JOHN MAXWELL'S DAILY DOZEN

The following comes from "Be All You Can Be," by John Maxwell:

Examine your life at the moment. The first step toward making your dream come true is to find out where you are right now. That takes close scrutiny.

Exchange all of your little options for one big dream. Every dream has its price.

Expose yourself to successful people. It is true that birds of a feather flock together. Express your belief in your dream. Write it down or talk about it frequently.

Expect opposition to your dream. Every nitpicker who doesn’t have a dream will oppose yours. Regretfully, there are ten nitpickers for every person with a dream. You will never rid yourself of them. As long as you understand that, you won’t let them hinder you. Remember that those who have no dream cannot see yours, so to them it is impossible. You can’t have what you can’t see.

Exercise all of your effort, all of your energy, toward the dream. It’s worth it. Pay that price.

Extract every positive principle that you can from life. Constantly be on the lookout for anything that will enhance that dream.

Exclude negative thinkers as close friends. You’re going to have some friends who are negative thinkers, and no doubt some are members of your family. But if the negative thinking drags you down, which it will, you don’t need to spend much time with them. There are people in my family and in my wife’s family who are spirit-dampeners. We have chosen, for the sake of our kids as well as ourselves, not to spend a lot of time with them. You may need to put some distance between yourself and your negative thinking friends.

Exceed normal expectations to make your dream come true. If you’re to reach your dream, you’ll have to do that which is beyond the normal. Dreams are not achieved by average energy.

Exhibit an attitude that is confident. I believe that if you are outwardly confident, you will become more confident inwardly. The way we act outwardly affects what we are inwardly.

Explore every possible avenue to reach your dream. Don’t let any detour or dead-end street stop you on your way to a dream God has given you. There are more routes up a mountain than just the east side. Go around to the south side. See what else you can do.

Extend a helping hand to someone who had a similar dream, and both of you will climb together. Mountain climbing is not an individual sport. It’s a team sport. One holds the line for the other. As we hold the lines for others, we can all make it to the top, and our dreams can come true.