So what’s your moral code? In other words, what do you value? Do you even know?

Whether you realize it or not, your values guide your behavior. You choose what to say and do and even what dreams to pursue based on your values.

For instance, if you value honesty, you’ll tell the truth.

If you value winning, you’ll do what it takes to win (but if you value honesty, you won’t lie or cheat to win).

If you value loyalty, you’ll stick by your friends and family no matter what.

If you hard work, you’ll have a great work ethic and always work hard.

If you value kindness, you’ll be nice to the people around you.

Take some time right now to identify your top five values. If you’re not sure where to start, here’s a list of the 12 core Dream Doer League values to give you some ideas:

• Integrity
• Passion
• Focus
• Consistency
• Energy
• Enthusiasm
• Leadership
• Discipline
• Creativity
• Wisdom
• Courage
• Strength

By living with these values as your guide, you can always find a way to do what you dream.

Once you know what your top five are, share them with me in the comment section.

To your dreams,
Bonnie Jean

And have you ever stopped to think about how many of your thoughts are true?

Go ahead. I dare you. Think about what you thought today.

For instance, did you tell yourself you couldn’t do something you were perfectly capable of doing?

I did. Only I didn’t realize how I let that lie limit me until I took action that proved me wrong.

Let me explain.

I was out running today in this beautiful, spring-like weather. Because I haven’t exercised in the past three days and because I didn’t get much sleep last night, I told myself I would only have enough energy to run for 29 minutes. (That’s about how long it takes me to run 7 loops around my one-street neighborhood.)

I told myself that running seven loops would be a challenge today and that I would be doing good to finish in 29 minutes.

The truth is I didn’t feel like running more than that today, so I set that goal to make me feel good about just getting by and not pushing myself the way a champion does. In other words, I lied to myself about what I was capable of accomplishing today in my workout.

Then something weird happened when I finished my seventh loop in just under 29 minutes. Instead of stopping to walk and cool down, I sped up.

I wanted to see if I had enough energy left to run for just one more minute and make it an even 30 minute workout.

When I hit the 30-minute mark, I was halfway down the hill and picking up speed. If I pushed myself, I believed I could make it to the bottom of the hill in another 60 seconds.

So I kept running. Faster. I gave it all I had. And I made it down the hill and around the cul-de-sac as fast as my super slow Schaefer speed would take me. (My fast is actually kind of slow!)

I sprinted to a finish time of 31 minutes.

As I walked up the hill and recovered from my final two-minute dash, I wondered how else I was limiting myself. I had just run more than I thought I was able to run during that workout, so what else could I do that I’ve been telling myself I couldn’t do?

I’m still pondering answers to that question for me, but right now I want to know about you.

What have you been telling yourself you can’t do? How have you been limiting yourself?

What do you think you could accomplish if you were honest with yourself about your abilities?

Think about your answers, then share them in the comment section!

To your dreams,
Bonnie Jean

If you want to always find a way to DO what you DREAM…

Then you need to follow the five Cool Dream Doer Rules.

And the Cool Dream Doer Rule of the Week is Rule #2: BE TRUSTWORTHY: Live with Integrity.

Why is being trustworthy and living with integrity so important?

When you live with integrity, you can trust yourself to set goals you have the ability to achieve.

When you set goals you trust yourself to accomplish, you gain confidence in who you are and believe that your dreams are possible.

When you believe your dreams are possible, you take action that makes your dreams happen.

In other words, no fears or doubts or worries can ever stop you from finding a way to do what you dreams when you live with integrity.

Over the next few days, we’ll talk more about what it means to live with integrity. In the meantime, leave a comment and share why you think being trustworthy and living with integrity is important.

To your dreams,
Bonnie Jean

A talent is a skill you’re naturally good at and love to do. The more you practice that skill, the better and better you become.

Your talents are what make you special and unique. These are areas where you can achieve greatness.

So discovering your talents is pretty important. If you don’t know what skills you need to practice, you’ll never have a chance to reach your potential!

One thing you can do to discover your talents is ask yourself three questions about your friends and family.

• What kinds of things do they ask for your help with?
• What kinds of things do you enjoy doing for them?
• What kinds of things do they struggle with that comes easily to you?

Go ahead. Answer those questions honestly right now. By answering those questions, you’ll begin to discover your talents.

To your dreams,
Bonnie Jean

You’re sitting on your floor in your bedroom. Your knees are curled up to your chest. Your arms are hugging your shins. Your forehead is resting on top of your knees.

It’s night. Your eyes are closed. The lights are off. Your computer is off. Your phone is on off. Your tv is off.

You’re breathing. Calmly. In. Out. In. Out.

You’re smiling. You’re happy.

You’re imagining what your life is like when you are free to be yourself. To live your dreams. To make your own choices.

What do you see yourself doing?

What do you hear yourself saying?

What do you feel yourself feeling?

Now you open your eyes. You smile.

You’ve just experienced what it’s like to be yourself in your mind.

Now you’re ready to experience what it’s like to be yourself in reality right now.

What do you do to be yourself right now?

What do you say to be yourself right now?

What do you feel when you are yourself right now?

(It’s up to you to finish this story. So answer these questions, then TAKE ACTION based on what you write!)

To your dreams,
Bonnie Jean

Imagine yourself ten years from today. It’s March 3, 2020.

Go ahead. Picture it. How old are you? Where do you live? What do you look like? Do you have a pet dog, a pet fish or a pet pencil?

On this day, you get to do whatever you want to do. You get to choose your actions. You get to control what you say, what you do and where you go.

By the end of the day, you know you’ve done something important and valuable. You know that you’ve made someone else’s life better by doing what you dream.

So what is it that you do? What skills do you see yourself using? Who do you see yourself helping? What difference do you make?

Have fun with this. Trust your instincts, and write down the first things that come to your mind.

Chances are that what you see yourself doing reflect who you are and what you can become great at.

To your dreams,
Bonnie Jean

Being yourself means you’re free to choose how you think, how you feel, what you say and what you do instead of relying on other people to create your identity for you.

Being yourself also means that you stick to your strengths when chasing your dreams.  Of course you first have to know what your strengths are in order to stick to them.

The kind of strengths I’m talking about here are your God-given talents, skills you are naturally good at and love to do.

Need help identifying your talents? 

Then you should prepare yourself to accept the BE YOURSELF Dream Doer Challenge of the day.

Are you prepared? 

Excellent. 

I now challenge you to answer this question: 

• What is the BEST success you’ve had in your life so far?

(Was it getting a good grade? Winning a competition? Helping a friend?)

(What is one thing you’ve done that made you feel great?)

Write your answer down…because recognizing your own success is the first step to finding your unshakable confidence, chasing your unbreakable dreams and living with unstoppable success.

To your dreams,
Bonnie Jean

P.S.  Don’t keep your BEST success to yourself!  Share it with me by adding a comment!

If you want to always find a way to DO what you DREAM…

Then you need to follow the five Cool Dream Doer Rules.

Because these rules are so important to making your dreams come true, we’ll focus on one of the rules each week. I’ll introduce the rule to you on Monday, then give you action challenges Tuesdays-Fridays so you know how to put the information to work for you. Then on Saturdays we’ll wrap things up and assess our progress or “Champion Dream Doer” status.

At the end of every five weeks, we’ll start over. But each week we’ll learn something new about the rule and a new way to apply the rule to your life.

So here we go with Cool Dream Doer Rule #1: BE YOURSELF: Use your God-given talents to pursue your dreams.

This rule sounds pretty easy, but when you think about it, it’s actually kind of tough.

What if you don’t know who “yourself” is?

What if you’ve been too busy trying to fit in with your friends that you haven’t taken the time to figure out how to fit in with you?

What if you’re afraid that who you are is someone completely different than who your friends and family expect you to be?

What if you don’t know what your talents are?

What if you aren’t sure what dreams you want to pursue?

So in order to follow this rule, you have to figure you who YOU are, what YOU are great at and what YOU want.

Not who anyone else tells you to be.

Not who anyone else wants you to be.

But who YOU are.

Whew.  That’s a lot to figure out. 

So how do you do that?

Where do you start?

In all honesty, there’s not one right way to figure out who you are or one right place to start. So I’ll just pick a beginning, we’ll start small and we’ll go from there.

To help you figure out what your talents are, I’m going to write three sentences but leave a blank in each. You just finish the sentence with the first things that comes to mind.

Ready? Good…here we go!

1. When I do ___________, I feel confident.
2. The thing I most enjoy doing is ______________.
3. If I didn’t have to go to school, I would want to spend my time doing ____________ instead.

We’re just getting started here, so tune in tomorrow for more ‘Be Yourself’ exercises. If you follow through with the exercises, you’ll know more about who you are and what you want by the end of this week.

Exciting, huh?

To your dreams,
Bonnie Jean

As an athlete, you know how important practice is. Without practice, you’d never be ready to compete at your very best during game time. That’s why I spent four months practicing for my first marathon by running mile after mile after mile.

Even after all that practice, though, I was still scared I wouldn’t be able to finish the marathon on race day because I had never competed in any kind of race before. (Last week I told you about the scary nightmares I had for several nights before the race.)

So when it came time to step up to the starting line the morning of the race, I was still scared. Strangely enough, however, that fear slowly went away as I started actually running the marathon.

My parents waved me on at mile two and mile four. I knew I wouldn’t see them again until the halfway point, so I smiled, waved and kept going, counting down the miles.

Each time I passed a mile-marker, I was more motivated to find the next one. But as much as I loved watching the numbers grow, I looked forward to the water stations the most. (The water stations were set up every two miles along the course.) I gulped a cup of water or All Sport at each one. The urge to hug the volunteers handing me the fabulous liquids grew stronger with each station.

I reached mile 13.1 faster than I expected to. My breathing was normal. My pace was steady. And I only had half the original distance ahead of me. The race was going better than I could have ever imagined. Even if I took a little longer to run the second half, I’d still finish in my goal of four hours and thirty minutes. I’d even be able to sprint the final stretch like I had always dreamed of doing.

For an added boost of confidence, I spotted my parents in the crowd and waved. They waved back, and I kept running with only 13.1 miles to go.

What I didn’t know was that the real challenges were about to begin.

At mile 15, my feet started complaining. Then both my knees started to hurt. My muscles didn’t want to be left out and started doing some complaining of their own.

I was sore. I was tired. I was ready to quit. Especially when I didn’t see the mile-marker for mile 16 where I thought it was supposed to be. I figured my pace had gotten super duper slow and that I would never be able to make it to the finish line. Until I finally saw the marker for mile 17. (I somehow missed the 16 mark altogether.)

I was so happy to see the number 17 on that sign that tears of joy filled my eyes. I was making progress after all. Slowly and painfully, I was making progress.

The pain, torture and agony stuck with me throughout the next six miles. Up hills. Down hills. Around curves. Through grass. I was starting to believe that even if that finish line did really exist, I was now running way to slow to ever find it.

And sprinting the final stretch? What a fantasy. I was going to be thrilled just to be able to cross the finish line on my hands and knees.

Suddenly, 23 appeared on a sign beside the road. The war between my muscles to decide what part of me hurt the most quieted knowing I only had three miles left.

Then two.

Then one.

I was almost done.

More people lined the streets the closer I got to the finish line. They clapped and yelled and cheered. They still thought I was a runner. Maybe they were right. Maybe I’d prove it.

As I closed in on the finish, my feet and knees and muscles banded together for one last burst. I passed other weary runners.

The crowd noticed.

They called out my number.

I sprinted faster.

The finish came in to view.

A few more yards.

A few more feet.

Done.

I was done.

I finished a marathon.

It took me four hours and thirty-one minutes, but I was done. I just made a dream I once believed impossible come true because I kept going even though I was scared, doubted myself and just plain hurt the last half of the race.

When it comes to living your dreams “on the field” or off, you simply need to keep going. That’s how you reveal the CHAMPION in you.

To your sports dreams,
Bonnie Jean

Last week we talked about making your characters seem as real as possible.  I explained that one way to do that is to give them a past by writing some super short stories about things that have happened to your characters before the story starts.  These aren’t stories anyone will read; they’re stories to write so YOU get to know your characters better.

The better you know your characters, the more real they’ll seem in your story.

Which is why today we’ll talk about another way to make your characters seem more real:  give them a future.  In other words, set some goals for your characters.

Here are five goal-setting ideas to get you started:

1. What is your character’s BIG DREAM?  Why?

2. Who is someone your character would like to meet?  Why?

3. What is one thing your character wants to do that she’s never done before?  Why?

4. Where is a place your character would like to visit?  Why?

5. What is one thing your character would like to have?  Why?

The more you know about what she wants and why, the more real she will seem in the main story you want to tell.

It’s ACTION time. Go write something about your character’s future.  (While you’re at it, answer those five questions about yourself, too!)

To your writing dreams,
Bonnie Jean