dream big. And I would just challenge you to try this word on for size. Just phrase that a lot of people have taken the last few years. I don't know if I was the first to say it or not. And it doesn't matter. What's your God sized dream? What's your God sized dream at the end of your life? This is something that you've concluded. Only God and I can partner on to get done. I'm not good enough on my own.

And that's probably the dream you should be pursuing. And it's okay to reevaluate it. It's okay that it's not the one your parents gave you. It's okay that it's not the one you had when you were 18 or 22. It's okay if it's not the one you had three weeks ago. It's okay to change your thinking. It's okay to reevaluate. It's okay to audit. And I just want to remind you of something. You were born to do something great with your life. Let me just slow down. You probably didn't hear me, did you? You.

You precious you were born to do something great with your life and you know it. Maybe nobody else has seen it in a long time, but you know it. The master question, when you were a little boy or a little girl, was there anyone who made you feel special? Like they would just look at you and you just felt special. Grandma, grandpa, mom or dad, a coach, a teacher, your sister, your auntie, your uncle, whoever.

Did you have that person when they would just look at you, you would just feel precious. You felt special. I had that was my Papa, my dad's dad. He would just look at me and I just felt something like he just loved me special. Most of you have had one of those people in your life. And if you haven't had that person, just want you to know God has always loved you like that. But most of you also have a human who's looked at you and loved you like that.

And you know how you felt and they're probably the only person who's ever made you feel that way. And you can't even quite explain it. Right? It was just a look. It was just a feeling. It was really the spirit touching you. It's what it was. I just want to tell you something about them. By the way, if you can picture their face just for a second, if you're driving, picture their face, if you're on the treadmill, if you're in your living room right now or you're with your kids,

By the way, are you that person for your kids? Do you look at them that way? I hope so. But just picture the face of that person just for a second.

Okay, you got them. I want to tell you something about them. You ready? They were right. They were right about you. They were right. You were born to do something great with your life and you are special. And it's flipping time you live up to it. It's flipping time you make them proud of you. You got to get after it. You got to quit cruising. You got to quit looking your wounds. You got to quit being a victim. You got to quit blaming other people.

You've got to quit waiting around for the right time. You've got to quit making excuses. And you need to step up and make them proud of you. If they're still here, you've got time to make them proud of you while they're still here. If they've passed away, you can honor them with the man or the woman that you're becoming. And so I want to make sure that dream you've got is worthy and consistent of you, of God, and of them. And then you know you've got the right dream. It is not too late.

You are not disqualified. Your past failures and setbacks do not disqualify you. By the way, the fact that maybe you've always been average, the fact that you've always been invisible, the fact that you haven't beat 90% of the people yet also does not disqualify you. There is time left. You deserve this, but you've got to start behaving like it. You've got to step up. You can't dream things into reality. You've got to go for it. Life is not going to give you what you would dream about or wish for. It's going to give you what you're willing to fight for.

what you were willing to get after it, what you're willing to battle for. And I think that person you've connected that dream to, that why in step three, you'll fight for them. And if you'll fight for them long enough, I believe those dreams become a reality because you were born to achieve them. All right, everybody. Hope this helped you this week. Send this to somebody you believe in and just let them feel the spirit of this this week. God bless you. Max out. This is the end of the show.