Do It Myself Blog – Glenda Watson Hyatt

Motivational Speaker

A Dream: Not a Nicety, But a Necessity

Filed under: Motivation — by at 7:50 pm on Monday, January 23, 2017

Martin Luther King Jr

Fifty-four years ago, in a time marked by with civil unrest, hatred and violence, Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr stood on the steps of Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., in front of 250,000 people, and passionately declared:

I have a dream.

He did not declare, “I have a vision.”

Nor, “I have a strategy.”

Nor, a 13-point plan.

Nor, one word for the year as is common in this time of short attention spans and instant gratification.

No.

Martin Luther King Jr boldly declared he had a dream. A dream that became part of his legacy.

At a time eerily similar to today, he started with a dream. Not a luxury nor a nicety, but a necessity – to guide him and his supporters and followers in the work to come.

What is your dream? The dream that will, one day, become your legacy.


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Forget Making New Year’s Resolutions, Embrace Your Dream – The North Star for Your Life’s Journey

Filed under: Motivation — by at 11:51 pm on Friday, December 30, 2016

Forget making New Year’s resolutions that will be broken before all of the holiday bills arrive. Or, choosing the one-word or three-words for the year that will slip your mind when life gets busy or knocks you flat on your butt.

Rather, embrace your audacious, true dream that will guide your journey of Life for the next five years, the next decade or the next quarter century.

Why a Dream?

For thousands of years, humans have relied on the North Star to guide their journeys. Travelers may take side trips or detours, often experiencing unplanned adventures along the way, but that bright light shining from the heavens above always brings them back on course.

Our aspirations, our dreams, are our North Star, guiding us through our lives. Although we may waver or stray, achieve other exciting goals, trek on an adventure or two – or even a misadventure – our dream is always present and guides our life’s course, if we are willing to listen, pay attention and follow.

Without a dream, we meander and drift through life without a direction. Our dream – like the North Star to the travelers of yesteryear – is not a luxury, but rather a necessity.

What, Actually, is a Dream?

With so many aspirations, goals and even fantasies swirling around in our heads, how do we know which dream is our true North Star?

In my signature talk “Finding Your True Dream, The North Star for Your Life,” I explain in great detail the five elements that make up a dream.

Elements of a dream
(Click on image to enlarge)

Briefly, a dream:

  1. must be enormous, bold, audacious – keeping in mind that size is relative, what might be audacious for someone might not be so for someone else;
  2. contains a minuscule dose of reality – which differentiates a dream from a fantasy, however, on occasion, what is not reality or not possible today might become reality tomorrow thanks to a new technology, discovery, skill or opportunity – making a dream now possible to achieve;
  3. presses us to grow and expand way beyond our comfort zones;
  4. demands other individuals be involved – if one person can accomplish a dream alone, then it is not bold and audacious enough;
  5. ignites a spark, a passion within us – like a shining star. We smile and our eyes twinkle when we talk about our dreams.

My dream is to become a well-paid, internationally-known, motivational speaker. Although this journey has only just begun, it has already taken me to amazing places and I am looking forward to experiencing where all my North Star guides me.

What is your true dream, your North Star?

I’d love to hear all about it!


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Dreams Do Come True with the Red Carpet and Tassels, After Doing the Yucky Parts

Filed under: Motivation — by at 7:04 pm on Tuesday, May 12, 2015

“Do whatever it takes
to make your dream come true!“

Glenda receiving her university degree

On New Year’s Day, 1988, I left home for Simon Fraser University. On a beautiful day in June, 1995, I received my Bachelor of Arts. Finally.

The seven years in between those two memorable end points were challenging and, oftentimes, lonely. It meant most evenings and weekends alone, studying and writing papers that only one person – the Teaching Assistant – would ever read. What was the point of all that work and consternation? I often – at least  once per semester – felt like giving up and walking away.

I have witnessed many dreams die at this point, when the work gets yucky and tough. People hit a bump in the road, a barrier, something they don’t know how to do or would rather not do and they forfeit their dream for seemingly easier or quicker rewarding pastures.

Just last week, I experienced that feeling again myself. I was attempting to write my positioning statement: the one sentence that defines my uniqueness as a speaker. Playing with words, I was frustrated; like I was stringing together clichés. No combination of words was quite right. I began questioning what I am even trying to do and what message I am aiming to deliver. Was my dream of being a well-known motivational speaker a mere fantasy? Had I misread all of the signs?

At this point, I cannot say my positioning statement has since come to me in a thunder bolt of genius. That has still yet to happen. However, I am fortunately surrounded by individuals with much expertise in the field who are standing by, willing to provide feedback on draft statements. The key is that I must do the tough, yucky work first in order to have something upon which they can provide feedback.

Even though I do not yet have my amazing positioning statement in hand, I do know – with absolute certainty – that one difficult-to-write sentence is not going to kill my dream. I have come too far and put in way too much work to not follow through and make my dream come true.

Please excuse me. I have some work to do before I can get to the red-carpet-and-tassel part of my dream.

Is there something you need to do before your dream comes true? You’ve got this!

(Read about those seven years and much in my autobiography I’ll Do It Myself.)

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Go Beyond: Stare Your Fear in the Face and Boldly Go for It!

Filed under: Motivation — by at 7:00 am on Monday, February 2, 2015

Glenda Watson Hyatt

In September, I had the pleasure of attending InBound 2014 in Boston to deliver a 12-minute Bold Talk, which is very similar in format to a TED Talk.

With great anticipation, I am excited to now share the video of my Bold Talk "Go Beyond: Stare Your Fear in the Face and Boldly Go for It!" (Transcript is available here.)

And my accompanying PowerPoint slides:

If you enjoyed my Bold Talk, please visit my speaker site for more info on having me speak at your next  event.

And, remember: Magic happens when you step beyond your comfort zone. Be bold!

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Go Beyond Your Fear and Discover the Magic

Filed under: Motivation — by at 9:53 pm on Tuesday, January 6, 2015

Charlie GilkeyEvery so often, if you are fortunate, someone will challenge you to go beyond your comfort zone and to try something new.

My friend Charlie Gilkey was recently that someone for me.

He invited me to be a guest on his not-yet-launched podcast Creative Giants Show. Charlie describes Creative Giants as “naturally compassionate, creative people who have the vision to see how the world might be, the courage to take action, and the capability to actually change the world.”

I was honoured and humbled to be included with the likes of Pam Slim, Seth Godin, Mark Silver and Jonathan Fields. All people I look up to; way up to.

Once I got beyond the star factor, my thought was “Sure, no problem, I have the technology to do this.” I’d write my responses, convert the text to speech and then save as audio files to play during the interview. Like I have done a few other times before. No problem, I’ve got this.

Except…Charlie does not interview from a set of questions. His show is not an interview, but rather a conversation with twists and turns, and therein lies the magic.

No scripted questions meant no prepared answers, which meant I’d be typing and “speaking text” live during the Skype call. Technologically possible (after some testing), but one thing you might not yet know about me is: I don’t feel confident thinking on my feet (or on my butt, as the case may be). Chatting is one thing, but conversing when I am expected to have something profound or wise to share, while it is being recorded. Nah uh, that isn’t me. But…declining the opportunity would not have been my style, either.

Charlie and I decided to give it a shot with the agreement that, if the conversation and audio were crap, we would try again or scrap the idea.

Except for a few typos, which translated into a few misspoken words on my part, the conversation went well. And, considering the mash up of technology, is actually pretty frickin’ awesome!

Click play to have a listen:

Be sure to check out Charlie’s show notes and to listen other episodes.

Thank you, Charlie, for the great conversation and for enabling me to add another check mark in the “can do” column of Life

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