With a dream of 100 tents you would think our friends and associates would have been excited! But in reality, no one on our team in Russia believed. Initially, many Russians thought we were crazy and wondered, who were those crazy Americans?
But we had a vision in our hearts! We did our research and found the facts, we communicated our dream and made plans for the possible delays we might face as we raised the funds for this new undertaking.
By breaking down our dream into logical steps we were able to sustain ourselves in the difficult times. Clarity in your vision statement and in your plans will allow you to move forward when others are still questioning the value of your dream.
Have you ever had an idea that family and friends seemed to think did not fit your future? Get that dream out today, dust it off, refine it and begin dreaming again! Remember, dreams are created a size too big for us to grow into—but with careful planning and execution you will succeed!
I recall when my husband and I wanted to purchase a tent for Eurasia. We were excited because our mentor, Dr. TL Osborn, had been telling the people of the former Soviet countries to purchase tents to help the churches begin new churches.
WOW! It looked like we had an idea from God. But when we met with our mentor his response to us was, “Well, that’s not God.” Then he asked, “How many republics, nations, and regions are there in the ex-Soviet territories?” We knew the answer to that question was a little over 100, so our response to his question was easy: “We need 100 tents!”
Immediately our mentor responded, “Now THAT’S an idea big enough for God to get involved with!”
We thought we had a big dream with one tent that cost $25,000, but what we soon discovered was that 100 tents made room for many organizations and people from around the globe to dream along with us! Now, over 15 years later, we have 70 tents in that region and two small factories producing tents! If your dream is big enough, you can make room for others to join you in your dream!
Click here to see our vision now! http://bit.ly/1U6SI8A
On one of my husband’s journeys he was seated on the plane next to a leading cancer research doctor. This doctor told my husband that we are no closer to a cure for cancer today than when he first began his cancer research many years ago. He also stated that those who improved while suffering from cancer had taken control of their own cancer therapy.
Could it be that you should take control of your treatment, or whatever process of rehabilitation that you are in?
Today, as a first step in treatment, we are going to talk about taking control of your lifestyle. In the United States, 75% of health care dollars go to treatment of chronic disease. These persistent conditions are the nation’s leading cause of death and disability, leaving deaths in their wake that could have been prevented; lifelong disability that could have been avoided; and an overall compromised quality of life.
In addition, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC, says that health care costs are escalating, and 7 out of 10 deaths among Americans each year are from chronic diseases. So, although many fear epidemics such as H1N1, SARS or Ebola, the reality is that most deaths occur due to chronic health issues.
Chronic diseases are often preventable and frequently manageable. In fact, many chronic diseases could be prevented, delayed, or alleviated through simple lifestyle changes! The CDC estimates that eliminating three risk factors—poor diet, inactivity, and smoking—would prevent 80% of heart disease and stroke; 80% of Type 2 diabetes; and 40% of cancer.
So let’s begin and make a lifestyle adjustment. It is possible to adjust the foundation of our lives and adjust our thinking. We can eliminate these 3 risk factors: poor diet, inactivity and smoking—and eliminate chronic disease!
Is your dream transferable? Who else will benefit from the majestic view of your dream? Is it motivational? Do you get excited about your dream? If you get excited others will also!
The following questions will help you clarify your dream by crafting a vision statement that identifies your destination, your purpose and your values. Remember these words: Transferable, Memorable and Motivational.
- Does your vision statement identify your destination? Where are you going?
- Does your vision statement define your purpose? Why do you exist? What greater good will your vision serve
- Does your vision statement convey your values? What principles guide your decisions or actions on your journey?
- Can your vision be easily captured by your audience?
- Is your vision memorable? Use action words and succinct sayings to convey your thoughts. Avoid clichés or overly used statements.
- And remember this. Is your vision motivational? Ask that question. It should be inspiring. If no one is excited about your vision you may not be effectively communicating.
Three things to remember as you continue moving forward with your dream:
Be Tenacious—toward your goal, tenacity is a firm grip on the future you have seen with the eye of your faith and in the heart of your imagination.
Be Gracious—not everyone is with your on your journey! Certainly many won’t believe and some will even question your motivation! Be gracious. You will win them over in the long run, and even if you don’t, the fruit of your actions will prove the wisdom of your decisions. With your actions, remember never to sweat the small stuff that goes wrong or the small distractions from the faithless around you. Stay with God; stay on principle; stay focused; be gracious. Today you can decide: I will be gracious to those who stand in the way of my dream! I will not allow the voice of negativity to halt my dreams!
And last: Be Spacious—make room for others. Include those you want to take along with you on the journey. No one likes going it alone! Dream big enough to include others in your dream. When others realize there is room for them they will join the team. Ask yourself, Who can I include? Are you living in a desert or near the vast ocean of abundant possibility? You may be in a desert, but can you see the Oasis!
Go to my website and download your free “LIVE YOUR DREAM” worksheets! http://bit.ly/1KOOCxR
For the next two days we will learn the importance of instilling vision in others. I want to look briefly at three words: Magnetic, Magnanimous and Majestic.
Is your vision MAGNETIC? Is it attracting interest from others? Is it drawing resources to you?
Regardless of your socio-economic status, the world around you has extra resources looking to be employed, and your vision will provide a roadmap for those resources and people to travel along.
Ask yourself, What am I attracting to my vision? Is it what I want? Is it what I am expecting?
Your second word: MAGNANIMOUS. Are you generous of spirit? It will take quite a bit of generosity of spirit, time, and talent to get you to your destination. The word magnanimous means to be royal in nature, noble in character, and capable of gracious behavior. Are you forgiving, charitable? Learn to think like nobility. You will need these characteristics when friends, family, and those you have trusted fail you on the pathway to your dream.
The result of being magnanimous is that you won’t sweat the small stuff…that’s what happens when you know who you are and when you know where you are headed. And you are made for royalty! You are made for DESTINY!
The third word: MAJESTIC. Is your dream memorable? This word asks, “What value will my dream add to others and to society?”
IS your dream quantifiable? What great results do you anticipate? How many people will you help? How much income will it generate? What great issue in society are you addressing?
Personally, I have a goal to feed and educate 12,000 children daily to improve the lifestyle of one billion people through education and training. I want you to think about your goals and then quantify them—be specific!
Go to my website and download your free “LIVE YOUR DREAM” worksheets! http://bit.ly/1KOOCxR
During our first few months of living in Russia we saw three drunks fall out of buses onto the curb. One day as we were headed to a church to speak, we stumbled upon a man comatose and bleeding in the snow. The sense of hopelessness was overwhelming as we searched for help! Finally, someone agreed to notify the police. How could we head to a church to help people if we were indifferent to the hurting humanity around us?
Martin Luther King Jr. said, “In the End we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”
Nothing is more deafening than silence—when people turn an apathetic eye towards humanity. But you and I can make a difference in our world. Your actions count! Today let’s make a decision to help someone we know, someone trapped by tragedy, poverty, or hopelessness without life.
In one of our large events in Africa, we were told by the organizers not to expect to start on time. “Here in Africa the opening night is just a test run where we work out our problems.”
Can you imagine? There are 75,000 people preparing to gather. People are already standing on the field hours before the meetings are to begin! Yet, the expectation of a group of adult men was, ‘don’t worry if we don’t start on time, well, we never do…’ So, in other words, failure is acceptable!
Ask yourself a simple question: Where have I set the standard for my life? Is failure my expectation, or is overcoming the impossible where I set my goal in life?
How would you handle a situation like this, if in just a matter of an hour you were to address this crowd and you had no lights and no sound?
Action was required, so we fired the 30 organizers and asked for 40, 14-year-old male volunteers. Why? They had not yet experienced failure! They would climb where no one else would climb, lifting lights and scaling poles! Are you willing to scale insurmountable odds?
If those 40 boys had not stepped to the line, what would have happened that night? Those 75,000 people who came looking for hope, searching for a miracle, and expecting good news would have left disappointed! http://bit.ly/1ITmciq
Knowing the results of apathy, how do you and I overcome it? First we have to understand it. What is apathy?
- They observed but they did not act.
- They knew but they did not care.
- They heard but they did not respond.
- They thought of themselves rather than thinking of others.
Are you a part of the collective they? Helen Keller said, “Science may have found a cure for most evils; but it has found no remedy for the worst of them all—the apathy of human beings.”
Just as Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., and Helen Keller overcame apathetic concern for their causes, you and I can discover renewed hope, and expectation. Why wait? Let’s do it now!
I encourage you today to go to my website, www.LeslieMcNulty.com. We are here to help you, and have made tools available to you that can change your life!
At about 3:20 a.m. on March 13, 1964, a 28-year-old manager in Queens, New York, returned to her quiet residential neighborhood, parked her car, and began to walk the 30 yards to her door. Noticing a man at the far end of the parking lot, she paused. When he started toward her, she turned the other way and tried to reach a police call box. The man caught and stabbed her. She started screaming that she’d been stabbed, and screaming for help.
Lights went on in the apartment building across the street. Windows opened. One man called out, “Let that girl alone!” The assailant shrugged and walked away. Windows closed and lights went out.
The assailant returned and attacked Genovese again. This time she screamed, “I’m dying! I’m dying!” This time lots more windows opened and lots more lights went on. The assailant walked to his car and drove away, leaving Ms. Genovese to crawl along the street to her apartment building. And somehow, she managed to drag herself inside.
The assailant returned a third time, found Genovese on the floor at the foot of her stairs, and finally succeeded in killing her.
During those three separate attacks over the course of 35 minutes, not one of Kitty Genovese’s neighbors tried to intervene. No burly neighbor dashed outside to save her life. Worse than that, of the more than 30 people who saw at least one of the attacks and heard Genovese’s screams and pleas for help, not one of them even called the police.
After much deliberation, and one phone call to a friend for advice, one man finally urged another neighbor to call authorities, which she did. Police arrived in two minutes, but by then, it was too late.
Interviewed afterward, the residents hesitantly admitted, “I didn’t want to get involved,” or “I didn’t want my husband to get involved.” One said he was too tired to call police and had gone back to bed. Several couldn’t say why they hadn’t helped. Many of them said they’d been afraid to call. They couldn’t say why within the safety of their own homes they had been afraid to call the police—even anonymously.
Albert Einstein said, “The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything.”
I want to ask you a question today. Who can you reach out to in your world and show them that you care? What family member, student, or co-worker needs a kind or helping hand?
It cost one human life to wake up 30 families. How many destinies can be changed when you and I emerge from apathy to action? Consider it. It does not matter your sex, your age, or your culture—wherever you are today, you and I have power to initiate change! http://bit.ly/1TkC6bo
Today we continue with some steps to help you in Putting Your Dream to the Test.
- Regard the experts. John Maxwell, leadership expert and noted author of over 60 books says, “In 40 years I’ve realized that the payments required for reaching a dream never stop. The higher you want to go the more you must give up, and the greater price you pay the greater joy you feel when you finally reach your dream!”
- Keep the Dream alive whatever it takes. Ask these questions: How long before I succeed? What if I fail on my first attempt? Look for incremental progress, because it always takes longer than you expect! Don’t live in the desire for completion, live in the reality of incremental change. As long as you are moving forward you are making progress!
The Cost of your dream? Face the reality that you may need to raise the funds to acquire your dream, you may need a new education, you may need to find legal assistance to initiate your idea!
You might say, “I don’t have enough money to fulfill my vision!” Believe it or not, that’s not a new thought! Most dreams begin with very little. We have always taught young leaders that money follows vision.
Remember, it’s not the money in your pocket that counts, but the value of the idea in your mouth that will open the door to opportunity. It’s not what you have or what you know, but often it’s the Who that you will meet that will make a dream a reality! Ask yourself, “Who do I know?” “Who can I get to know?”
Go to my website and download your free “LIVE YOUR DREAM” worksheets! http://bit.ly/1gmsroFhttps://
