I just finished reading the Kindle version of Put Your Dream to the Test: 10 Questions that Will Help You See It and Seize It by John C. Maxwell last week. It was a quick read and full of great quotes and anecdotes that inspired me to get things together for my “dream.” As most John Maxwell books are, this was also a very easy read. If you are working toward something more meaningful, more fulfilling, this book will help you analyze your plan as well as whether you are personally ready to jump into your dream.
Here are some of the things that jumped out at me as I read the book:
- Sharon Hull says, “A dream is the seed of possibility planted in the soul of a human being, which calls him to pursue a unique path to the realization of his purpose.
- 1. BE WILLING TO BET ON YOURSELF: You may succeed if nobody else believes in you, but you will never succeed if you don’t believe in yourself.
- Joyce Meyer wisely states, “God will help you be all you can be, but He will never help you be someone else.”
- Both vision and strategy are important, but there is a priority to them. Vision always comes first. Always. If you have a clear vision, you will eventually attract the right strategy. If you don’t have a clear vision, no strategy will save you.
- The problem is that people get stuck on the how. They don’t see how they could accomplish more, so they throttle back their vision, convinced that they must be realistic. And what they expect becomes their new reality.”
- It sounds overly simple, but a primary reason that most people don’t get what they want is that they don’t know what they want.
- It’s easy to get so caught up in the day-to-day process of life that you lose sight of the big picture. However, when your dream is clearly in sight, it helps you get your priorities straight.
- The Greek philosopher Aristotle observed, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then is not an act, but a habit.” Your
- We quickly realize that between the dream’s inspiration and its manifestation, there’s going to be lot of perspiration!
- Playwright George Bernard Shaw asserted, “I’m sick of all the reasonable people: they see all the reasons for doing nothing.” Passion makes us unreasonable.
- In other words, the conditions will never be perfect for you to go after your dream. In fact, conditions may not seem all that favorable. Move forward anyway. Be tenacious in your commitment to action.
- But what finally helped them turn the corner was advice from a teacher named Scolastico, who told them, “If you would go every day to a very large tree and take five swings at it with a very sharp ax, eventually, no matter how large the tree, it would have to come down.” From that advice, the authors developed what they call the “rule of five.” Every day they did five specific things that would move them closer to their dream of selling books.
I think you will enjoy being challenged by this book.
