4 words that radically increase your odds of real success.

Your dream is different than mine. You want to write a song, open a business, get a promotion, or do a million other things that make your dream unique.

But, there is a pretty simple rule that applies to every dream on the planet.

It’s a lesson that governs every form of dream chasing. Here it is:

Quantity leads to quality.

The more you practice your dream, the better you get at your dream.

In order to get a 50,000-word book published, I had to write 500,000 words on my blog. I had to essentially give away a half-million words before I could build the momentum and ability to actually write the book. Since it came out, I’ve added another 500,000. So in three years, I’ve written one million words to publish 50,000.

And as I’ve mentioned in my book Quitter, Stuff Christians Like wasn’t the first blog I had. I had another one called Prodigal Jon for about a year, before I even started SCL. Barely anyone read that one. But that was a testing ground for me. That gave me the chance to practice my dream.

Even that phrase looks weird, doesn’t it? “Practice my dream.” Nobody says that. Practice is for sports or GRE tests or things that are difficult. It’s not a word we often associate with a dream. But I think it’s a critical one if you really want to turn a day job into a dream job. There is much practice involved. There are long nights early mornings. And you have to commit to put quantity before quality.

Ira Glass, the host and producer of This American Life, illustrates that idea perfectly in this 2 minute video: