By Dave Kelly
?I am a successful professional speaker.?
That is an affirmation that I have told myself repeatedly, up to six times per day, for the last five years. That means I began telling it to myself before anyone had ever paid me for speaking or training! After almost 20 years in the mortgage business, I had created a new vision for myself, ?To make my career as a professional speaker?. I told everyone that I was indeed a professional speaker. Whenever I was introduced at Circle K and Kiwanis events, it was as a professional speaker. I even launched my web site two and a half years before I got serious about marketing myself as a speaker!
I spoke my vision into existence?and the universe has responded.
Some people call it prayer, some karma, but I feel that when we verbalize positive visions for ourselves and believe they will come true, our brains respond in powerful ways. Our brains have so much negativity coming into them on a daily basis (most of it we put there ourselves) that when we speak something bold and challenging in a positive way, our subconscious gets so excited that it cannot help but work to make it come true.
I remember standing in the back of a campground meeting room a few years ago, about to be introduced as District Administrator for Georgia Circle K, when the person who was reading my intro (which I had written) said that I was a professional speaker. In that moment, vision became action because I realized I had been saying it for a couple of years, yet had not acted upon my dream. As soon as I returned from that retreat, I committed myself to becoming a professional speaker. Shortly thereafter, I got my first paid speaking engagement and was accepted as a Lead Facilitator for the Key Leader program. I have only looked forward since.
What is your dream? What is your vision for your life? Write it down. Say it to yourself at least six times a day until it becomes ingrained in your mind. Share it with everyone you meet until they start to verbalize it. Then, take a step towards making the dream come true. And then another, and another. Soon you will find yourself pursuing a life you have long sought after.
Dave Kelly is a professional speaker and host of the website Gonzospeaks.com, and a contributing writer here on OutOfYourRut.com. His career story is also a feature here at Professional Speaking?Turning a Hobby Into a Career. Dave is available for speaking engagements either through his website or by emailing Kevin at OutOfYourRut