Have your dreams gotten lost in the responsibilities of daily life? Are you achieving your life’s goals? Many of us lose sight of what we had once wanted to accomplish, tucking those aspirations away while we’re making sure the mortgage is met and food is on the table. But, it might only take an encouraging word or deed to get us back on track…giving us the fuel for firing up our passions once again.
That’s why David McNally and I wrote our book, Even Eagles Need a Push: The Power of Encouragement. Kindness and encouragement can change someone’s life forever. It can be the greatest gift you’ll ever give….or receive. Today, I’d like to share one story from the book about how a supportive wife helped her rather famous husband back to dreaming big after being unemployed.
An Excerpt from: Even Eagles Need a Push
by David McNally and Mac Anderson
Forgotten Your Dreams?
After a change in head coaches at the University of South Carolina earlier in his career, Lou Holtz, then a defensive coach, found himself unemployed.
“I was unemployed for over a month, a long time for someone like me who had worked since he was nine. I felt very defeated. Our savings account was down to four figures: around $10.95. With a growing family to support, I was feeling pressure. It would have been an unbearable period, if not for my wife. She could not have been any more supportive or encouraging. Beth never complained. She went to work as an x-ray technician to help keep us in groceries. She also brought me the motivational book, The Magic of Thinking Big, by David Schwartz, hoping it would help me feel less depressed.
In his chapter on goals, Schwartz writes that anyone who is bored by life has probably forgotten his or her dreams. He invites readers to get back in touch with them. As a first step, we are asked to list all the things we have ever wanted to accomplish: I had a lot of time on my hands, so I took out a pencil and paper and divided my list into five categories:
As a husband/father
Spiritually
Professionally
Financially
Simply for excitement
It was the in fifth category that I let my imagination run wild. Here are some of the things I included:
Jump out of an airplane
Land a jet fighter on an aircraft carrier
Travel the ocean in a submarine
Go white-water rafting on the Snake River at Hells Canyon
Be on the Tonight Show, starring Johnny Carson
Attend a White House dinner with the President
Meet the Pope
Go on an African safari
Become a scratch golfer and play the top 50 golf courses in the world
Run with the bulls in Pamplona (provided I was matched with a much slower person)
And on it went. I had 107 goals on my original list. Suddenly, I was looking at my life differently and was excited about the future. When I told Beth that I was determined we do all of them, she said, “Gee, that’s great, honey, but why don’t you add “I want to find a job.?” Good note-the list expanded to 108. So far, we’ve managed to achieve 102 of those dreams-including dining at the White House and meeting the Pope. We’re still working on the others. From the moment I made that list, we became participants, rather than spectators, in our life. You do the same and you’ll find you don’t want to spend so much time sleeping; you’ll be afraid you might miss something! There are 26 other amazing stories in our Even Eagles Need a Push book. So, come explore the power of encouragement and see how it can change someone’s life forever…maybe even your own. (*Excerpted from You Gotta Read This Book, by Jack Canfield and Gary Hendricks)
Even Eagles Need A Push
From: Simple Truths
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