Other dreams I had in the past would be like run a marathon, finish a marathon. One big dream I used to have, and this was a really big one for me, was to own my own business, be my own boss. And let me tell you that for me, that felt impossible for years, I mean years and years and years, over 10 years, 15 years, I thought I would never be able to do it. It felt impossible to me.
So anyway, do this. Just sit down and write down all of these big dreams from the past that you kind of let go of. Some of them you may not be interested anymore at all. But some of them you might still have a feeling like, oh, that still excites me. So it doesn’t matter. I just want you to make a big list of past dreams that you had.
And then the next thing I want you to do is think about now. Be honest with yourself and think about what do I really want from my life. And I want you to let yourself think really big. Don’t be practical. Don’t think what’s possible. Think if I could do anything, if I could be anything, what would I be? Maybe you’re a business person and you’d love to be an artist or make films. I don’t know. Maybe you want to climb a huge mountain. Maybe you want to have a family with 15 kids, I don’t know.
But you know. So I want you to be honest with yourself and not try to stop yourself from thinking big. Do the opposite, think big, go crazy. And just make a huge list of all these wonderful crazy amazing things that you would love in your life.
Step 2. Step 2, I want you to envision your perfect ideal day. Okay, so you have all these dreams but now I want you to…we’re going to get really practical. And I want to you imagine, okay, what would my perfect ideal life be? And you’re going to look at it as a perfect day. You’d wake up. Where would you be? What kind of house would you be in? What would it look like? Who’d be there with you? And what would you do next? Would you go off to a certain job? What kind of job would that be? Would you drive a car? What kind of car would you be driving? Would you walk? Where would you be walking? What city would you be living in or what kind of environment would you be living in? Or you’re working with your own business, what would that be like? What kind of business would it be? Would you just be independently wealthy from investments? That’s fine, too. What kind of clothes would you be wearing
And I want you to just go through the whole day and describe out your exact perfect day. Maybe you’d work a while. And maybe you’d go surfing. Or, I don’t know what you would do. But think about it yourself. What would you just love to do? Like this is kind of my normal day, this would be perfect. This is the ideal perfect life for me. Again, think big. If you want to live in a huge mansion and drive Ferraris, great, write it down. It doesn’t matter. It’s your dream so you write it down and be specific.
And finally, Part 3, after you’ve done all this, I want you to review it. Review that list of dreams, old and new. Review that ideal day you described. And I want you to pick one of those that’s quite challenging, that seems almost impossible. And I want you to decide that you’re going to do it. And I want you to decide when you’re going to do it, choose a date. So let’s say, I don’t know what it is. Let’s say you’re going to start your own business. That’s a big one. That’s one I can relate to because it was one of my big dreams.
So you’re going to start your own business. Well, it’s easy, I know from my own life that it’s easy to just kind of dream about it forever. Oh, one day I’ll start my own business. One day, and it never seem to come. So you’re going to choose it. This is the thing. This is my big challenge, my impossible thing. And then you’re going to choose a date of when you’re going to do it, at least when you’re going to start it. Choose a specific date.
And the next thing you’re going to do, and you’re not going to like this part because it’s a little scary, you’re going to announce it to everyone you know. You’re going to tell your family, your friends, anybody you know that you’re going to do it. So again, using the example of starting your own business, you’re going to tell everybody, “I’m starting my own business next year. By next summer I will have started my own business. I will have launched my own business.” And, of course, then do it. You’re going to figure out a way to do it. And I can’t tell you exactly how to do it because everyone’s going to be choosing different things.
Let me tell you, when you have a big enough reason to do it, when you’re passionate enough, when you’re going for something big, when you’ve announced it to everybody, you’re fully committed to doing it, you find a way. You will find a way. I’m going to give you two examples from my own life and then let you go off and do it yourself.
Example number one is starting my own business. When I was a teenager I got my first job, I think I was 16 years old. And I hated it. And at that time, being the wise 16-year-old I was, I realized, “I think I’m going to hate working. I think I’m always going to hate it. I think I’m always going to hate jobs.” And I was right. I was right. I hated working for other people. I hated jobs. I had some jobs that were okay. And I had other jobs that were horrible, but I can honestly say I never really liked working for other people. And most of the time I hated it.