Live the Dream

We’ve all heard this phrase since childhood but how often do you find yourself forgetting the little proverb?  We talk the talk, but do we walk the walk?

A good friend of ours, Paul Kopecky, recently put it this way: “What you DO speaks so loud that what you SAY...I can't hear.”

That got me thinking. What would happen if you spent a day without hearing and just watched those around you, including yourself? What if you walked around for an entire day with ear plugs in? What would your experience be like? How would you view the world around you?  Because think about it, if actions speak louder than words, then I should be seeing a whole lot more positive action than I should be hearing simply spoken of. Would I see smiles and people giving one another a hand? Would I see encouragement? Would I see people loving life and making a difference? Would I be motivated and inspired by the actions I saw others (again, including myself) taking? Try seeing actions today and take to heart what others see coming from you as well.

The act of saying you will DO something is not doing the thing at all. You must BACK UP WHAT YOU SAY. In backing up what you say with action you transform expectations into reality. Which means that your reality can in fact be transformed by your expectations, correct? And if that’s the case, then in transforming, altering for the better, and advancing your reality, you have the power to successfully develop and improve your character.

We talk about character a lot. Not in the way that your dad does though: “Bee stings build character!” (They totally don’t, and in my case they only teach you that you need to carry and EpiPen…that’s not character that’s the difference between playing on the swing set or getting a stupid safety pop at the ER). Anyway, I diverge….I love what Paul has to say about character, “Character is that thing inside you that keeps you going forward with good resolution, long after that that mood in which you made that resolution has left you.” BAM! Write that down.

When you push through your comfort zone you discover courage and develop character, and if you want to be successful in life you must learn to possess and pursue these things. Learn how to be motivated to take your words to the streets. Don’t just say, ACT; and when you do, not only will you find motivation but you’ll find inspiration and purpose. And an individual with purpose can move mountains.