Dreamers vs Dabblers
“Whether you think you can, or you think you can't -- you're right.” ― Henry Ford
An unbelievable 53% of millennials expect to become millionaires during their lifetime. Before you chuckle and scoff “MILLENNIALS” -- it’s not just millennials who dream big: 29% of all Americans believe they will become millionaires. Young people dream big about their lives and have high expectations around living the life they desire, but this motivation simply drops off over time.
This dream is not about just becoming financially wealthy. It’s about any big and crazy goal that you have -- whether it is to graduate college, start your own business, land that dream job, or become a star athlete. What I’m talking about is becoming exceptional by your own definition.
On one hand, you have dreamers; and then, on the other hand, you have those who actually figure out how to make their dreams a reality. What is the difference between these two groups of people? What is the difference between the DREAMERS and the DABBLERS versus the DO-ERS? Regardless of where you are in life, or your age, you have a choice to make as you read this book: Which group will you belong to from this day forward?
When you look at anyone who has achieved massive success in their lives, whether it is the captains of industry or the stealthy next-door millionaires, you will see that they have all learned to master two key principles in their life: Belief and Discipline.
Dreaming is a beautiful thing. It allows us to imagine what is possible in our lives. We dream freely as children, less so in our teenage years, and we seem to stop dreaming when we become adults -- instead succumbing to what life has dealt us. Somehow we call this “growing up.” Little by little, we get used to accepting crumbs. Dreaming coupled with Belief and Discipline, on the other hand, enables us to take charge when it comes to our goals, so they can become reality.
Somehow, dreaming is easy for us when we are children; yet as we get older, there are fewer of us who dare to dream. And even fewer of us actually accomplish those dreams. This book will give you the tools necessary to dare to dream and turn those dreams into reality.
The formula to accomplish the things we want in our life is simple. You dream, you believe in that dream, and then you follow through with discipline to accomplish that dream. Then, you dream bigger. Rinse and repeat. You revel in the journey and celebrate the wins. In this chapter, I’ll walk you through why it is important to adopt all three of those components, particularly Belief and Discipline, so that you can set yourself apart and be one of the few who actually realizes your dreams.
Dreaming is the most idle state of thinking about the life that you want. It’s important to understand that it is only the first step to actually achieving the life we want. We dream when we scroll through Instagram and look at a picture of that beautiful kitchen we desire, the fancy sports car we want to drive, that laptop lifestyle traveling the world while we do what we love, or even that big house in the perfect cul-de-sac. It’s empty calories. It makes you feel better, it makes you dream “one day…” but it doesn’t actually change a thing about your reality.
Believing, on the other hand, is the active state of truly conceptualizing that what you desire is possible and that it can and will happen for you. Believing gets you to commit that you want to make that dream a reality. Furthermore, taking disciplined and purposeful action on that belief turns that belief into actual reality.
You have a decision to make. When I wrote this book, my goal was simple: Give people an actionable framework to help turn their dreams into reality, to turn their lives into the lives they deserve, regardless of their circumstances. But this book won’t do it for you; the framework won’t do it for you. There is no quick win or fix here. Only you, through applying the actionable framework laid out in the latter chapters of this book, can turn your dreams into reality. And it is done through two simple ideas that you must adopt into your life: Belief and Discipline.