Want to chase a dream? Get your eyes checked.

music

Do you see all those empty seats in this photo?

I do.

I saw them for an hour or so last week at an outdoor restaurant at the Detroit Marriott.

They were impossible to miss. Look how many there are! I see them. You see them. Waitresses saw them.

Do you know who didn’t see them? The guy playing the guitar in the photo.

He didn’t see a single empty chair. The sea of unfilled seats didn’t even cross his vision.

Do you know what he saw?

Music.

The chance to play a concert.

A love of songs.

A guitar underneath a summer sky and a wildly fun playlist.

He had what you need if you’re going to chase a dream, selective vision. He was able to look right by all the empty chairs and no shows. He was blind to the audience size.

Instead, he saw opportunity and more than that, the joy of music.

How do I know? Because he put on amazing show. He played like the space was full, belting out great acoustic versions of Depeche Mode, Radiohead and Prince.

Did the chairs fill up as the night went later? Maybe, maybe not, but I’m not sure if this musician would have worried about it.

Long before you play to a full house, regardless of what your dream is, you’re going to play to a lot of empty ones.

Don’t quit. Get your eyes checked and make sure you’ve got selective vision. See what matters, look beyond what doesn’t.

Question:
Have you ever felt discouraged by the results of your dream?

The surprisingly simple way to fight fear with your phone.

Phone

There are a few things I am afraid of. Bears, obviously. Mismatched queso and chip portions where you end up with queso left but no chips. (I just got a little sweaty, even typing that sentence.)

But some of my fears are more serious than that, and sometimes that includes writing.

How can something I feel called to do, something I love, something that is my passion, have fear associated with it?
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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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