I have three few questions for you? 1. How much did they pay
you to give up your dreams? 2. Why did you stop following your heart? And
3. Are you ever going to go back to doing what you love the most?
Today, in our 9 to 5 world, it’s prevalent to see people stay loyal and work in the
same company for many years. They clock in, and they clock out, without a moment of happiness.
Years go by and then one day, all of a sudden, it hits them like a meteor crashing on the surface of
the earth. They ask themselves the existential question of “What have I done worthwhile
in my life? how did I end up here?" They start regretting some of their life decisions
and they keep residing in their minds, “oh how I wish I knew what I know now”.
They sink deeper and deeper in their sorrow and regrets. This is one way in which a
midlife crisis starts creeping in, and if you don’t make the correct decisions, this will be
something you might have to face in the future. So let’s learn how to navigate this problem best.
I have found that nothing in life is worthwhile unless you take risks.
Literally, nothing! Nelson Mandela once said, “There is no passion
to be found playing small and settling for a life less than the one you are capable of living”.
A lot of us are told by our folks that in life, you must have a plan B. And this plan
B or could be A, usually looks something like this; going to school, getting good grades,
then hopefully getting into a good university to study a good course. Maybe law, medicine,
or one of those STEM courses. While this is sage wisdom, what they don’t realize is that, people
spend so much time perfecting their plan B, that they forget all about their plan A. They forget
about what they once aspired to be and what they dreamt of accomplishing in life. They forget their
dreams and get stuck in a vicious cycle of doing things that they don’t love, day in and day out.
And as a child, you probably never understood that concept,
the concept of having security in a plan B. John’s dad used to tell him, “Son, make sure you
have something to fall back on”. But John used to tell his dad that I don’t want to fall back
on anything. I want to fall forward, face first, so that this way; at least I can see what I hit.
You see, without consistency, you will never be able to achieve what you dream
of. If you fall, you need to get back up and learn from your mistakes and keep going.
Passions and dreams are great, and we should always be striving towards them.
But remember, dreams without goals are just dreams. You need to break your dreams into
smaller, achievable, actionable goals, which will propel you to fulfilling your dreams.
Did you know that Thomas Edison failed 1000 times before he was finally able to make the light
bulb in his 1001st attempt? The lesson here is, failure will bring you one step closer to success.
In life, we are faced with many difficulties, challenges and hard decisions to make.
One of those crucial decisions is; should I pursue a career or should I pursue my passions or dreams?
You see, this is a very difficult question to answer. Life is very uncertain,
and very unpredictable, nobody knows what the world is going to look like in 2 or 5 years.
The world is ever changing, and we have to somehow learn to adapt and adjust to it.
So when it comes to the question of whether to pursue your dreams or a career, you really
have to take time, and think hard about it. That is why I hate the idea of having a plan B.
A Plan B is just a distraction, which will always pull you from achieving your ultimate goals.
It is easy to fall back on something and just quit! But do you know what is not easy?
Taking a risk, falling and then getting right back up to march forward.
There will be times in your life in which you will fail! Everyone does! Accept it. Accept that
you will lose sometimes. You will embarrass yourself and you will make mistakes. Embrace
it and look forward to it because the night is always the darkest just before the dawn.
Have you heard of Dwayne Johnson? Who also goes by his former wrestling-days nickname “The Rock”. He
wasn’t always the famous celebrity that he is now. In fact, he had a very tragic injury happen to him
in his training days for the NFL, due to which he could not participate in that sport ever again.
Just imagine, not being able to physically do something for which you have spent more than half
a decade training. That is exactly what happened to “the Rock”. After his injury, he called his
father to explain that his career had ended and now he needs a place to stay. He recalls that he
checked in his pocket and had only 7 bucks to his name. Disappointed and dejected, he spent the next
couple of weeks at home watching television. That is where his “7 bucks moment” happened. He thought
to himself, that all his friends had become millionaires in the NFL and watching tv will
not be how he spends the rest of his life. So that day, The Rock decided to take charge of his life.
He started training and getting fit to enter professional wrestling. And like they say,
the rest is history. One thing led to another. An opportunities came to him, and he grabbed it.
Now, he is the epitome of success in Hollywood and is one of the highest-paid actors out there.
So, you see, even one of the greatest actors in Hollywood
had his fair share of failures and ‘7 bucks moments’. But, it is his failures that made
him who he is today. His failures guided him to the destination he is currently at.
So, my advice to you is don’t be afraid to take risks in life and don’t be afraid to fail. You
will also have your ‘7 bucks moments’ in life as well, so learn to embrace them and look forward
to them because they will be your guiding light. Remember, you all have the talent to succeed in
life. The question is whether you have the guts to fail. If you don’t fail,
you are not even trying. I’ll say it again. If you don’t fail, you are not even trying!
All of us have things that we are believing for and that we want to accomplish.
We know that it is a part of our destiny, but then we are hit with setbacks. Maybe,
we didn’t get the promotion we were looking for or, our relationship is not working out. But,
don’t let these circumstances talk you out of it. You may not understand at that moment why things
are not going right for you. Your dream might be buried, but the good news is, it’s still alive.
It is not too late to realize it even now. If you do your part and believe in it and get passionate
about it again, you are already on your way. You will, however, face many struggles along
the way, but the true mark of a champion is that you will get back up and try again.
Keep moving forward in life and keep looking for opportunities. If you want to reach your highest
potential, you have got to make sure you are in it for the long haul. Don’t let others talk
you out of your dreams. Circumstances will also try to distract you from time to time.
Stay focused! Remember, this is your time and your destiny is calling out on you.
You will get knocked down many times chasing your dreams. Sometimes,
you won’t even feel like you have any energy left to get back up. You will feel that giving
up and moving on is the only option that you have. When life hits me, I take it as a challenge to hit
back. Many people don’t have the confidence to hit back. Are you going to stay down or are you
going to be among the people who hit back? It takes courage to get back up when nobody
believes in you. Let lose the lion that you have caged inside you for so long. Be hungry
for your dreams. Be ready to fight for them. Hunt your dreams like a caged lion hunts its captor.
There is a quote that goes like, “everyone wants to eat but few are willing to
hunt’. Everyone has dreams, but few are willing to work for it. Remember,
just talking about your dreams won’t get you anywhere. You need to work for what you believe
in. There have been plenty of people before you who have achieved their dreams. That is proof
for you that even you can achieve it, if you don’t get distracted and if you keep struggling for it.
The most dangerous enemy to your dreams is no one else but you.
That is because, only you decide when to quit and give up on your dreams.
Only you have the power to kill and end your dreams. If you are emotionally weak
or have a weak mindset and you can’t take risks, you will never get far in life.
You have got to develop the mindset where you keep going even when people around you are giving up.
There is no point in quitting now. You might be closer to achieving your dreams than you think.
Refuse to quit! Be a lion when hunting for your dreams.
I would like you to leave today with two lessons from this video.
First lesson, thoughts are things, what you think, you become. A positive attitude is a
powerful weapon. Any person in history that has achieved wild success in his life has dreamt
big. Take the case of Elon Musk. The guy literally dreams of colonizing mars and making space travel
affordable. Even though, he has to some extent, already achieved some success in this regard.
Some of us, are still skeptical and can’t even bring ourselves to understand even 10%
of his dreams and goals. If you are a dreamer, dream big and
see those dreams as vividly as the light of day. Write them out somewhere. Make them into smaller
achievable goals for which you can start off from today. Don’t let other people discourage you,
just because your dreams are too big. They should be big! Big enough to scare you half to death.
That is when you know you truly have something worthwhile to hold on to.
Second lesson, focus is everything. What you focus on, you get more of.
When professional race car drivers are taught about steering out of trouble, they are told about
focus and where the eyes and head needs to be looking. Because that is where the car is going.
Take another example of two people who go to the same party. One person focuses on the kids being
mischievous in the corner of the room. At the end of the party, he says that the party was awful,
and he was fed up of the mischievousness of the kids. The other person doesn’t
even notice the kids and is busy dancing, laughing and having a good time. He meets
new people and at the end of the party, he says that he had one of the best nights of his life.
So, what separates these two people from each other. It’s what they chose to focus on.
Don’t be afraid to dream big. All you need to do is to focus. Ignore the naysayers. Naysayers
have always been there since the dawn of time. That didn’t stop Thomas Edison from inventing
the light bulb, or Elon musk from launching an electric vehicle in a gasoline dominated market,
or Nelson Mandela from fighting for rights of all human beings. If they didn’t stop, why should you?
I hope this video has inspired a few of you, and thank you so much for watching. If you enjoyed the
video, go ahead and give it a thumbs up, and if you are new to the channel, welcome and subscribe
for more content like this. With that said, have a great and I’ll see you in the next one.