Book Review: Putting Your Dream to the Test

I was told while growing up to “follow my dreams”. I did follow my dreams and achieved what I wanted. However, now that I am older, I have new dreams and aspirations. Achieving these dreams and aspirations does not feel the same as when I was younger. I am not able to give 100% of my energy and attention to achieving my goal. I have children, a husband, a home, and a full-time job that require my attention. Do the stars need to align perfectly for me to succeed in gaining what I want? Is having determination and perseverance enough to achieve your goals?

Putting Your Dream to the Test: 10 Questions that Will Help You See It and Seize It, written by John C. Maxwell, discusses the factors that influence one’s ability to achieve your dreams. What is the difference between daydreaming and actually succeeding in achieving your goal? He does this by addressing ten important questions.

1. The Ownership Question: Is my dream really my dream?
2. The Clarity Question: Do I clearly see my dream?
3. The Reality Question: Am I depending on factors within my control to achieve my dream?
4. The Passion Question: Does my dream compel me to follow it?
5. The Pathway Question: Do I have a strategy to reach my dream?
6. The People Question: Have I included the people I need to realize my dream?
7. The Cost Question: Am I willing to pay the price for my dream?
8. The Tenacity Question: Am I moving closer to my dream?
9. The Fulfillment Question: Does working toward my dream bring satisfaction?
10. The Significance Question: Does my dream benefit others?

Dr. Maxwell discusses each of these questions thoroughly in each chapter. He draws upon others’ real-life experiences as examples to support his discussion of each question. At the conclusion of each chapter, he encourages readers to answer questions that help them to analyze the main question of the chapter.

This book is extremely thorough. If you wish to analyze your ability to achieve your goal, no matter what the goal is, this book will certainly have you in deep thought. This book took me a while to read. It is so full of information and in order to truly benefit from the book, I believe you need to spend time analyzing each question. I found it interesting to examine my goals through these questions. Some of the questions I easily answered “yes”, while others I had to say “no”. I have to admit that I was a little sad to answer “no” for some of these questions, knowing full well that unless I answer “yes”, I will not achieve my goal. I guess this means it will have to sit on the back burner for a while until I am ready to dedicate more to achieving it.

More about the author:
John C. Maxwell is an internationally recognized leadership expert, speaker, coach, and author who has sold over 19 million books. Dr. Maxwell is the founder of EQUIP and the John Maxwell Company, organizations that have trained more than 5 million leaders worldwide. Every year he speaks to Fortune 500 companies, international government leaders, and organizations as diverse as the United States Military Academy at West Point, the National Football League, and the United Nations. A New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Business Week best-selling author, Maxwell has written three books which have each sold more than one million copies: The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, Developing the Leader Within You, and The 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader. You can find him at JohnMaxwell.com and follow him at Twitter.com/JohnCMaxwell.

*Disclaimer: I did not receive monetary compensation for this post. I received a free copy of this book for the purpose of this review. The opinions expressed here are my own.