How to Think Big and make your Dream a Reality

[Applause]

good afternoon everybody today i’m going

to share a tour with you that has made

my dreams a reality

and i believe it can make yours too but

first let me start by asking you a

question

we all have a dream

some of us have a really bold dream that

we barely admit to ourselves or we don’t

share with other people and the fear of

not achieving it

do you have such a secret dream

a few knots love it

so as a child one of my dreams was to

have the courage to be able to support

other people

i grew up in nairobi kenya in a large

chaotic household filled with many

cousins and many elders

and as you can imagine there was always

some crisis going on

i dreamt of having the confidence to go

up to my elders and ask if i could

support the ones in the crisis

can you imagine a shy child sitting at

the back of the classroom

really frustrated because she could

barely speak up with a bold dream to

support other people

well

she’s standing here right now in front

of you and speaking to you

richard branson

and jeff bezos say they always wanted to

go to space since they were little kids

malala dreams of supporting education

for all children in afghanistan

we all have a dream

and i invite you again to reconnect to

yours

in order to achieve our dreams we have

goals and we have resolutions but we all

know these are often not followed

through

and in fact forbes reports that it is

only eight percent of people that set a

new year’s resolution that goes ahead to

accomplish this

so why is it that we sometimes give up

on our dreams

we can give up if it gets too difficult

or we hit an obstacle

or we don’t believe we have what it

takes

sometimes we give up because other

people tell us our dreams are too

ambitious

so here is the tool i promised you

earlier and the tool is this

when setting a goal

expand your purpose from me

to we

this is a complete regeneration of how

we think and how we act

by contributing to others we get to

fulfill our own dreams

what a great way to move forward in a

post-pandemic world

so how does from me to we help you to

achieve your dreams

first of all your goal will have

significantly more meaning

secondly

by focusing on others it will get you

out of the negative stories in your head

and thirdly it can really help you to

overcome obstacles when you’re focused

on others

all of this gives you a better chance of

being in that eight percent of people

that do achieve their goals

so coming back to my dream

i had a critical obstacle as soon as my

dream was formulated

i was a shy child who lacked self-esteem

if i ever had to speak up

or confront anybody i would get really

anxious and my voice would really start

shaking

i used to really envy all those brave

kids who could shout across the

playground or take a leading role in a

play or speak up in a whole classroom

as a child i could never do any of those

things

and it was really frustrating for me

because intelligence and grades were

never a problem for me

i remember one day a chemistry teacher

looking at me and saying

she can’t lead that project

i felt so heartbroken and crushed

it occurred to me in that moment being

shy could also stop me from achieving my

dream

so i decided i was going to do something

to overcome it

i bought confidence books i went for

personal development workshops i bought

voice coaching cds which i still have

and practice and i even took up acting

classes

it wasn’t easy and i continued to

practice

and as we all know transformation

requires a lot of practice

this helped me quite a lot

when i was a teenager i once saw a

personal development coach speaking on

stage and it really moved me

i immediately knew that’s how i wanted

to support other people

this was a complete magic moment for me

i decided i was going to help other

people with everything i had learned

about becoming more confident and

following your dreams

i had changed my purpose

from me

to we

and this changed everything for me

when i was focused on others i wasn’t

thinking about how i was feeling or any

shortcomings that i had

another example i can give you where i

have really experienced me to rework in

my life was when i was in kenya and i

got covered

i was so scared as i had really severe

symptoms and i was feeling really really

poorly

this continued for a couple of days

until

i realized i ended up passing it to my

mom the one person we were trying to

protect and she has a lot of underlying

conditions

suddenly all the things that were

bothering me no longer mattered

i spent 10 days in isolation with my mom

and 14 days in a hospital room

none of the things that were bothering

me before mattered for example i was

sleeping on a sofa bed the whole time

i couldn’t eat properly i was feeling

poorly myself and i was really scared

none of it mattered as was so focused on

my mom’s recovery

this was a really big transformation for

me

one where i saw how being focused on my

mum got me through my own fears and my

own weaknesses

in fact

i found a resiliency i didn’t even know

i had

so how do you know that you’re focused

on we and not on me

a way to know this is to think about how

your goal can impact other people

it can impact one person or it can

impact many others

and we can use the acronym new n e w

as a way to apply this tool

and i’m gonna give you two examples of

how you could apply this tool

so in the first example n what’s

happening now

say you decide you want to become a

doctor

e

how can you expand it

you decide you want to heal as many

people as possible

or you might decide you want to create a

whole new healing modality

w

widen it how could your goal impact

other people

by having better health people will be

able to live longer and have better

lives

another example

and

what’s happening now

say you decide you want to become fit

and healthy

e

how could you expand this

by becoming fit and healthy you decide

you want to be more productive you want

to have more energy you want to be more

creative and most importantly

you want to show up in a much better

mood with your friends and family and

co-workers

w widen it how can your goal help other

people

it can help others because when you show

up more productive and more energetic

you will be able to create more

adventurous experiences

thereby expanding all their horizons

and imagine if in the process you

inspired them to become fit and healthy

too

richard branson the founder of the

virgin group has decided to expand his

purpose he wants to open up space travel

so that others can benefit from it too

malala is the youngest person to win a

nobel prize at the age of 17.

she was shot at when she was 15

and despite that she continues to follow

her dream for all children in

afghanistan

this just goes to show when your purpose

is wide it can help you overcome

obstacles and fulfill your own dreams

so to conclude

i would invite you to use from me to we

every time you set a goal whether

business or personal

use from me to we to get into the eight

percent of people that do achieve their

goals

in my case

i have transformed several times i have

changed countries i have changed careers

and i have learned to speak up

for anybody who has ever experienced any

shyness you will know what a big thing

that is

each time

my focus has been on other people my

transformation has been more successful

and more rewarding

and so finally i would like to leave you

with these two questions

number one

what is your secret dream

and number two

how can you apply me to we on that dream

to make it a reality

[Applause]