Do you have what it takes to join the Dream Team?

Public Service Announcement – Tryouts for God's Dream Team are being held now!

This is not the Dream Team that is sponsored by the NBA.  Pat Riley isn’t the coach and Lebron James is not the star player.   This Dream Team is sponsored by God and YOU are the star player.  You don’t need any athletic talent to make this team.  All you need is a burning desire to achieve your dreams and have definite plans to attain it.  You must also have faith that you can follow those plans and don’t ever give up.  You would not have to go to the gym everyday to practice on your athletic abilities.  Instead you will visit your dream on a daily basis to practice on your positive thinking capabilities.  You will work to produce positive thoughts and keep negative thoughts out your mind.   As the star player, you are expected to have the biggest imagination and never have a loser’s mentality.  When the opposing team seems like they are unstoppable, you will show up at the game with a winner’s mentality and lead the team to victory.  You will win some games and lose some, but you will always show up for the next game giving it all you got.  Of course when you lose, you will have your critics saying everything you done wrong and how you will never make it to the championship, but what they don’t see is the dream that God has placed in your heart that gives you your supernatural abilities to overcome anything.  

 The path to the championship maybe tough, but the reward once you get there is well worth it.  Once you win the championship, you can celebrate it with your love ones and be proud that you have accomplished your DREAMS!  Did I forget to mention that it is a 100% chance that you will win the championship if you listened to Coach God at all times!  Also, you can’t get cut from God’s Dream Team.  You may suffer some setbacks and decide to retire, but you can always come back.  Matter fact, Coach God has unconditional love for his players.  He welcomes them back with open arms no matter how many times they fall and get up. 

The hardest time of the season will be at the beginning.  It will be plenty times that your faith is tested, but as a star player you know that this is part of the process of winning the championship.   At times when it seems that there is no way that you can win a game, your light shines the brightest and you show the opponent that there isn’t ANYTHING that can defeat you.   

God’s Dream Team isn’t going anywhere.  God’s Dream Team will continue to strive towards winning the championship; it’s just a matter if you are on the winning team or not.  As children of God, we all were granted the opportunity to be on God’s Dream Team.  It isn’t a secret that the Dream Team exists.  Look at star players like Oprah and Obama.  They believed and achieved!   If you want to stick out and make Coach God proud, join the Dream Team today!  Make decisions like there is no tomorrow because we aren’t promise tomorrow.  Inaction is the root cause for failure, so take action today and join God’s   Dream Team!

Like always I will leave you with a quote from one of American’s top pastors…”You have everything you need to fulfill your God-given destiny.  God has already put in the talent, the creativity, the discipline, the wisdom, and the determination….You have to do your part and start tapping into it.”…Joel Osteen

Why wishing doesn't produce results

Wishing  - The common demoniator for failure
“Man I WISH I was rich….I WISH I was 20 pounds lighter…I WISH I had a promotion…I WISH I had more friends.”  How many of us have heard these statements before?   Matter fact, how many of us have made these statements before?  What word is the common denominator that recommends that the probability of these statements coming true is quite low – WISH.  Wishing doesn’t produce results.  Having a definite plan backed by faith produces results.  Simply saying a vague statement such as…”I wish” is too vague.   We must be more precise and say our aspirations with conviction.  Instead of saying statements such as”I wish I was rich”, say more convincing statements such as “I know I am going to be rich by investing in real estate.”  When you know what you want in life, achieving it comes that much easier.  If you see a purse that you really want in a store, what do you do?  Whether you have the money or not I guarantee that you will find a way to get it, rather it’s saving up for it or finding a sugar daddy to buy it for you.  How come we can’t do our dreams the same way?  If we really want to achieve something, why don’t we work towards it or utilize every resource in attaining it? 

Listen to that inner voice
People treat dreams like lazy student treats test.  They expect to get a good grade on the test, but they don’t want to study for the test.  Dreams are the same way.  We have to work towards them.  We can’t expect to achieve our dream by simply wishing.  God has done his part in putting the dream in your heart; now it’s your turn to have faith and work towards achieving it.  It is not a coincidence that you got a “hunch” after reading an inspirational blog or book.  That is God whispering in your ear telling you your next million dollar idea.  Experts call this “infinite intelligence”.  I call it “God’s recommendation.”  If God told you a recommendation, wouldn’t you want to do it??  Cultivate your mind into believing that you can achieve anything you set your heart on.  The more you work towards it, the more you will notice supernatural things coming your way. 

Go for your dreams
We have been living our life in mediocre for too long. Today is the day that we will go above and beyond.  When we are 80 years old, we don’t want to look back on life and say…”Man, I wish I had sought out to achieve my dream.”   We want to share with our grandchildren how fruitful and joyful our life has been because we achieved our dreams.  We want to be an inspiration on their lives as well as others.  Never be content on where you are in life.  Always strive to achieve higher, learn new things, and be a blessing to others.  If you have a good job, teach others the strategies you use to get a good job.  The other day I helped my little cousin make a resume to try to get a laborer job.  You may think that someone wouldn’t need a resume for that type of job, but the knowledge I have attained seeking jobs resulted in me knowing that a resume would put him above the competition.  You will be amazed at what ways you can help others by the talents you already have.  Get creative and find your niche, then capitalize on it. 

Use Your Mind
Instilled in each and every one of us is the ability to see our life how we want it to be; it’s just a matter if we use this ability or not.  Some of us treat our minds like it’s a beat up Pinto.  We just let it sit in the garage and collect dust.   If you were to have a brand new Mercedes, I am pretty sure you will drive it on a regular basis and conduct routine maintenance to keep its integrity.  Well our mind is the same way.  We have to continuously use it and feed our brain positive thoughts.  Treat your mind like it’s a Mercedes, better yet treat it like it’s a Lambo!   It is not pure luck or hereditary that many people have amassed vast fortunes; it was their ability to know what they want in life and strive to get it.  As dream chasers we never WISH, we always KNOW precisely what we want!

Like always I will leave you with a quote from a very wise man...."There is a difference between wishing for a thing and being ready to recieve it.  No one is ready for a thing, until he believes he can acquire it. The state of mind must be belief, not mere hope or wish."...Napoleon Hill

Are your friends DREAM KILLERS or DREAM INSTILLERS??

Do you think it’s possible for me to be a millionaire in six years?  Do you think it’s possible for me to get into Harvard medical school?  Do you think it is possible for me to start an international engineering firm?  If I asked you these questions, what would your answer be?  If you answered NO to the following questions, then you are what I label a DREAM KILLER.  Please don’t get offended, just continue reading and I would explain.

In each one of the previous questions, I had a friend approach me telling me about their aspirations.  For the friend that told me he wanted to be a millionaire, I told him to get financially educated so he can work towards his goals.  For the friend that approached me about medical school, I told him to study hard so he can receive the necessary grades to get into Harvard.  For the friend that told me he wanted to start an international engineering firm, I told him to seek knowledge in his specialty, so his firm will be the brightest in the field.  In each one of the examples, I was being a dream INSTILLER!  The sky is the limit.   Imagine if I had a negative attitude and laughed at their aspirations.  I probably would have discouraged them and stopped them from pursing their dreams.   As dream INSTILLERS, we should always be there for our friends when they are working towards their goal.  The world already has enough distractions, so why should we add to the fire.  Don’t get me wrong, when you see a friend slacking or being lazy, you should put them in their place and hold them accountable for striving to achieve their dreams.   When friends are going through their ups and downs when pursing their dreams, it is these times that they need that shoulder to lean on to help them through the struggles.  When your friend suffers a setback, you shouldn’t say…”See I told you so”, but more like “We are going to get through this!”

 People are greatly affected by other people’s opinions.  I once read that it takes 17 positive comments to compensate for ONE negative comment made.  Imagine a girl told me I was ugly; it would take 17 other girls to tell me I am handsome in order for me to get over that one negative comment!  I am not sure of the accuracy of these numbers, but it will give you a glimpse on the importance of being positive.  If you have a friend that is really excited about an idea, hear them out and don’t shoot them down if you don’t have any concrete facts to support your opinion.  It is amazing how so many people say an idea is bad because they are completely ignorant about the subject or they don’t have enough courage to try it themselves.  If I say I want to be a real estate investor, don’t tell me that it is a bad idea if you never sold a house in your life.  Just because you hear Fox News give their gloomy real estate forecast or you hear Uncle Willie’s bad experiences dealing with tenants, that doesn’t justify you being able to give valid real estate advice.   Sometimes it is just best for individuals to simply be quiet if they do not have knowledge on a specific subject.

For the dream chasers, watch your surroundings.  Having a negative friend can be detrimental to your success.   Surround yourself with like minded individuals who will help INSTILL your dream instead of KILL your dream. 

Like always I will leave you with a quote from a very wise man …”Men take on the nature and the habits and the power of thought of those with whom they associate in a spirit of sympathy and harmony.”..Napoleon Hill

What do you want to be when you grow up??

What do you want to be when you grow up? This is a universal question that we were all asked when we were growing up.  Normally, you get the cliché answers….”I want to be rich and famous, I want to start my own business, I want to be a doctor or lawyer, etc…”  What happen to those aspirations?  Why aren’t we rich and famous by now or working towards it?  Why aren’t we working to start our own business?  When we were younger, we thought anything was possible.  What happen to that mindset?  I will tell you…the WORLD.  Once we grew older, we were faced with the harsh realities of the real world.  What do we have to do to get that passion back to achieve our highest aspirations?  We have to take ACTION of our life NOW!  We are not going to let the world’s distractions steer us from achieving our goals anymore.  I hear you saying…”I am broke…I am too old…I have family responsibilities”.   If you really want it, you will stretch yourself to achieve it.  When you define your definite purpose in life and commit to it, nothing will stop you.  My mom went back to school to get her masters in her 40’s.  Oh yeah, did I forget to mention that she had four kids to care for and she commuted 45 minutes to get to class.  The world and the naysayers want you to believe that you can’t go for your goals.  I hear you doubting yourself saying…”What if I try and FAIL?”  What if you try and SUCCEED?  Think about the self-gratification you will receive for going for your dreams.  To me that feeling is priceless.  That will exceed any monetary value you may receive for accomplishing your dreams.   What happens if I fail?  First and foremost let’s erase the word FAILURE out of our vocabulary.  For now on let’s use setbacks, because when you fail you give up.  As dream chasers, we will stay persistence and won’t stop until our dreams are accomplished.  We will show perseverance through no matter what.

REAL LIFE EXAMPLE

I have a good friend of mine, for the sake of this blog we are going to call him Jackie, that graduated from a four year university with a technical degree.  Like many others that graduated in his class, he had trouble finding a job.  Matter fact, he was trying to find a job for over a year.  Think about all the setbacks he faced with companies turning him down or him chasing leads that led him nowhere.  Through it all, I did not hear him have a negative attitude or complained about his situation not once.   Through prayer and soul searching, he determined that the jobs he was looking for wasn’t his true passion.  His real passion was to own a fine dining restaurant.  So what did he do, he moved to Atlanta to attend a culinary arts school.  He didn’t make excuses or procrastinate, he took ACTION!  He is currently enrolled in one of the nation’s top culinary art schools.  His grades are excellent and he just landed a job at one of Atlanta’s top restaurants.  When he first received notice that he was hired at the restaurant, I never saw him so excited!  Granted, his salary made not be an engineer’s salary or a doctor’s, but the self gratification he received for pursing his dreams is worth far more in value.  He started that job with a meager salary, but having the mindset that one day he will own a restaurant you will think that he was hired as a CEO.  Right now he is working for the experience and building his network. In other words, he is giving before he receives. 

That is one factor that holds a lot of people back from accomplishing their dreams.  Many people want to RECIEVE, but none are willing to GIVE first.  They let their pride get in the way. Take platinum selling artist Drake for instance.  He put out free mixtapes for over a year before he dropped his first album.  As a result, he sold like +450,000 albums his first week!  If you have a selfish attitude of always wanting to receive first, I highly suggest you change it because it will take you nowhere.  Maybe in the beginning you will achieve some success, but in the long run you will be passed up by that individual who has the generous attitude.  The Christian faith is built on serving others.  I guarantee you, the more people you serve, the bigger and better your results! 

In closing, I would like to leave you with this question to ponder on…”Imagine you and God having a cup of coffee and he told you to help as many people as possible without expecting anything in return, would you do it?”

Desire + Faith + Action = Success

Before you start reading this blog, turn off “Dancing with the Stars”, tell Willie and em’ to be quiet, and go to a quiet place to meditate.  Oh yeah, bring a pencil and paper and an open mind.

Now that I have your undivided attention, think about that one thing in life that you desire most.  Rather it is to be happily married with children or you seek riches beyond your wildest dreams.  Now that you have came up with that one thing that you seek most out of life, write it down.  When you write it be exact and put a timeframe on it.  Don’t simply say…”I want to be rich”.  Be more definite, say…”In five years hence, I wish to obtain $100,000, by starting my own business which will specialize in selling cars”.  I can hear that negative part of your brain saying...”There is no way in the world you will ever have $100,000 cash”.  For the young folks my age, this is what we call “hating”.  I bet you didn’t know you can hate on yourself!  Tell that side of your brain to shut up!  Right now you are not focusing on HOW you are going to get it; you are just claiming that you KNOW you are going to get it.  Who’s the say I can’t achieve what I desire most out of life??  We are blessed because we stay in a country that gives us the rights to be whatever we want.  Even more importantly, we were given the rights by our creator to have control over our mind to live our dreams.  I hear you saying. ..” Dre, I don’t even have $3000 in my bank account.”  If I was there, I would tell you to be quiet and stop making excuses.  Instead of telling me how you are lacking in financial resources, tell me how you are working to gain the technical capacity to open and run a car dealership in which you will have an abundance of financial resources. 

Congratulations!  You have taken the first step in achieving your dreams, but you aren’t through yet.  Now that you have your dreams in writing, you have to commit to visiting them each and every day.  Put them somewhere that is visible.  Personally, I put mine on my bathroom mirror so I can visit them when I wake up and when I go to sleep at night.  Twice a day you should read OUT LOUD your goals.  When you recite them, put some emotion behind it.  I bet if you were to win a million dollars, you wouldn’t accept the check with a nonchalant manner.  You will probably receive the check reaping with joy.  There isn’t any reason why you shouldn’t accept the dream that God has placed in your heart with the same emotions.  You should be happy!  Say your dreams with conviction.  Say them like you already have them in your possession.  It may feel a little strange at first and your spouse maybe looking at you like you are crazy, but over time you will become more comfortable and your spouse will come onboard once they see the supernatural things taking place in your life.  Guess what you are doing - You are building your faith.  As your fatih builds, you will notice supernatural focres gradually gravitating to you that will help you achieve your goal.   Through prayer and the reaffirmation of stating your goals, your faith will grow stronger and stronger to the point you may go to the bank and try to write a $50,000 check and you only have $2,000 in your bank account…lol.

Okay!  Now we know what we desire most in life and we have the faith to chase these dreams, what’s next??  This may sound a little cheesy, but instead of us saying “It’s GAMETIME” we are going to say “It’s ACTIONTIME”.  Put some action behind that faith.  If you know that you want to get married and you haven’t had any luck finding a spouse, stop make excuses saying that there aren’t any good men/women left.  Stop saying you can’t find a man that can deal with my strong personality.  If you know you have flaws that are unattractive, don’t say ridiculous comments like..”Well my man is just going to have to deal with my domineering personality”.  If you have this mentality, I have some good news and some bad news for you – The good news is that there are a plethora of good guys that can potentially be your husband in this world, the bad news is that they won’t be available for you because they were already scooped up by that humble girl that admits that she has flaws and are working to correct them.  If you want a promotion, stop doing the norm, but go the extra mile.  In whatever desire you wish to attain, work to achieve it.  Don’t procrastinate.  Stop making excuses.  Like Nike says…”Just Do It!”  No one is going to hand you anything!   You are the master of your earthly destiny.   Just don’t use your head for getting your hair done every week, but use it to tap into your full potential of achieving your dreams!

Like always I will leave you with a quote from a wise man…”Success comes to those who become success conscious.  Failure comes to those who indifferently allow themselves to become failure conscious”…Napoleon Hill

Why I started this blog

Hello Friends,

First and foremost, thank you for visiting my blog.  This is what I hope to be my first blog out of many.  I've decided to start this blog because I have noticed how tough these times have my been for my generation, which is XYZ.  Due to the recent economic meltdown, many graduating students have been faced with the problem of not having a job after graduation.  Many have sought to attend graduate school and upon graduating are still faced with the scarcity of jobs.

My friends it is times like this where you have to "BE STRONG".and "KEEP YOUR FAITH"  Right now you may have applied for 20 jobs and still haven't had any success.  You may have applied for 20 graduate schools and still no luck.  I am here to tell you to keep going.  The door to opportunity is right in front of you; it's just a matter if you open it because it is not going anywhere.  Take a moment and think..What will happen if you decided to get a LOSER's mentality and give up?  Who would you be hurting?  Surely not these large fortune 500 companies or these big universities.  The only person that you will be hurting is yourself and your love ones.  Don't make excuses of why you are not having any success, but come up with solutions on how to gain success.  Your mind is your greatest asset.  Use it and don't let it be your greatest liability!

The power of positive thinking is so important.  If you go around the day with a positive attitude, you will be amazed on how different things will be.  So what your boss made you mad or you got a F on your test.  Don't go around complaining about it, but accept it and move on.  Holding on to the past will tarnish your future.  Negative thinking is poisonous to yourself and people around you.  Who likes to be around someone always complaining or making excuses???  If you do, then you are probably that person.  My friends that are struggling, you are living a testimony right now.  Five years from now you are going to look back at this moment and see how you endured the struggles and you came out a winner.  You will be a blessing on other's lives because you will share your story and coach them on how they will accomplish their goals.

In closing I am going to leave you with a quote from a wise man..."Your only limitations are the ones you set up in your mind"...Napoleon Hill

Until next time - Dre Lewis