A dream you don’t have to fight for isn’t a dream—it’s a nap. One changes your afternoon. The other changes your world. Keep fighting.
I saw a book recently and loved the title.
I realized, though, I wanted to tweak it a little.
I think it should say, “Make Anything. Make Mistakes.”
Whatever your dream is, you are going to make mistakes.
Your book will have typos. Your business will have down quarters. Your photos will be overexposed.
You will make mistakes, and that’s OK.
Just keep making.
(Today’s post is a guest post from my friends at Proof—a branding company that will help you become the Quitter you’ve always wanted to be.)
Dreams are almost always shaped over time—which is why, if you’re trying to figure out your dream, you should start by looking back at things you’ve loved doing in the past. That’s how Chris Walter discovered his dream. But, like many other dreams, it started with a few obstacles.
Chris’s dream was to start a t-shirt company called ParableTees—a company that created T-shirts carrying subtle Christian messages that encourage conversation about how God has worked in people’s lives. Chris was working full time as a teacher, but he constantly felt a tug to pursue his dream. When he heard about us through Jon Acuff’s blog, he reached out for help with his branding.
Chris was confident he could sell the brand to people, but he didn’t feel confident that the brand could sell itself. After chatting on the phone with us, Chris created a Kickstarter campaign to fund the launch of his product.
He set up the initial line of designs, wrote explanations, crafted the mission statement, and developed a solid understanding of the Bible verses that would become the driving force behind ParableTees.
We emailed back and forth with Chris over several few months, making sure everything was in place for his launch.
The Kickstarter campaign launched last week, and he plans on using the funds (if and when he raises them, of course) to build a strong, cohesive brand that will tell the ParableTees story from the very beginning.
Chris still works full time as a teacher while pursuing his dream on the side, but he’s well on his way to becoming a full-time Quitter.
We understand that our “Launch” package is an intimidating investment for entrepreneurs, and we love Chris’s unconventional approach to raising the money. He’s a great example of how our “Launch” package can work for people who have hustle and passion but just lack some ideas on how to brand their products and make their launch as strong as possible.
We helped Chris get started with ParableTees, and we’d love to help you launch your dream as well.
To find out more about Proof and their “Launch” package, CLICK HERE.
(Today’s guest post is by Davonne Parks, author of 28 Days to Timeliness: Tips and Confessions from a Semi-Reformed Late Person.)
I’ve had a dream for years, but I allowed busyness, fear and other excuses to get in my way. Then I stumbled across Jon Acuff’s blog, and I read about Finish Years and Quitters. I was intrigued, so I kept reading the blog, then I bought Jon’s book. A Quitter and a Finisher at the same time? Impossible, right? But being a Quitter isn’t just about quitting a job. According to Jon, being a Quitter is about being “someone who quits average. People who refuse to accept common and instead dare to live out the talents and gifts they’ve been given.”
It was scary but I did it. Thanks in part to the motivation I received from Jon’s posts and from reading Quitter, I decided to quit normal and finish a dream. I also learned a few things in the process:
Want to be a better writer?
Let me write some of the words.
Why?
Because the best stories are the ones we tell ourselves.
I have 37 years of memories and moments in my head. I have a deep, rich, personal vocabulary based on my life.
If you’ll start the story, and leave me some room, I’ll finish it with words you’ll never have access to.
What does that look like?
It looks like the photo below.
That’s from the Dos Equis campaign about “The Most Interesting Man In The World.”
He’s laughing with monks, clearly having told an amazing story that even a stoic group of monks could not resist.
What was his story?
I don’t know. The commercial doesn’t tell you anything about it. They start the story by giving you the image and the setup, but they leave out the words. Now you have the chance to write the rest of the story yourself.
Great books do this when they make you feel like you’re in the story itself, and you can hear the words as if they’re coming from you.
Bad blogs don’t do this when they so overfill the post with the writer’s thoughts that there isn’t room for the reader.
Want to be a better writer instantly?
Let me write the story.
Source: google.com via Jon on Pinterest
Fear always tries to put your feelings in charge.
It wants you to wake up in the morning and say, “Do I feel like writing my book today? Do I feel like staying up late and working on my business plan? Do I feel like being more awesome?”
And guess what your feelings are going to tell you?
No.
Feelings are fun and important, but they turn into drunk little jerks when you ask them to run your life.
Awesome is a choice, like loving your spouse or going to work. I don’t wake up each morning and ask myself, “Do I feel like loving Jenny today?” Because guess what, some days the answer is no. My feelings are hungover from some argument or some petty insecurity that’s kicking around my heart. I don’t feel like starting the morning with a ride on a double bike, followed up by a picnic with my wife.
I chose to love my wife. I made a commitment. I honor it with my decisions.
You don’t feel like going to work every day. You don’t call a meeting with your feelings before you leave the house and say, “Hey guys, how we feeling about work today? You feel like the beach instead? OK, that makes three weeks in a row, but what am I going to do. You’re in charge!”
Nope, you go to work. On the mornings you bound out of bed and the mornings you have to drag yourself into that cubicle like it’s a prison.
Don’t let feelings make your choices. Some days, you won’t feel like being awesome. People always seem surprised by that. They ask me if I ever don’t feel like writing. They ask do I ever feel like quitting, or does it ever feel difficult? The answer is yes. On at least 90% of the days, those are the first feelings I have before I sit down with a blank piece of paper.
I might feel great once I get into the middle of the page, but when it’s blank and staring at me with those haughty eyes of sheer nothingness, I feel like quitting before I even write a single word.
But feelings don’t get to make my decisions.
And they shouldn’t make your decisions either.
“You’re not fooling anybody.”
That’s what my friend Thad always says when he sees musicians pretend they don’t care on stage.
You’ve seen the type. They stand up there with a guitar and a face that says, “I don’t even care if you like this song. Whatever. This is stupid. I’ll play it. Whatever.”
And they act like they don’t know how they got there. As if perhaps they were just walking down the street, saw an open stage with a guitar, and picked it up. It doesn’t matter to them. Whatever.
Thad doesn’t buy it. He knows how much they care about that moment. They worked hard to get booked at that venue. They practiced long hours in their bedroom, dreaming up songs and notes. They built elaborate sets in their mind, and shot the movie version of that moment a thousand times.
But fear tells you, if you care too much, you’ll get hurt.
The path to dreaming is littered with apathy shields. Fear will constantly try to hand you one. “Here, this will keep you safe. This will prevent you from being hurt.”
What fear doesn’t tell you is that apathy does form a wall between you and hurt, but that same wall blocks you from joy too. It cuts you off from awesomeness and happiness and the thrill of seeing a tiny piece of your dream come true.
Don’t listen to fear. Apathy is a foe, not a friend, a numbing agent that does not distinguish between joy and pain. Beware the temptation to use it as a shield. It will block you from hope too, not just hurt.
Be excited on stage. Jump on stage. Have fun on stage. That’s Awesome.
(Today’s guest post is by Seth Fargher. You can follow him on Twitter @sethfargher or you can read his blog here.)
Like any loving, self-respecting father, my dad had his fair share of cheesy sayings and inspirational quotes he liked to throw out whenever he felt a situation merited one. His “thrill of the ride” mantra somehow trumped them all, and he managed to work it into nearly every situation of life: work, dating, college football. And he made sure to lay it on extra thick when I started dabbling in stunt work.
Allow me to regress. For a brief period of my life, I had the unique opportunity to travel as a member of an action sports stunt team (Think Evil Knievel wannabe). We performed in stadiums, at monster truck rallies, and at rodeos–mostly in the southeastern United States.
One of the biggest questions I get from folks is, “How do I get support for my dream?”
Whether from friends, family members or coworkers, it can feel challenging to get people on board for your particular mission.
But, fear not, I’ve learned something about support recently.
Here is the simple truth:
People help people who help people.
That’s it.
Want someone to help you with your dream?
Help someone else first.
Become a beacon of help first.
Raise your flag first.
Help is a boomerang. And if you’re not constantly throwing it out, it will never come back your way.
Unfortunately, inspiration is not at all like the pizza guy.
Very rarely will it ring your doorbell.
Or knock on your front door.
Or find you on your couch watching a reality show.
But it is not mysterious. In fact, long ago Picasso told us all where inspiration could be found. And I agree.
Source: Uploaded by user via Jon on Pinterest
Adversity is a comma in our story, not a period.
It is not the end…often, it is the point at which the story really gets good.
After all, cloudless skies make for boring sunsets.
Safe adventures make for boring stories.
Don’t believe me? Ask Dave.
