UUU Stories, Episode 1: How I Became a Dream Doer
Episode 1 of Unshakable, Unbreakable, Unstoppable Stories
Bonnie Jean Schaefer here, bestselling author of The Dream Doers and the Summer of Secrets. I haven’t been a published author very long, but I’ve wanted to be a writer since I was a kid. Only back then, I was a shakable, breakable, stoppable dream don’ter. Which means that even though I had big dreams, I didn’t have the confidence I needed to do anything about them.
From the time I was teeny tiny, I’ve always loved making up stories. What I didn’t love was sharing those stories with anyone only because I was sure other people would think my stories were strange or weird or just plain awful. So I didn’t write many of them down. I would just daydream or use my Barbie dolls to act out my stories.
Now the stories that I did write I hid. I felt like I had to. If someone found my stories, they might think I believed I was a writer. Because I didn’t believe that at all. I had NO confidence in my writing ability. And without that confidence, I had no chance of living my dreams.
My big dream of being a writer didn’t go away when I reached high school, but the hope of that dream ever coming true certainly did.
You see, because I didn’t have any hope of living my big dream, I didn’t do anything about it. Instead, I focused on making good grades in school and doing my best in the three sports I played: volleyball, basketball and softball.
When I got to college, I almost let myself believe in my big dream again and considered picking writing as my major.
Then I told myself that was a silly, ridiculous, never-gonna-come-true-kinda dream. I had no desire to study any other kind of career, though, so I chose to major in Bible.
As a senior in college, I still had no clue what I wanted to do when I graduated. I just knew I couldn’t be who I wanted to be: a writer. At least that’s what I thought until I attended one of my Bible classes on February 12, 1999.
That day, my professor talked about the difference between Dreamers and Doers. Now I don’t remember why she was talking about Dreamers and Doers (‘cause I wasn’t really paying attention to the first part of the lesson), but I do remember what she said about them. She said that Dreamers have vision and dream about what could be done, but Doers take action and make things happen.
I wanted to be a Doer. I wanted to DO something about my dreams and believe my dreams were possible. But I couldn’t. I was just a Dreamer who imagined great things but didn’t have the courage to share these dreams or make them happen.
I almost stopped listening to anything else she had to say until my professor quoted Psalm 37:4: “Delight yourself in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart.”
I was stunned. God wanted to give me the desires of my heart?
As soon as class ended, I went home and read the first six verses of Psalm 37 over and over and over. They were real. These words were actually in the inspired Word of God.
My greatest desire was to be a writer. So that’s when I realized I could, with God’s help, make that happen.
I could do what I dreamed. I could be a DREAM DOER.
I wish I could tell you that I figured out how to be a Dream Doer right away, but the truth is that it took me years to figure out. During those years, I worked all kinds of jobs while writing this book.
Next week, I’ll share the story of when I started writing this book and how I finally got it published nine years later.
But please don’t wait as long as I did to start living your dreams! Life is really much more fun when you set goals and take action to make them happen.
No matter how old you are, you can be an unshakable, unbreakable, unstoppable Dream Doer today! To help, I want to give you three FREE gifts: a 14-day Dream Doer crash course, the entire audio book of The Dream Doers and the Summer of Secrets and a Dream Doer League Bronze membership. All these gifts are waiting for you at TheDreamDoers.com.
So go to TheDreamDoers.com now and fill out the super short form to claim your gifts.
To your dreams,
Bonnie Jean
