A few weeks back my new book, “Hope Changes Everything” was released. So far the sales have been tremendous and the feedback I’ve received has blown me away. People are really enjoying the book and finding the inspiration to chase after the dreams they’ve let lie dormant for years.
I’m so proud of this book and really want you to read it. But I know some of you aren’t quite sure about buying yet another book, I mean we all have stacks and stacks already at home collecting dust. So I thought I’d let you preview some of the chapters over the next few weeks to help you make your decision. You can read 50% for free here and then if you really want to read the other 50% you can order it for yourself. Does that sound fair?
So to kick things off, here’s a snippet from chapter one entitled: “Dreams We Once Had”
If you would like to go ahead and purchase the book now, click here: Hope Changes Everything
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As is often the case with so many stories, mine starts with a dream.
When I was in the formative stages of my adolescence, I had a dream. Of course, most kids at that age have multiple dreams for their future, often ones that an adult would understand as competing with one another. Kids, though, in that marvelous way that kids have, can turn those competing dreams into something that makes sense. In a kid’s mind, being a punk rock star goes completely with being a scientist, which also goes with being an arctic explorer. Sure, of course you can do all three. Why not?
I wanted to do a lot of different things when I was a kid, but again and again I came back to one specific dream. I guess you could call it my dream of all dreams: I wanted to be a politician. I didn’t want to be the President of the United States – I just wanted to be a congressman. Serving in the House of Representatives or the Senate, with my beautiful, adoring, vibrant wife and my three healthy, bright-smiling, well-behaved children by my side at campaign events or at champagne brunches on the White House lawn.
I would propose some legislation that would make the world a better place, sit in on important committees, and do all the stuff that lawmakers do to represent their constituencies well while also working on behalf of a grateful nation. People would beg me to run for president, but I would always divert those rumors and requests, saying that I had no ambition for such a job and that I was just happy to be serving where I was.
Things were going to be great.
I thought for sure this dream would come true. And even the ultimate guide to future success, the high school yearbook, agreed with me, practically solidifying my dream as a quite certain possibility. In the section detailing what each member of the class of 2001 of Pryor High School would be doing in ten years, this is what was listed beside my name:
Oklahoma State Senator (with a smoking hot wife).
Okay, maybe I added that last part, but the point is my dream was even being realized by my peers at one point.
This dream was going to come true. I just knew it. Everything was lining up perfectly.
But things changed.
As some people like to say, “Life happened.”
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