Keep Chasing Your Dreams

This is a guest post from Drew Tewell who is the author of the book, The Dream Job Program: Get the job you want. You can purchase it on Amazon or get it for free when you subscribe to his blog. You can also connect with Drew on Twitter and Facebook.

As individuals, we are all on a journey. You may have read Kimanzi’s post earlier this week where he told us about finally getting to hold his book in his hands and also give a copy to his 87-year-old grandpa. Kimanzi is living his dream and an inspiration to us all.

Today I want to share a little bit of my journey and hopefully encourage and inspire you to keep chasing your dreams.

Years ago I worked with young people as a youth pastor. Every week I had to prepare a talk that I delivered on a Wednesday night. Over time I felt like I was getting better and better, but I always thought the message that I wrote on paper was better than the message I delivered to the young people.

I eventually got married and ended up moving out-of-state. I had lined up a position again working with young people but it didn’t work out. So I ended up taking whatever work I could get and eventually found myself selling credit cards.

Before getting the job selling credit cards, while I was working at a temp job, I got an idea for a book. I ran the idea by someone I knew who was also an author and who was helping aspiring authors publish their book. He liked my idea and sent me a contract to work with him. But, I never ended up following through and the book was never written.

At the time, I still had a dream to work with young people again. I was going to start a youth center and use it as a model to start other centers all over the U.S. I dream big. But over the years, the youth center idea never came to fruition.

I eventually got a new dream, I was going to start a coaching business.

After my job selling credit cards, I got a job at a community center, helping people of different ages with work related issues. I worked as an instructor for career planning and job search and also as a case manager of a couple of different grant funded programs, both having to do with helping people with work.

So when I started my coaching business, I decided to do career coaching. I created some material to go through with clients to help them with career planning and job search. I eventually took this material and turned it into a book.

I still do a little coaching but now my passion is blogging. The feeling I get when I write something that I feel is good material is unlike any other. And the relationships I have made and am still making are also part of what I love about blogging.

Now my dream is to become a NY Times best-selling author. Like I said earlier, I dream big. But if you look over my past, you can see how the work that I did at the different jobs that I had prepared me for what I want to do today.

This year my goal is to land a book publishing deal. My strategy to make this happen is to write a guest post every week in 2013. I am also giving my book away (which sells on Amazon) to people who subscribe to my blog.

So wherever you are on your journey, be encouraged and inspired. God is able to take where we are and use the skills and experience we are gaining and do something great with our lives. Never stop chasing your dreams!

What dream are you working towards currently?