I figured it out.

It’s actually pretty simple.

I even put it in a cool looking image that’s all hipster.

Here’s the reason.

I’m all about the honesty, so here’s the simple truth, the historic theater we’re throwing a wild event in on April 21 holds 200 people.

We sold 72 tickets in the first 30 hours after launching the event.

That means there are 128 left, which isn’t a lot. It will sell out soon.

If you come to the event, you will get a free t-shirt, a brilliant poster, an awesome night and one other fantastic surprise I can’t tell you about yet.

It’s $19 and it’s going to be wicked awesome.

Come to New York on April 21.

Get ready to start.

Sign up today.

My new book Start is about navigating the five lands on the road to awesome.

It’s a step-by-step guide to being more awesome, more often.

And as part of our New York City launch event, the creative team at the Dave Ramsey headquarters created this map mixing the book with the 5 borroughs.

If you come to the event, you’re getting one for free.

Sign up today, it’s going to be awesome!

Sometimes we think life is complicated. It feels tangled and twisted and complex. But then, someone challenges you with a single idea, a single sentence or, in some cases, a single question.

That’s what my friend Ken Coleman does in his new book One Question.

Inside the pages, he asks some of the greatest leaders in the world one question.

The responses are amazing, the stories helpful, and the advice practical.

My personal favorite was probably the question he asked Malcolm Gladwell. I’ve long been a Gladwell fan, and it was awesome to see Ken ask him about what it takes to instill a work ethic in kids. As a dad, I found that particular section of the book really fascinating.

I don’t do a ton of book reviews, but this is one book I definitely recommend you check out.

Here’s the simple truth about your past:

Your past will either conform you or inform you.

It will shape you and twist and force you into decisions you don’t want to make.

Or it will teach you and help you and inform you.

The choice is yours.

And maybe, like George Bernard Shaw said, it’s time to stop running from it and time to start dancing with it.

I’ve never met someone who says they don’t struggle with criticism at least a little bit. 

No one I know loves haters.

Nobody likes when rocks are thrown at them.

And the truth is, if you chase a dream that is going to happen.

I wish it wasn’t but it will. Why? Because hate only gets loud when you do something that matters.

That’s why I wrote the “Hater Handbook.” Inside the pages are the very practical, very awesome things I do to deal with criticism.

And for the next three weeks you can get it for free.

If you pre-order my new book Start you’ll automatically get a free copy of this eBook.

Order on Amazon.

Order on DaveRamsey.com

Order on Barnes & Noble

Order on Books A Million

If you already pre-ordered just fill out this form.

Hate is inevitable, your response is up for grabs.

They always say that man is the deadliest prey. But I think they’re wrong. (And by ‘they’ I mean rich men wearing tuxedos who hunt fugitives on private island retreats.) I think the deadliest prey is “the perfect dream.”

For one thing, it’s incredibly seductive. As I stared at my own blank piece of paper of a life I got overwhelmed. I wanted to write down a perfectly crafted 10 year dream with hints of what I would also be doing in 50 years. I actually told my wife that. Upon turning 36, I told her, “I only have 10 years left of L.E. living in our house until she goes away to college. I also only have 40 years left until I reach the average lifespan of the American male. I think I’m going to start a new dream called the 40/10 and come up with the perfect list of things I’ll be doing for my dream for the next 40 years and the next 10 years.”

She looked up from her book and said, “Oh? So you’re just going to map out perfectly the next 40 years of your life? Oh good, I thought you were going to tell me something unreasonable.” I shook off that sarcasm like Jay-Z shakes dirt off his shoulder and proceeded with my plan.

For months, I tried. I spent hours and hours trying to come up with the perfect dream and here’s what I learned,

It can’t be done. Why?

1.Perfect is a slippery word.
Your definition of “perfect” will change 1 million times. How do I know? Try to catch it. Tell yourself, “If I get a book published, that will be perfect.” And then when that happens, try to wrapped your hands tightly around the word “perfect,” all you want but it will have moved on. Perfect will now be a book that sells 1,000 copies. Get there and perfect will shift again. And again, and again.

2.You’re not God.
This might come as a bit of surprise to you, but you’re not. Whether you’re an atheist or a person of faith, that’s one thing we can all agree on, you’re not God. Neither am I. Don’t believe me? Try to run you dream with any degree of perfection and then watch how quickly you discover how many things you don’t actually control. Like for say, the actions of every other person on the planet.

3.You’re going to grow and change.
Thank goodness that 18 year old me didn’t come up with a perfect 40 year plan and then try to hold 36 year old me to it. You wouldn’t have believed what he thought was important back then. In fact, I don’t really like what 26 year old me thought either. I like 37 year old me way better than 30 year old me. I hope that every year I am blown away by the new ways I’ve matured and grown and changed. And I hope my dreams track right along with me.

When I bumped into those realities and realized I hadn’t come up with the perfect dream, I was a little depressed about that. Whenever you don’t know what your dream is it seems like everyone around you has their’s perfectly figured out.

Ten years ago if you asked me if I was jealous of someone named Pioneer Woman I would have said you’re crazy. The only thing I know about being a pioneer is that every time I played Oregon Trail as a kid I got dysentery. And I’m not a woman. And yet, as I started to work on my blog, I eyed Ree Drummond with great envy.

“Look how well put together her blog is! And now she’s got her own TV show on the food network! She knows exactly what she is doing. I need to get a cow that thinks he’s a dog too so that I can take funny photos of him on the porch. She calls her husband, “Marlboro Man.” From here on out, I’m calling Jenny “Virginia Slims Woman.” Two can play at this game. Time to get some cattle and rustler jeans.”

But the truth is, Pioneer Woman doesn’t have a perfect dream. She doesn’t know what the next 30 years of her life look like. And you don’t have to either.

In fact, I don’t want us to figure out what our dream is. I think that’s too small, too restrictive and ultimately the wrong thing to do. What pressure we put on ourselves by the way we frame that question, “What’s my dream?” It gives you the belief that we’re going to find one perfect thing that will sustain us emotionally and creatively until we’re dead.

Nonsense. Life doesn’t work that way. Not fun lives anyway.

A dream becomes a prison if you lock yourself into finding one perfect dream.

Instead, let’s look for something that’s a lot more fun and a lot more exciting to find.

Let’s figure out an awesome life.

Not a single event. Not a moment. Not a perfect dream, but an awesome life. Something that lasts 50 or 60 or more years.

It’s time to let go of perfect.