Put Your Dream to the Test

In Put Your Dream to the Test: 10 Questions to Help You See it and Seize it by best-selling author John C. Maxwell you will answer ten powerful questions to help you determine whether your dreams will stay dreams, or become a reality. John Maxwell, an internationally respected leadership expert uses his many years of counseling and experience to encourage and prepare readers to achieve their dreams. He offers a step-by-step action plan that you can start using today to visualize, own, and reach your dream. In 286 inspiration-filled pages he will help you filter out the daydreams that serve to distract, the pie-in-the-sky dreams with no strategy, and the destination dreams (those in which you believe that a place, position, or person will make you happy) to find the true gems that are valid and worthy of the investment of a person's life. He defines those dreams as being, "an inspiring picture of the future that energizes your mind, will, and emotions, empowering you to do everything you can to achieve it. A dream worth pursuing is a picture and a blueprint of a person's purpose and potential."


I have dreams. We all have dreams. At least, I hope we all do. We all should. God planted within us special things, and has a specially mission for each of us being here. One of my pastors used to say that if you are still here, you haven't fulfilled your mission yet. Well, I am still here, so how do I take the next step to find out the rest of my mission? Not that I am in any hurry to leave here, but I do want to be doing what the Lord intended for me to do. I do not want to stand before Him and have him say, "Well, I put ----- on your heart. Why did you ignore me all those years?" That is the reason I picked this book to review. I have several dreams that I believe in and I wanted to see what Mr. Maxwell had to say about whether they were even viable, and how to go about embracing those dreams as goals, if they were something I should pursue.


Basically, in the book, he asks you ten questions to help you find out in what stage your dream is, and how committed you are to pursuing it. Then points you in the right direction for how to take the next steps in achieving your dream by asking pointed and challenging questions revolving around the following topics: Ownership, Clarity, Reality, Passion, Pathway, People, Cost, Tenacity, Fulfillment, and Significance. 


One I went through the process of analyzing my dream and my response to it, I determined that it was something that was viable. The next thing was to develop a plan and to learn how to make that dream a reality. He teaches you the steps to make this happen through a series of inspiring stories about people who have made dreams, sometimes dreams that defied all odd, a reality, as well as widom gleaned from his years of personal experience with striving to achieve dreams. These incredible testimonies to the power of living your dreams made the book extra-special for me. I am all for how-to books, but if you can mix a bit of "here's how he/she/I did it" into the information, then it seems more personal...more like having a mentor or friend to walk beside you all the way through the process. I like that.


To make the process even simpler, John Maxwell provides journaling ideas, targeted questions, and action-plan suggestions at the end of the book for every chapter. This feature makes this book ideal for use in a group setting, which I actually think would be the best way to use it. I often "hear" online gurus chatting about the usefulness of having a group of people who have similar goals to work with on achieving your own goals. These days, finding such a group can be just a click away, if you do not have people you can meet with in person. You will likely want someone to discuss the important points in the book, and to help you to evaluate, understand, and apply the information. Of course, if you don't have anyone with which to read the book, the information is still a valuable resource, and I would highly recommend it. I am planning on passing the book to my two older sons next, so they can clarify their life-courses, and then, perhaps, we will be able to discuss the topic thoroughly. I know that so far, this book has been helpful to me. I will continue to use it and to go through the rest of the activities over the next month or so.


I highly recommend this book if you have ever had a dream that you entertained for a day, a week, a year, a decade. This book will assist you in finding if your dream has the qualities it needs to become reality, and if YOU have the ability and tools to make it become true. If you don't currently have a dream, this book will help you find one. Having a dream that is aimed at some specific goal, and working to achieve it diligently, will not only bee good for you, but it has the potential to influence others who see you striving toward a goal...not to mention the help that your idea could provide to others.


Do yourself a favor. Find a copy of this book, read it with an open mind and heart, and give yourself permission to dream a little. You will be glad you did.

Blessings,


Heather

I received this book free from the publisher through theBookSneeze®.com book review  program for bloggers. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own based on my personal reading and understanding of this book.