My Reality Check Bounced! - Jason Ryan Dorsey [17]
BEGIN YOUR JOURNEY RIGHT NOW
Some people discover their passion only to feel so overwhelmed by all the work it will take to realize it that they procrastinate. To them I simply say this: One small step toward your passion is a giant leap toward making it a reality. So if you want to meet new people, join three volunteer organizations today. When you get the opportunity, ask to lead one of their major volunteer projects. If you want to start your own business, call three entrepreneurs today. Ask them what they most love about owning their own business. If you want to live overseas, call three people today who can help you get there. Then go online and find out what types of employment or education opportunities exist in the country where you would like to live. By taking baby steps today that make your passion surface, you add urgency to living your Future Picture. This urgency inspires action, which leads to momentum, which leads to progress, which leads to—you guessed it—living your Future Picture.
DON’T TOSS IN YOUR TOWEL
For many of you, there may be the temptation to throw in the proverbial towel at the first hint of real-world resistance. This resistance could be as unexpected as getting into a car accident on the way to a big meeting or as common as panicking about making a major presentation in front of a room filled with important people.
Consider these real-world resistance scenarios:
• Would you go to night school so you could work, raise your kids, and complete your education?
• Would you try every day to convince strangers to donate their hard-earned money to some cause that you support?
• Would you start your own business knowing that you might go without a paycheck for a week, a month, even a year?
• Would you persist through dozens of rude rejections about your lack of talent in order to get your first big break?
• To live your dream, would you move to a country where your beliefs are in the minority?
• How much are you willing to risk to live out the dream in your heart?
The further your passion pushes you to live your dreams, the more likely you are to live them. Those of you who quit on your dreams before your dreams quit on you have reached your “Towel Point.”
Your Towel Point is when your spirit quits on your dreams. This is the moment when your passion is defeated by the resistance you face. This is the moment when you start growing older but no closer to what you want. Your Towel Point marks the spot in time when you can stop trying without feeling guilty. You don’t feel guilty because you believe you’ve given every ounce of effort that your dreams deserve.
Everyone has a Towel Point, but some people like Ben will never reach it. You can measure your Towel Point on the following scale of increasing real-world resistance. The more resistance you are willing to overcome to live the life you want, the more likely you are to get there.
To live your dreams would you be willing to
Towel Point 1:
Read five how-to books in line with your passion in the next three months?
Towel Point 2:
Adopt seven new actions, habits, or beliefs based on those books?
Towel Point 3:
Ask eleven friends for help, support, and encouragement?
Towel Point 4:
Share your dream with sixteen strangers who might be able to help?
Towel Point 5:
Speak to a room full of skeptics about the importance of your vision?
Towel Point 6:
Persist after twenty-two face-to-face rejections in public?
Towel Point 7:
Borrow one year of your current pay or $50,000 (whichever is greater) to finance your dream?
Towel Point 8:
Move to a foreign country where you and your beliefs are in the minority?
Towel Point 9:
Sell