FEAR NOT, DREAM BIG, & EXECUTE

A spiritual self-help book explains how one can formulate dreams and execute them.

According to Meyer, everyone is born with “your own Divine Dreams in your DNA.” The road to happiness depends on accessing those dreams and realizing them, and the principal obstacle to the actualization of one’s deepest aspirations is fear. We allow our anxieties to diminish our confidence and, as a result, our hopes. But if we substitute faith—in God and ourselves—for fear, our dreams become understandable and achievable. The author approaches this goal from two perspectives—the clear articulation of dreams from their incipient “dream sparks” and the practical aspects of their actualization through “realization strategies.” Meyer’s emphasis (in 60 lessons) is on practical applications—each lesson concludes with a section entitled “Try This,” which furnishes “actionable steps” one can immediately take. For the most part, the author’s efforts fit comfortably within the self-help category—he provides formulations that will be familiar to anyone with knowledge of the genre. In fact, the book is a meandering compendium of solutions for common obstacles; one receives instruction regarding how to overcome distractions, tackle clutter, and prioritize and manage one’s time. Predictably, there’s plenty of discussion about the adoption of the proper “mindset” and correcting one’s negativity, or “patterned self-talk.” Most of the book reads like a compilation of shopworn clichés: “Your life is more about the journey than about the destination. See the value in what is right in front of you. You may miss something really important if all you are focused on is a destination way out beyond the horizon.” Meyer does provide a thoughtful discussion about the “pervasive misalignment of daily activity” in the contemporary church, but this is an all-too-rare instance of the author departing from the repeated formulas of self-help.

An assemblage of well-circulated platitudes.