And for all of these years and years and years I dreamed about starting my own business. And I’d read books about it. And I made a couple of little tiny attempts, but I didn’t really commit 100%. And I kept kind of telling myself, oh, I need to start my own business. Oh, I’ll do it. But I just kind of let it fade away. And instead I focused on just getting a better job. Getting a job that’s better, that’s not as bad, that’s okay. And I started getting good at that. I started finding jobs that were a bit better, that didn’t make me miserable. That I was not super happy at, but I wasn’t unhappy. And that’s a recipe for disaster because then you just get stuck in this kind of mediocre life.
Well, luckily, I actually started getting problems in my jobs and started getting miserable again. And then finally I just decided, I decided one time, it was actually on a New Year’s Day, I went up and I just decided…no more. So I decided I would never work for another person again. Now, of course, it didn’t happen immediately the next day. I still needed money and it took me, it took me a couple of years actually. But I committed to it. I wrote about it on a blog, on a website. And everybody could read that I was going to start my own business and be free.
In fact, I started a whole blog just on the topic of how to be financially free. And I wrote on this blog for several years. And it was kind of my way of publicly committing to this decision. And, of course, I did eventually start Effortless English and Learn Real English, and now I am financially free and I don’t work for other people. So it happened. It seemed impossible for years and years and years. But it was possible. I just let myself dream big again and I committed. I announced it to people and I took action and I did it.
So it’s really important to announce it to everybody and to schedule it. By this time I will do it, and let everybody know. Don’t keep it a secret. Because then it’s easy to sort of forget about it.
Another example of mine which is a little smaller and easier was that recently, just this last year, physically I was just getting in not very good shape. I had been gaining weight. I had gained about 20 extra pounds, 10 extra kilos or so. And I didn’t look super overweight but I could in myself, my energy level was down, just wasn’t as healthy. And I started thinking about it. And I thought about, y’know, I just need to go to the gym. I need to work out. I need to get in better shape. But that didn’t inspire me. So I realized I needed a bigger dream.
So then I just sat down one day and I thought about all the physical challenges I had dreamed about in the past, all the cool physical challenges I always wanted to do. For example, I want to hike the Appalachian Trail. It’s this big trail through the woods in America. It takes about 4 to 6 months to do it all. It’s a really long, long trail and it’s a challenge, a physical challenge I’ve always wanted to do. And then, there’s another one, on the island of Shikoku in Japan, there’s like a one-month walking route that goes all the way around this, through the mountains, on this big huge island. And you visit all these different temples. And I always dreamed about doing that.
So finally I made this big list, hiking in Patagonia and Argentina. And I had this huge list of things I wanted to do. And I finally just picked one. I picked that Shikoku trip in Japan and decided I’m going to do it. And I decided I’m doing it this year. In fact, not only am I doing this year, I’m doing it in October. So I scheduled it. I bought the plane ticket. I told everybody, all my friends, everybody I knew that I was doing it. And, of course, at that point I was committed. And I realized I guess I better start training and getting in good shape because I’m going to this thing. And if I go and I’m not in good shape, if I haven’t trained, it’s going to be miserable.
And so that big dream and announcing it gave me a lot of motivation. And so every day I started going for long walks, 2 hours, 3 hours, 4 hours, 5 hours. And then eventually 6-hour walks almost every day. So it got me into shape. And then I went to Shikoku and I did the whole trip. It took about 30 days. It was a fantastic experience. It was great. And it happened because I let myself start dreaming bigger. When I was dreaming small, like I want to lose 10 pounds, or I want to go to the gym, or I’m going to run in a 10K race, it didn’t inspire me. It didn’t energize me.
But when I dreamt of a big romantic trip, for me, that was physically challenging, that inspired me. Then, suddenly, I had so much more motivation to do it. Because it was big, something that seemed almost impossible but it was this cool big challenge. And that’s what this is all about.
So, what are you going to do this month, finally, to finish it up? You’re going to pick one big challenge that you’ve always wanted to do, a big challenge that inspires you. You’re going to schedule it. You’re going to choose exactly when you’re going to do it. And you’re going to announce to other people, you’re going to tell everybody what you’re doing and when you’re going to do it. And, of course, the final thing
is…do it. Prepare for it and then do it. That’s all you’ve got to do. That’s this month’s coaching topic coaching homework.
What I would love for you to do is go to our Ning site, our social site, and share what your challenge is. What’s your dream? What’s your challenge? You can do this with us, with the other members. Tell us. What is you are going to do? When are you going to do it? And we’ll support you. We’ll kind of encourage you. And I’d love to hear about it. I’m really curious about it. So please do that.
Alright. We will see you for the next lesson. Meanwhile, get that challenge and I look forward to hearing about your success. Have a great day. Bye bye.