How to Make Your Dreams Come True — Part I

STEP #1: DREAM

We all have dreams.

We all want to believe, deep down inside, that we have a special gift, that we can make a difference, that we can make the world a better place.

We have all had visions about how our lives should be, about living a quality of life that we desire and deserve.

Unfortunately, for too many people, that dream has faded. With it, so has a part of their soul. Most people have lost the belief that they can do, be, and have anything they want.

I believe, on our quest to become our best, we must restore the faith that we all “used to have” (when we were children.) There’s no better place to start.

Let’s be like kids again.

Do you remember how you were when you were a little kid? Do you remember how you used to dream?

HERE’S MY SIMPLE CHALLENGE TO YOU:

Spend time, every single day this week, dreaming like little kids dream.

Dream until you get excited.
Dream without limits.
Dream so vividly that you can feel, even taste what you see.

My daughter will wake up in the morning, climb into bed with me, and say excitedly, “Daddy, I was flying in my dreams last night!!!”

Martin Luther King Jr. changed the world—he had the courage to say. “I have a dream!”

How would your life be different if your dreams were so real and meaningful, that they woke you up every day? How would your life be different if you pursued them with desire, drive, and discipline, and intensity, and passion, and purpose?

My challenge to you is to dream like you haven’t dreamed in years…

Dream until you come up with something that is so good, so exciting that you become obsessed.

STEP #2: SEE IT. SAY IT. FEEL IT.

Here’s an example:

When I was 11 years old, I went to my father with a problem.

Although I didn’t know it at the time, my dad was about to give me one of my first lessons about greatness; about becoming my best, and making my dreams come true.

At the time, my school was having a Presidential Physical Fitness Test. We had to do stuff like push-ups, and sit-ups, and pull-ups. Some of the kids had already completed part of the test. Specifically, some of them did more pull-ups than I thought I could—ever do.

Two friends of mine had done 10 pull-ups. I didn’t think there was any way I could do that many. I was scared of being embarrassed during the test, so I went to my dad VERY upset. (I was 11 years old. Don’t judge me).

My dad is a horseshoer. He was outside putting shoes on a horse. I can still remember it, like it was yesterday. We lived in Arizona, and it was hot—VERY HOT—but no matter how hot it got, my dad never stopped working.

I remember trying to talk to him, stumbling over my words, trying to explain what I wanted.

He finally said, a little frustrated, “Trevor, what do you want?”

I told him—I wanted to do 11 pull-ups. I wanted to do better than my friends: Mike Powell, and Scott Symington. So, my dad asked me. “Okay, Trevor, you want to do 11 pull-ups. How many have you done so far?”

Up until that point, I hadn’t even tried to see how many I could do. “Well, what are you waiting for? Go and see. Use the chin-up bar in my closet.”

I came back crushed. The most I could do was 5 pull-ups.

Once I told him, my dad asked, “Well, Trevor, how many do you want to do?

I said 11.

He said, “Trevor, 11 pull-ups? No problem.”

He said it, as if it was very simple.

Now, at this point in my life, I believed anything and everything my dad had told me.

If my dad said something was possible, then it had to be true. But how could it be? I was confused. How was I supposed to get to 11, when I had only just done 5 pull-ups?

He said, “Trevor, you can do 11 pull-ups easy. I’ll tell you exactly what you need to do, but you’ve got to do exactly what I say…deal?”

I agreed.

SEE IT

The first thing he told me was to make sure I could SEE myself doing 11 pull-ups. He told me to “close my eyes and imagine doing 11 pull-ups. Not just 5, but doing 11—easily.”

He said, “Trevor, you’ve got to see it, see it, see it. I want you to see it actually happening as many times as you can—in your mind.”

I said, “All right Dad. I can do that.”

He told me, “Trevor, this is really important. You’ve got to pretend like you can literally see it happening. If you don’t, then you’ll never be able to get what you want. You have to SEE IT first. Do you understand?”

I told him that I did.

Then he gave me the second step.

SAY IT

He said, “The second part, is that you’ve got to SAY it, ‘I can do 11 pull-ups.’ You have to say it over and over and over again.”

And… He made me say it—over and over and over again.

So I said, “I can do 11 pull-ups.”

He said, “Say it again!”

“I can do 11 pull-ups!”

Then he said, “When you’re brushing your teeth, I want you to be saying—I can do 11 pull-ups. When you’re eating dinner, say it. When you’re eating lunch, say it.”

I remember thinking to myself, geez dad, all right already! I get it.

He said, “Trevor, I want you to say ‘I can do 11 pull-ups!’ all day. I want you to SEE yourself doing it and SAY it all the time. Say it one million times…while you’re lying in bed, before you go to sleep at night—say it. I want you to DREAM about it. You have to become obsessed with doing 11 pull-ups. Trevor, do you understand?”

I told him I did.

FEEL IT

He said, “Trevor, envision the future—and think about what it actually feels like when you’re the kind of guy who’s done 11 pull-ups.”

He went on, “What would it be like? How would you walk? What would you say? How would you hold yourself? And I want you to SEE yourself in the future having done 11 pull-ups, and feel how good it was to have done them in front of your friends.”

I said okay, but I was still a bit confused. I asked him, “But Dad…shouldn’t I practice? How many times should I practice doing pull-ups?”

He said, “No, Trevor, you don’t need to. All I want you to do is SEE IT, SAY IT, and FEEL yourself doing 11 pull-ups. Right now, you don’t have to actually practice doing the pull-ups. When the day comes, if you do what I just told you, you’ll do fine. Do you understand? Now, get out of here—I’ve got to finish shoeing this horse.”

So, that’s what I did—for days.

I said it over, and over, and over again: “I can do 11 pull-ups. I can do 11 pull-ups. I can do 11 pull-ups.” I imagined what it would LOOK like. I remember FEELING what it would be like after I BLASTED OUT those 11 pull-ups!

I was obsessed. I was nuts. I even told my friends I could do 11 pull-ups.

Now, this is how obsessed I want you to get about your dreams.

First, check out what happened about 3-4 days later.

We were back in PE class. The teacher called my name. I walked up to the bar. As soon as I jumped up and grabbed onto it, I started pounding them out.
1-2-3-4-5… The first 5 pull-ups felt like nothing.

Then I did 6 pull-ups, then 7, and then struggling…I did 8…

Then 9…

I took a deep breath…I pulled, I struggled. I did my 10th pull-up.

And then, as I was hanging there, pulling for everything—I can still remember seeing my PE teacher, in my peripheral vision, writing down on his notepad that I had done 10 pull-ups.

And I was thinking, “What the hell? Is he CRAZY?”

“I can do 11 pull-ups!!!”

So, I hung there from the bar, pulling and pulling. Trying to do 11 pull-ups…

Nothing happened.

I tried again. Nothing happened.

I couldn’t feel my arms. I knew I was pulling…but they were not cooperating.

All I did was hang there.

Finally, the PE teacher told me I was done, and told me to get off the bar.

But you see he didn’t understand…

“I CAN DO 11 PULL-UPS!”

So, I hung there pulling…until I fell off the bar.

I didn’t do 11 pull-ups that day.

Yes, I’d done twice as many as I’d ever done before. But I was still upset. I couldn’t understand it. I KNEW I could do 11 pull-ups!

When I went home and told my dad, he told me that I’d done great. He reminded me that I’d just gone from 5 pull-ups to 10 pull-ups—that I should be proud. He also told me that this was proof that I could do anything that I set my mind to. He told me not to give up, but to keep at it.

Check this out, within 30 days of my pull-up challenge, I did 20 pull-ups.

My dad is the bomb.

This is the power of the mind. You really can do anything you put your mind to. So give yourself permission to dream again and then condition your mind to reach that dream.

Be sure to read the second half of this story in my next blog. I’m issuing you a challenge to test yourself in reaching your individual dreams.

Trust me. You don’t want to miss it!

Excerpted from chapter two in Trevor’s book Greatness Quest. To order your copy, click here.


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