Have you ever had a burning desire to pursue a dream or goal of yours? I bet in the initial phases were pretty excited. You got yourself all hyped up and all worked up — you may have even watched some motivational videos that finally pushed you to just do it (Nike).
And then…some time passed and before you knew it, you were working on a version of your dream that was watered down. You started working on a version of your dream that sounded “less crazy” and felt like something your family and friends would approve of.
Yup. I’ve been there. Multiple times, actually.
A quote by Dr. Benjamin Hardy resonated with me about this very thing:
“We are kept from our goal, not by obstacles, but by a clear path to a lesser goal.”
Did you catch that?
It’s not even always obstacles that stand in our way. What often holds us back from achieving our real goals and our hearts’ desire is just that we have clarity along the path to a lesser goal.
I want better for you. I want you to build your vision — your REAL vision.
Plus, at the end of this post, I’m including a FREE bonus that will help you transform these thoughts into practical tips, steps, and strategies that take you to the next level — so keep reading.
In this blog post, I’m going to cover how you can overcome this tempting tendency to settle for less with three stages of thought:
- The God Idea
- The Traffic Jam
- The Opportunity Cost
Watch the YouTube video for this blog post.
Okay — let’s dive in.
#1 The God Idea — The Path to Your Dream Won’t Be As Clear As You Want
When God places a dream or an idea in our hearts, we need to recognize that it’ll only be but so clear.
What does that mean? It means that once you are clear on your life’s calling, the path there will still be difficult to see. Just because your idea comes from God does not mean that you’ll get turn by turn directions right from the start. This is not Apple Maps or Waze.
A key characteristic of a God idea is that if the path were perfectly clear, you wouldn’t actually need God to get there. But God is in the business of walking WITH us.
God often calls us to do things that require more than our natural ability, at least at that moment. Because then we have to rely on Him, not ourselves.
Think about it this way. It’s like when you’re driving down the street or highway, and you’re trying to read a sign that’s really far away. You say to yourself, “I think this is the exit, but I’m not quite sure.”
The sign is too far. It's blurry. You can’t quite read what it says.
So, how can we solve this internal conflict that robs us of building the God-given vision that we have for our lives and for the people that will benefit from us accomplishing and manifesting this dream?
The answer lies in the concept of The Traffic Jam.
#2 The Traffic Jam — You Need to Get Comfortable with Confusion and Unpredictability
Do you hate traffic? If you do, you probably don’t hate traffic as much as I hate traffic. I’m the type of person to take the first exit, click that alternate route, and take a longer way if it means I don’t have to sit still in the middle of the road.
One day I was driving down the highway and out of nowhere the flow of traffic came to a grinding halt. I was miserable. There was an 18-wheeler in front of me and I couldn’t see why we were stuck. I couldn’t see around him to know what was going on up ahead.
For whatever reason, I decided to stay the course. I immediately regretted it.
But within a few minutes (felt like hours), something miraculous happened. The flow of traffic started to pick up and we were back to top speeds in no time.
Turns out what caused the traffic jam was an object in the middle of the road that fell off a vehicle.
Once all cars got past that, there was no traffic. Smooth sailing and I was back to 60+ miles per hour.
In an instant, the traffic jam was lifted.
Here’s the point.
I got to my destination way faster than if I had taken a winding detour just to avoid the confusion. The same thing happens in our lives on the path to our dreams.
We have a destination that we want to get to, But up ahead we see confusion. We see unpredictability. We see uncertainty. And then we veer off to take a longer, but more predictable and clear route.
Now it’s not that we gave up on the destination, but we take an alternative route to get there. And we trick ourselves into thinking this is the better way.
We think: “At least we kept moving forward, right?” We’re comforted by not having to sit in discomfort for an indefinite amount of time.
We get to avoid telling ourselves, our friends, and our family that things appear to be at a standstill.
When you take a detour instead of staying the course God designed, we miss out on seeing that it was just a chair in the middle of the road. We don’t see that once we inch past that obstacle, we’d be flying at 60, 65, or even 70 miles per hour.
The thing that's keeping you stuck is not obstacles. You can overcome obstacles. You've been overcoming obstacles your whole life.
What’s keeping us from where we want to be in life is our urge to take the wrong exit just so we can appear to keep moving. It’s our desire to choose some measure of clarity over the confusion and unpredictability of the traffic jam.
#3 The Opportunity Cost — If You Don’t Find Your “Why,” You’ll Never Achieve Your Dreams
Thinking through the opportunity cost is another great mental strategy to help you avoid cheating your way out of taking the lesser path to building your vision.
Investopedia defines opprtunity cost like this:
Opportunity cost is the potential forgone profit from a missed opportunity—the result of choosing one alternative and forgoing another.
As it relates to your dreams, you want to get in touch with how much it really costs you to take an alternate route and to settle for less than your God-given vision.
Knowing what you’re missing out on is critical to helping you stay the course. That’s the only way you can overcome this conflict.
If the cost of taking the detour is way higher than the price of sitting in the traffic, the opportunity cost is too high. It’s not worth it. You’ve chosen to forgo the profits of your original plan, just so that you wouldnt have to deal with discomfort. That’s a pretty bad trade.
This is exactly why I stress that you have to Find Your “Why.” You have to be so emotionally attached to the reason or “the why” for your original dream that the thought of you not getting there literally pains you to the point that you are ready to shed tears.
The thought of taking a detour should cause you pain.
Here are two types of “whys” to be aware of so you can find yours:
- The Philosophical Why
- The Pathological Why
The Philosophical Why
Your philosophical why is the meaning behind your doing; it's everything that motivates your actions. It’s the good versus evil, your just cause — it’s the unique discontentment about the nature or state of something that God has called you to solve in the world.
And you know you’re called to it because it’s a problem that simply calls out to you as something that needs to be fixed. When that happens, that means you need to be the one to try to solve it.
That's your philosophical why.
For example, my philosophical why is: To live optimally so that others are inspired to do the same because the world doesn't need more information, it needs more examples.
I'm very clear about my philosophical why.
The Pathological Why
Your pathological why is a little different from your philosophical why. Your pathological why is the thing or state of being you desire so greatly that you're pretty much obsessed with it.
Your pathological why will have very deep, emotional meaning to you.
My pathological why centers around my parents and family legacy. For whatever reason, I feel a deep, deep attachment to the idea of giving my parents a return on their sacrifice and investment in my life.
My parents don’t make me feel like I have to repay them at all. I simply know that it will bring me a lot of joy and satisfaction to live out my dreams in such a way that I’m able to repay them for all they’ve done for me.
That idea, that seed, is way stronger than any willpower that I could ever conjure up on my own.
You Need Find Your “Why”
Look, I don't know what your why is — it might be your children and securing a life and future for them that was better than your own.
Your why could be that somebody did something impactful for your life and you want to do something as powerful for others.
Your why could even be that there’s some illness in your family or in your own body and you want to cure it or help others live with or understand it.
What I do know about you is that you have to discover what your why is because that’s the
only thing strong enough to motivate you to choose the traffic and confusion over a detour.
How to Find Your “Why”
If you’re confused about what your unique “why” is, I can help. I’ve worked with so many people who are searching for the clarity they need to pursue their God-given ideas, dreams, and calling without any shortcuts.
For more than a year, I have been helping people just like you who want to build a vision for their lives with the Find Your Why Challenge.
But recently, we’ve taken things to a whole new level to better support people like you.
Introducing Visionpreneur School
Honestly? After paying thousands of dollars (ouch) on training, coaches, certifications, masterminds, conferences and more, I’ve learned one critical thing that people ALWAYS miss during this process of building a vision. People forget to or neglect to define their “why.”
You can have all the knowledge you need to succeed, but struggle to get over the gap to execution and manifesting your vision because your “why” is shaky.
That’s why I’ve created the Visionpreneur School and I want you to join.
A visionpreneur is an individual who turns their ideas, insights, and influence into impact and income.
Is that you?
If so, Visionpreneur School is the ONLY place online that you can get support on your journey to accomplishing all this, while keeping Christ at the center and forefront of it all.
I built what I wish I had growing up: A place where I don’t need to neglect my relationship with God or my business. I work on them simultaneously which is the best recipe for success because we stay aligned with the One that designed us.
I’m excited to share this with you and people like you in our community.
But it gets better.
Learn How to Transform Other People With Your Unique Message
In Visionpreneur School, we don’t JUST help you get clear about your why. We’d never just stop there.
We help you get clear about your mission and your unique message that you have to offer the world. You’ll learn how to translate your unique message into transformational content that impacts so many people's lives.
We’re not focused on inspirational messages or viral messages, we’re focused on helping you design transformational content so that when people see what you’re creating and putting out into the world, they walk away impacted for a lifetime.
Enroll in Visionpreneur School Now — Available for a Limited Time
For a limited time and exclusive to only the individuals that are fully prepared to transform their lives and others, you can join our community.
And it gets even better. Right now, Visionpreneur school is absolutely free.
I really do want to reward those of you that are going to be a part of this inaugural group
who choose to actually take the step to get clear about what they are building.
To get in, you must apply, and our team will qualify and approve you and reach out to let you know.
Stay the Course God Designed, No Detours
Remember the words of Dr. Hardy:
“We are kept from our goal, not by obstacles, but by a clear path to a lesser goal.”
Ask yourself: Have I been choosing the more clear but lesser route? If so, when does that end? And if it ends today, do you know the unique “why” that will give you the power to take the road less traveled?
