What The Class Is and Is Not
If you choose to buy a low-cost car, you will have certain expectations in your mind of what you will get and, conversely what you will not get. If you purchase a high-end luxury car you might have higher expectations. Likewise, if you fly a budget airline to a sunny destination, you may expect to pay for a drink and to carry your luggage on the plane with you. If you fly first class on a well-known international air carrier, you will expect superb service and lots of amenities. I think you get the idea. So, what I want to do this week is set the stage for what you should expect when you take the course.
The United States military, perhaps the finest organization in the world
When I was a young military enlistee at Shaw AFB, SC, I knew I wanted more out of life. Now let me stop for just a minute and make sure you understand how much respect I have for the United States military. I happen to think of the US military, even though there are a lot of issues currently, as one of the finest organizations in the world. Just think about it for a minute. Millions of young men and women joined the military to serve their country and in return received experience and education that positively affected them, their families, and the country for a lifetime. No, I’ve not forgotten that people become maimed and die fighting in war. My uncle was killed in France in WWII, as I mentioned in a previous post. I served almost eight years, almost nine if you consider active reserve duty, and my daughter is currently serving and likely will be a career officer. Freedom is not free, by any means and the Giustozzi family paid the ultimate sacrifice. I ache for my grandparents and any parent who must hear the news that their child has been killed. The Air Force took me when I was a lost young man and over the next eight years, I was able to become educated and gain experience that set me on a course for the rest of my life. If you think I think highly of the US military, you would be correct. I can’t tell you how proud I am of my and my family's service to this wonderful, yes, sometimes flawed, country. I have always, and will continue to always, recommend the US military to anyone. Besides what you contribute and what you learn, there is a certain proud feeling of knowing you have served your country that lasts a lifetime. God bless America!
All that said, like anything in life, there were limitations in the military and while I enjoyed my time serving, I had bigger plans that required me to leave and move on. Well, OK, how does that relate to you? What’s in it for me? The simple answer is that when I was in the USAF, it served as a stepping stone to other things. A means to an end that was a win-win for all parties. Remember that discussion? If you desire to achieve your dreams and live your best life, you most likely will need to make some hard decisions and changes to get where you are going. If you are thinking about signing up, have signed up, or completed the course, then you are well on your way to your best life. Just like when I joined the Air Force, I knew good would come of it but I also knew there were limitations. Let me tell you what you can expect to get and what you cannot expect to get when you take the course.
Experiencing Afterburner Success Partners
The experience (there’s that word again, “your experience”), you will get from taking this course is something you will cherish. What could be more exciting than developing a plan and setting it in place to do what you want to do? You will learn about how to think differently and more positively than most people. You will learn proven methods from people who have gone before you. Remember when I quoted Jim Stovall who said, “Never take advice from someone who does not have what you want?” You will get a lot of material to help you on your journey from people just like you who did what it took to get to where they wanted to be. These good people documented what worked and passed it on to you for your benefit. When you complete the course, you will have written documents that will guide you throughout your lifetime of achievement. Documents that you composed. Tailored just for you and your wants and needs. These documents include tangible and intangible things you want to do and experience during your life. It’s your bucket list, complete with a plan of achievement. You will learn how to prioritize your various goals when they overlap, and you will learn how to resolve conflicts when they occur. You will learn the value of quiet time and reflection when determining what actions to take. If you have a spouse, these are things you can do together. There are few forces on earth more powerful than a husband and wife on the same team working together in a common direction. Stop for just a minute and ponder that statement. Think of successful people you know and more times than not, there are two of them working together as a team. The strength of a husband-and-wife team is not just one plus one, the power is exponential!
Some things are best left to professionals
What should you not expect from this course? Well, as much as I say you can achieve your dreams and live your best life, the reality is that some hills are steeper than others. On the other hand, if you think you are too old to dream and achieve big dreams, just think about these folks who achieved great things at a later stage in life: Harland “Colonel” Sanders (KFC), Julia Child, Samuel Jackson (who also had to overcome drug addiction), Vera Wang, Martha Stewart, Sam Walton (Walmart), Henry Ford (Ford Motor), Betty White, Ray Kroc (McDonald’s). Just Google it and see what you get, it’s amazing. No one is going to do it for you. I learned a long time ago that you can’t make people do something they do not want to do. In the case of achieving your dreams, there is a significant investment that only you can make so you must resign yourself to that. What I will teach you is simple. It’s just not easy (remember that phrase, it’s simple, just not easy. It’s one you will want to use a lot). You will absolutely have to remember that when things get tough, and you want to give up. Like Smoky the Bear used to say, “Only you.” And finally, while I consider myself a professional, there are many things I am not a qualified professional in. For example, while we talk about finances in this class, I’m not a financial professional and you will not get financial advice. Find certified, trained investment, tax, and accounting professionals. We talk about protecting yourself and your family. Find a good insurance professional and attorney for those things, I’m simply not qualified to help you in these areas other than to steer you in the right direction. As I state in the class, some things are just best left to the professionals.
Dreams and goals, goals and dreams
Let’s move on to dreams and goals, goals and dreams. When I first developed this course in 2019, It was titled “Developing and Achieving YOUR Lifetime Goals.” Big yawn…I liked it, and to me, it was direct, to the point, and appealing because I’ve always been a goal-oriented person. But later, in working with the leader at the local adult education program, we were seeking to increase enrollment and she suggested we replace the word goal with dream. Now, you see, a dream is something a little more appealing to people than a goal is. Everyone has dreams they want to achieve. Mention the word goal and many people scatter like cockroaches when the light is turned on. So, we changed the name to something like “Developing and Achieving YOUR Dreams”, or something to that effect, I really don’t remember. Little Yawn…That may have been more effective, but not by much. As I made my current revision, I started to become interested in Artificial Intelligence (AI) so I loaded up ChatGPT and started playing around with how better to name the course. It took a little while, but terms such as dreams, manual, course, guide, and living your best life kept coming up. Sure! Everyone has dreams they want to realize, and everyone wants to live their best life, and everyone wants a guide to get there! So, I meshed this all together to come up with the name of the course “Achieving your Dreams: A Complete Guide for Anyone to Live Their Best Life.”
Let’s explore these terms for a bit and see how they actually are all related. A dream, an aspirational term, is broad and imaginative. As you lay in bed at night dreaming about things, you seldom, probably never, think, “Well to achieve that dream, I need to do this, this, and that.” You see, when you start doing that, your dream is not quite as fun as just imagining it in your mind.
If we want to make that dream come true, then we need to turn it into a goal. A goal is a specific result, teamed with action plans, timelines, milestones, and defined achievements. A term you will often hear is objective. An objective is a desired outcome but is not defined enough so that it can be accomplished. Let me give you an example. If you say, “I want to lose weight next year”, then that is an objective to lose weight. If you say “By July 1, 2025, I will lose 10 pounds. I will do that by increasing my exercise to 30 minutes a day and reducing my calorie intake by 500 calories. I will measure my progress monthly and adjust to stay on track.” There, you see, now you have a goal. You have spoken as if you have already achieved it. It is both measurable and time-bound. You will hear a lot of people and companies mention objectives as goals when all they are are objectives and they really don’t have a plan to achieve them because there is no end result, nothing tangible to measure success by. But they sure sound good!
To make a dream a reality, and to live your best life, we must change our dreams into tangible action steps, that if completed, will result in achieving the dream we have decided we want to achieve. And that’s what Afterburner Success Partners is all about. Helping you reach your goals, achieve your dreams, and live your best life.
What’s in it for Me
By taking this course, I am going to show you how to achieve your dreams and live your best life. It’s really that simple.
Call to Action
Sign up for the next available course. Ensure you are signed up for the email list. Forward this email to your friends and family. Consider your dreams. Are they big dreams? Good! Are they achievable? Well, let’s not make that decision just yet because as we’ve discussed, when you take tangible action to achieve your dreams, you can often exceed them. Sign up for the next available course today!
Recommended Resources
There are two books I want you to buy and read this week. Both are by younger authors who achieved success early in their careers. They were part of the FIRE movement, which we will learn about later. The first book is Atomic Habits by James Clear. (Note 1). This has been on the best-selling list for as long as I can remember. Also, sign up to receive his blogs ( https://jamesclear.com/ ). The second book is Financial Freedom by Grant Sabatier (Note 2). Grant will outline a step-by-step guide to achieving financial success early in life. There’s a little caveat here…This is not for everyone, certainly not for me, as I advocate building wealth slowly. However, there are a lot of good lessons in the book that make it worthwhile to purchase, read, and add to your library. Sign up for his emails at https://grantsabatier.com
Up Next
The importance of dreams.
Notes
Please note that as an Amazon Affiliate, I may earn a small commission on the sale of any of these recommended resources.
1. Atomic Habits by James Clear: https://amzn.to/4eOsC9w
2. Financial Freedom by Grant Sabatier: https://amzn.to/4898WuN