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TERRI: Hey, I'm Terri Savelle Foy, your cheerleader of
dreams. Hey, I praise you invest in yourself today, you're
captivated and you're catapulted to live your dreams. Today, I
want to talk to you about, where do you see yourself five years
from right now? Dave Ramsey says, "If you want to be
successful, study successful people. If you want to be rich,
study rich people. If you want to be skinny, study skinny
people." I was reading a book by a very successful doctor, who's
written many books. His name is Dr. Seuss. He made this
statement, he said, "You have brains in your head and feet in
your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you
choose. You're on your own and you know what you know, and
you're the one who will decide where to go." I share this a lot
at conferences, because to me, it's pretty deep. It's pretty
profound. You're the one who's going to decide what you're
going to do with the rest of your life. Where do you see
yourself five years from now? Most success coaches recommend
that you imagine your life five years into the future. Why five
years? I don't really know, but I do know this. I believe the
next five years of your life, could be the most amazing, most
rewarding, most productive years of your life, or just another
five years. It's completely up to you and your ability to
dream. In fact, listen to this. There were two guys, Arthur and
Barney, who were fired from their jobs. Well, they decided
to create their own little business plan, and within five
years of being unemployed, their annual sales were $1 billion
when they founded Home Depot. Within five years. You've
probably heard this story about a young struggling Canadian,
driving an old beat up Toyota truck trying to make it in
Hollywood as a comedian and actor, and he wrote himself a
check for $10 million in 1990. Five years later, Jim Carrey
filmed Dumb and Dumber, and was handed a check for $10 million.
Within five years. There was another guy who, at age 30 years
old, a guy named Jeff. He's living in a 500 square foot
apartment in New York. Five years later, his net worth was
$10 billion when he founded Amazon. Well, a friend of mine
who had no money in her savings account whatsoever at 56 years
old, she got serious about her future. Five years later, she'd
saved $100,000. Think about that. I met a girl recently,
I've shared this on a previous podcast, who she had been
overweight, no money, failed her nursing exam. Today, she's lost
75 pounds, passed her exam, got her dream job in Denver, got a
$5,000 signing bonus, and her income has tripled, all within
five years time. So, what are you going to do with the next
five years of your life? Mark Twain said, "I can teach anybody
how to get what they want in life." He said, "The problem is,
I can't find anybody who can tell me what they truly want."
Well, it's time for you to decide what you want. I love the
story of Kenneth Hagin. He said, so many times he'd see people
praying at the altar. He'd gently tap them on the shoulder,
and he'd say, "Sweetheart, what are you praying about? What are
you praying for?" He said, so many times people would respond
with, "Oh, nothing in particular." He say, "Then
that's exactly what you're going to get. Nothing in particular."
Well, it's time for you to get crystal clear on your dreams,
your goals, and what you want to do with the rest of your life.
Helen Keller, she was blind and deaf, and she was asked one
time, what could be worse than having no sight? She said, "To
have sight, but have no vision." Think about that. To have sight,
but have no vision for your life. Well, most of us, we get
so busy we just stop thinking, dreaming, and imagining our
future. In fact, God asked Jeremiah, he said, "Jeremiah,
what do you see?" And Jeremiah began to tell him, he said, "I
see the branch of an almond tree blossoming in late winter." God
said, "Jeremiah, you have seen well. I'm watching over my word
to perform that which you see." Well, God came back to Jeremiah
a second time, and he said, "Jeremiah, what do you see?"
Now, what if Jeremiah had said, "Ah, nothing."? Well, if you see
nothing, you can expect nothing. Think about those words. If you
see nothing in your future, you can expect nothing. It will be
exactly where you are right now. Well, you've probably heard
about the African impala, which I thought was a car, but
apparently it's an animal. The little impala can jump 10 feet
high and 30 feet long. Well, here's the interesting thing.
Even though he can jump 10 feet high, he will stay behind the
walls of a zoo and not even attempt to get out. And they
said, why? They said, well, the impala will never jump where he
can't see first, and because the walls are like four feet tall,
he will never attempt to jump where he can't see. Well see,
it's the same with you. You got to see where you're headed
before you start taking steps towards it. We know Proverbs
29:18 says, where there is no vision, the people perish. Well,
I'm sure you've heard stories, if you've watched any podcasts
in the past of how I finally gave myself permission to dream.
I got my dreams and goals journal, and I just began
imagining, seeing myself writing books, hosting women's
conferences, helping teenage girls with eating disorders, and
pregnant before marriage, and rescued from human trafficking.
I saw myself ministering on television. I saw myself doing
something in the nation of France. I have a degree in
French, and I was like, "Why did I study French?" So I started
imagining myself doing these things. Well, these impossible
dreams, I didn't have a clue how any of them could happen. But do
you know, within five years time, every single dream I saw
had come to pass. Helping troubled teenage girls, our
books are in safe houses all across America. We do outreaches
in France every year, my books are translated in French.
Writing books, hosting the women's conference called Icing.
Here's the interesting thing, none of those dreams even took
five years. What can happen if you gave yourself permission to
dream? I'm telling you from experience, and from testimonies
from thousands, you will go from just wishing things would
change, to living your dreams. Let me close out with three
major points I want to share with you. Number one, is I want
you to imagine your life five years from now. God's the one
who said in Genesis 11:6, "Nothing they have imagined they
can do, will be impossible for them." Number two, write it
down. Clarity is one of the most important keys to success.
Habakkuk 2:2 simply says, "Write the vision. Make it plain."
Steve Harvey does this, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Katy Perry, Jim
Carrey, you name it. Successful people write their dreams.
Number three, is you have to keep it before your eyes. If you
want to go to the next level, you have to see the next level.
And of course, there's a principle in the word of God
that you become what you behold. The more vividly you see your
dreams, the more apt you are to attain them. Let me just point
this out real quick. Research has proved, the number one
reason goals go unachieved is because they're out of sight.
They say, keep your goals out of reach but never out of sight. I
want to challenge you, stop focusing on what is, and start
focusing on what can be. You know, I love this story and
you've probably heard this, about the Chinese bamboo tree.
What they say about this tree, is that you plant the seed in
the ground and the first year nothing grows above ground. The
second year, you water it, you fertilize it, nothing grows.
Third year, water it, fertilize it, nothing grows. Fourth year,
same thing, you're watering it, hoping something's happening,
nothing grows. But in the fifth year, it grows as much as 80
feet above the ground. Here's the thing, all that time that it
appeared nothing was happening, it was developing this massive
root system in order to handle the growth it would have in its
fifth year. Preparation time is never wasted time. God is
working behind the scenes, preparing you for massive
growth. The next five years of your life can be the most
amazing, most rewarding, most productive years of your life,
or just another five years. So, get serious about your dream.
Richard Bach said, "Here's the test to determine whether or not
your mission on earth is finished." Are you ready? "If
you're alive, it isn't." So start dreaming. I hope you
enjoyed that. In fact, I wanted to mention real quick, our
subscriber of the week. This is someone named May. May writes
this, she said, "I just walked out of a business plan I was so
excited to launch last Friday, because I just couldn't see
myself doing it in the long term. During the process, I was
so stressed that I didn't want to talk with anyone." She said.
"I decided to ask my work to take four days off to clear my
mind. I asked myself, is this worth it? Do I see myself doing
this in the long term? And my answer was no." She said, "My
shoulders feel so much lighter now. Sometimes it's better to
quit, than to keep going. I believe God has a better plan
for me." May must have watched our previous podcast on
quitting, that sometimes the best thing you can do to succeed
is quit something that you don't have a passion for, or quit
something that God is calling you out of. So May, I am
cheering you on. I'm so proud of you for making that courageous
step to just quit that. Let me ask you, what are you going to
do with the next five years of your life? What could happen to
you if you gave yourself permission to dream? You'd go
from wishing things would change, to living your dreams.
That's why this week, I've put together a goal setting download
for you that will help you identify your goals and start to
get clarity on what you see five years from now. So just click
the link in the description to get your Isaiah 46:10 goal
setting download right now For more consistent motivation, be
sure to follow me on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest,
you can find my handles below, or click the little red
subscribe button for consistent teaching to help you live your
dreams. Remember, I'm cheering you on.
TERRI: Icing means something added
to something good to make it even better.
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