It’s one thing to say, “I’m going to travel one day” and another to not only travel, but pick up every four months and move to a new country. Colin Wright left his promising corporate career seven years ago, packed his bag, hit the road and created a way to sustain his new lifestyle as he travels. I caught up with him in Wichita, Kansas, of all places.
BJ Dumond’s first day as a pizza restaurant owner went down, literally, in flames. After that tumultuous opening, BJ survived and, today, is CEO of Simple Simon’s Pizza, a restaurant chain with 200 stores in a 10-state area. His story is one of belief, loyalty and getting up and going to work.
Read MoreAngela Parrish studied music education in university, suppressing her desire to perform as a soloist and devoting a great deal of time to accompanying others on the piano. Not any more. Today, she is a jazz singer and composer living - and working - in Los Angeles, which is no small feat.
Angela’s voice is recognized by millions – at a minimum you’ve heard her singing the opening number in the film “La La Land”. I had a chance to visit with her about her journey from Kansas to landing that gig.
Katka Prackova is, for all intents and purposes, a nomad. She and her husband, Gaston, decided a number of years ago to abandon their fixed 9-to-5 lifestyle and spend most of their lives working remotely while traveling the globe.
Read MoreBarbara Meier Mayfield is a risk-taker, a poet and a kindergarten teacher. We both attended the same undergraduate college – Southwestern College in Kansas. After too many years of no contact, we recently reconnected and chatted about her multi-faceted life.
Read MoreThere are times when you may not really know what your dream is. Then, one day, circumstances change and the idea presents itself to you. Such was the case with Lee Clayton Roper, where a project to help her ailing mother has evolved into a second career.
Knowing one's family history and heritage is one thing; embracing it is another. In this episode we visit with Martin Miller who, for years, did not know his family's background. Once he learned, he was told to keep it quiet. After years of living in fear, he had a dream to embrace his heritage. He shares his journey with us and how, after all this time, lives in peace with himself.
Read MoreWe all have dreams and, as we’ve said before, sometimes we lose sight of them as daily life gets in the way. Here are five steps to help you move your dream forward. They’re really pretty simple and they’re effective because they are so simple:
Sounds too easy, right? Let’s try it out and see how it works. Say I want to learn how to play the piano. Here are the five steps in action:
Decide how I want to learn. I could teach myself (YouTube “learn how to play the piano for beginners” returned 1.7 MILLION results and Amazon has 6500 “teach yourself piano” books listed). I could hire a piano teacher (“piano teachers Budapest” returned 225,000 results – with 43 pages that were in English). The good news is that there are many options and they’re accessible.
Decide how I will practice. An electric piano starts at around $100 with what appear to be quality brands costing $500-800. Used acoustic pianos start at around $1000. Alternatively, schools and churches have pianos in them – maybe I could get access to one?
Figure out when I have time to learn. Learning to the level I want to achieve will take time. I’ll need to commit to a lesson and practice schedule or I’ll never get it done. For me, paying for a tutor may be a better solution than a free online course. Left up to me without some kind of ROI (In this case, it’s “Risk of Ignoring” as my buddy DK taught me), it’s easy to push off lessons for other commitments. Having a set time commitment where others are dependent on me and for which I’m paying adds that extra push I sometimes need. Another solution is to set a goal – make a commitment where I have to perform, like at a birthday party nine months away. I know me and know that sometimes I need a fire underneath me to get me to commit.
The key to this whole process is starting. Devote some time to really think about your dream, write it down and make a list of what you need to do to start moving toward it. And then take that first step.
Let us know how you get along! We’re here to help you move forward.