1 Lesson Cheers Teaches Us About Chasing a Dream.

Recently, the Huffington Post did a story about 15 little known facts about the hit show Cheers.

The whole list was fascinating, but one point stuck out to me. I thought it was an important lesson that anyone chasing a dream should know.

Copyright: NBC.

Copyright: NBC.

The finale of Cheers was the second highest rated finale of any television show in the history of the medium. It was wildly popular when it finished.

But, when it started, the story is a little different.

When it premiered it was 77th out of 100 shows.

That means 76 other shows got better ratings. What does that mean for you and your dream? It means we can never judge the ending by the beginning.

We want dreams that come out of the gates as winners. We want fast starts and big wins right up front. But you know what? The best shows (and dreams) often don’t start that way. They start when no one is watching, when it’s you and your dream getting up early to work. They start when the rest of the world doesn’t even know you exist. When results are scarce and the ratings are low.

In those moments, you will want to give up. You will look at that first attempt and feel it’s representative of how every attempt in the future is going to go. It’s not. It’s your first or your second or your third, but it’s not your forever.

Never let a bad start make you think you’ll never have a good finish.

Don’t quit too soon. No one can predict the finale by looking at the premiere.

How to find more time to work on your dream.

(Today is a post from one of the new voices on the site, Casey Lewis!)

hustle

I hate traffic.

Years ago I commuted 2 hours a day to and from work. It was a miserable experience.

The toll roads in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area reach a max speed of 7mph during rush hour and were sadly the fastest route to and from the office for me.

For the past 4 years I’ve purposefully worked less than 5 miles from my house, primarily to avoid the chaos that is the morning and afternoon commute.

I’ve been my own boss and I vowed to never sit in that traffic again.

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The yes manifesto.

yes 2

The answer is yes.

Yes, chasing a dream will be scary.
Yes, it will be risky.
Yes, there will be fear.
Yes, there will be doubt.
Yes, other people won’t understand it.
Yes, sometimes you won’t either.
Yes, the odds will be stacked against you.
Yes, you will want to quit. A lot.
Yes, you will fail sometimes.
Yes, you will feel like someone more talented has already done exactly what you want to do.
Yes, you will not know exactly where you are going.
Yes, you will feel unqualified.
Yes, there will be awkwardness.
The answer is yes for all of these things.
But yes is also the answer to all these questions too:
Does the world need your dream? Yes.
Do you need to chase it? Yes.
Is today a better day to begin than tomorrow? Yes.
Does working on a dream a little always beat not working on it at all? Yes.
Are you capable of more than you think? Yes.
If you don’t try will you regret it? Yes.
Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.
If you’re going to chase a dream, get ready to say that little word a big amount of times.
Because for those who dare to be more than ordinary, the answer is yes.

5 ways to beat writer’s block.

Have you ever had writer’s block?

It’s the feeling of being out of words. The blank page is no longer a canvas to be danced upon with vocabulary and joy. It’s now a terrifying desert, devoid of adjectives and ideas, completely white and empty without an oasis in sight.

How do you beat moments like that? Here are 5 things I’ve learned to do in my 16 years as a professional writer:

Block

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