- Ryan C. Greene
Stop WANTING It And Start WALKING IT!
When it comes to your dreams and being successful, are you WANTING it or are you WALKING it? Far too often people spend their lives talking about their dreams and never spend enough time walking their dreams. It’s easy to dream the dream and want it to come true, but the part that separates the great leaders from the average ones is the ability to walk in it and do it!
You can either wait for your ship to sail in or you can jump in the water and swim out to the ship! "Wanters" aren’t bad people, they’re simply misguided. They have fooled themselves into thinking they’re actually working their dreams but if they were truly honest with themselves, they’d admit their efforts aren’t really going toward dream building activities. They may be in the neighborhood, but they’re not actually on the right street.
Wanters may call themselves "XYZ" but they aren’t actually DOING "XYZ". For instance, you may say you’re walking as a professional speaker, but if you’re not actually doing speaking engagements and constantly working to book engagements, then you just WANT to be a speaker. Simply having a website up promoting you as a professional speaker and hoping by some grace of God, a company finds you and books you, isn’t walking it, that’s wanting it.
Here are some key differences between those who want it versus those who walk it:
What happens when you waste time only wanting your dreams to come true? Opportunities will pass you by. If you’re sitting on the sidelines watching, it’s impossible to throw the winning touchdown. Opportunities don’t go away, they simply go to other people. Wanting will have you sitting home watching other people capitalize off of your great ideas. Wanting will also make you get angry and jealous at the success of others who are actually walking. You start to try and find any excuse as to why that person must have done something other than actually work hard to achieve their success. Your anger of their success is really you being angry at yourself for not walking your own dreams. Finally, it can leave you depressed. Depressed at the idea that you know you were gifted with so much talent yet you simply sat on it and let it go to waste.
On the flip side, here’s how walking in your dreams manifests in your life. Doors of opportunity will begin to open. When you’re actively working, people who need your work will easily find you. Opportunities begin to fall in your lap. Sometimes just being in the right room, with the right people, at the right time, will bless you with opportunities that would have never come otherwise. That’s how I ended up on stage with speaking greats Willie Jolley, Delatorro McNeal II, and Kim Coles at one event. They had space for another speaker and I was there ready to walk in my purpose as a speaker. You never know who is watching as you walk your purpose. You never know where along your path they'll see you an be inspired to contact and connect with you. The key is you have to be walking it in order to be noticed.
When you’re walking it, your creativity begins to surge. Nothing stimulates creativity greater than actually working on solving a problem. When you’re working, you begin to see all kinds of new avenues and alternatives. You begin to see things you would never have seen had you still been on the sidelines. The game looks totally different when you’re on the field. Finally, when you’re walking it, success begins to overflow. Momentum is the greatest force for any business. It’s the one thing every leader seeks. The thing is however, you have to actually be moving in order to create momentum. Walking it is the only way to ever gain the momentum you seek.
So from this day on, it’s time to be honest with yourself and stop WANTING to be something and begin WALKING as that thing. Begin to DO what it takes to be it and watch your life and your leadership change forever.
For more information on walking in your purpose and growing as a leader, you can purchase the book Leadership University: 52 Weekly Leadership Lessons On Becoming The Leader Others Will Beg To Follow by Ryan C. Greene. To book Ryan for speaking engagements visit www.RyanCGreene.com