Hey, I know we just met and all, but I’m the future version of you, and I’m going to kick you in the nuts.

Yep, square in the nads, the wedding tackle, the twins, or whatever you and your locker room want to call them.

Are you ready? 1–2–3.

Bam!

What If I told you that the reason you weren’t living the life of your dreams was entirely your fault?

Ouch…

Now before you hate me (and I get it if you do), know that I got kicked in the nuts too. I’m the guy laying over there in the corner, belly out, swearing under his breath, clearly in pain
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So why did I kick you in the nuts?

I wanted to give you a wake-up call, and I want you to start consciously deciding who you want to be.

You see, we all get stuck into the routine of life. If we’re not careful, every day can start to feel the same, and we can lose focus on the great gift that is life.

The truth is, you have the choice to decide who you want to be and make a living doing what you love. However, before you do that, the very first step is to wake up from the routine, hence the kick in the nuts.

So through the throbbing pain, I invite you to grab a bag of ice, a comfy chair, and read on how to jump-start your life.

Get Obsessed

What’s the common thread that weaves the great achievers together like your Grandmother’s famous hand-sewn blanket hung on the leather couch? Obsession. Great achievers achieve success primarily because they are obsessed with their goals and outcomes. They are so focused on their goals that their life becomes a service to them, and for the most part, it doesn’t feel like forced work. So simply ask yourself, are you obsessed with achieving your goals? Are you jump the gun, marry-me-at-first-text crazy girl obsessed, over whatever you’re working on? If so, great! If not, start being honest with what you want out of life and go for that. Please know obsession is a mindset, and the beauty about mindsets is, you can control them. You have the power, and it’s on you to harness it.

Define Your Dreams

Many of us suffer from the same problem: we don’t know what we want out of life and desperately want to find out. I get it, I’ve been there, I’ve been “let-me-talk-to-your-manager” Karen-mad at seeing people who have it all figured out at an early age while I stay up late scouring the internet for answers. What I’ve come to find is: you can’t read your way into defining your dreams, but what you can do is a good healthy dose of self-questioning and self-application. Here is what I mean.

Ask yourself: Who do you admire and why? What jobs would you apply for if qualifications didn’t matter? What do you think is cool? What hobbies would you try if you had all the access in the world? What job would you do that you think would make you feel incredibly proud? What do you consider to be great work? What is fun for you? How do you measure success?

Once you take the time to thoughtfully answer these questions, the best thing to do… is to do. Try new things out; you’ll likely be surprised at what you thought you would love and ended up hating and even more surprised at the things you thought you would hate that you ended up loving.

You must define your dreams as you need a lighthouse to help guide your life ship to shore. The simple fact is this; if you don’t know what you want, you’ll never get it. So take the time to think about what you want to achieve in life as that will allow you to make a road map to seize it. Get it. Got it. Good.

Get to Living Your Dreams.

Any time I feel down about my lot in life, I think of the fantastic people who came to America, not knowing one lick of English, dealing daily with racism, homesickness, and uncertainty only to overcome all that bullshit to build impressive empires. These people had the odds stacked against them, and they won & won big. You and me, we’re reading this very article with a tool that allows us to connect with people all over the world, we have no excuse not to try to live our dreams with the advantages we have. Here’s my point: get to living your dreams.

If you have defined your dreams, the next step is to live them. Here’s the key that you’re not going to like… start slow. You don’t want to be the typical “I want to lose weight for New Years” person who goes to the gym three times, works out way too hard and gives up because you feel too much pain. The key to living your dreams is to be like a fat guy entering a hot tub — they just go slow and ease in.

Break down your dreams into small manageable steps and keep walking. You’ll be surprised at how far you’ll travel if you put in work consistently. It’s the consistent work stacked over long periods is how great work gets accomplished.

A few years ago, I had a dream of writing a book (that I accomplished), and people would often ask me how I did it. The answer was easy; I wrote one-page minimum a day. It didn’t matter if I was motivated; it didn’t matter if I had other plans. I was obsessed with my goal, and come Hell or high water; the writing would get done. Over the course of the year, the writing did get done and morphed into a book. The lesson is this: walk slow and don’t stop, that’s how you get closer to completing your goal.

Final Thoughts

Living life is all about finding the balance of learning and unlearning. We all feel the pressure to act a certain way, make a guaranteed income, hang out with the right people, and wear the right clothes. We feel the pressure to fit into the “normal” definition of success without critically thinking that, by definition, “normal” doesn’t account for individual thought. Real courage is to feel the pressures of the world tugging on your sleeve, and consciously choose to live life on your terms. It’s scary, it’s uncomfortable, but it’s often what feels right. You only have one life to live, make sure that you’re living it to your standards since you’re the one who’s going to be paying the price.

Please like, comment, share and tell me what you think. What do you want people to know about chasing their dream?