Unlocking Your Personal Legend

Our journaling series continues with an exploration of how to identify and pursue your "personal legend," inspired by Paulo Coelho's The Alchemist.

• Three-minute brain dump exercise to clear your mind
• Reflecting on faith, cutting cords, and trusting your path
• Identifying dreams that feel "stupidly big" yet call to you
• Visualizing in detail what life would look like living your dream
• Recognizing what stands in your way (usually ourselves)
• Taking one concrete step today toward your personal legend
• Reconnecting with childhood dreams that may reveal your true calling
• Looking for signs—like moments of peace and unexpected joy—that confirm you're on the right path

Journal prompts: 

• What is a dream that feels so stupidly big that it scares you? 
• If I were living that life right now, how would you be moving, talking, or acting? 
• If I were living that dream right now, what would it feel like or look like? What colors might you see, what music would you hear, or what things might you see? 
• What is one action you could take today to start moving toward your dream? 
• What is standing in your way? 

Book: "The Alchemist" by Paulo Coelho

Stay cute, stay kind, stay loud and keep dancing, even when everyone is watching.

Transcript

Sunday Journaling: Brain Dump Exercise

Speaker 1 0:00

Good morning , happy Sunday , welcome back to Go Ask Sawyer . My name is Jamie , your host of Go Ask Sawyer , and this is our journaling series that we are in . Just a nice way to be able to have some sort of guide as you're writing , dumping your brain out . For people who have been journaling for a long time , this could be a great new direction for people who have never journal time . This could be a great new direction for people who have never journaled . This might be a great place just to start . For those of us that are in those stuck moments in life , this could be a maybe just an excuse , like Sundays , I journal . So here's what I need from you to get started A journal and something to write with or your notes app , however you feel like writing . Today , I'm going to ask you to set your timer for three minutes and I'm going to have you press pause and you're just going to dump out your brain . You are going to write whatever you want for three minutes without stopping , so the goal is to hopefully try to not even pick up your pen or pencil off the table or , sorry , off the paper . So to get us started , set that timer for three minutes , take a deep breath and press pause here . Welcome back . I hope that was good . I hope that was nice .

Speaker 1 1:21

Maybe you learned something new about yourself . Maybe you just needed a moment of clarity to let it all go . So last week we talked about faith what kind of like walking in faith looks like , kind of that walking into a dark room and having faith in yourself that you will find the light switch before you

Faith, Cord-Cutting, and Personal Growth

Speaker 1 1:43

fall . We talked about cutting cords with places , people , events , things that just no longer serve us , and we just talked about not giving a fuck anymore . That episode , even for me , felt like a huge release and I started thinking a lot about places in my life where I have cut the cord and places in my life where I still need to . Places in my life where I have cut the cord and places in my life where I still need to . Places in my life where I need to have more faith in myself , in God , in the universe , and really understanding that , as much as we all hate the everything happens for a reason saying I absolutely hate that , I get it and I love it , but I also just hate it , especially when it comes to things that are just like heartbreaking right , like the loss of someone through death , through moving away , through unfair circumstances , even like people that lose their jobs unexpectedly or homes unexpectedly become homeless . Everything going on in our political world right now . That just seems so crazy . Like how do we have faith that this is all supposed to happen and beautiful or great things will come from it ? So where in our life do we need to have kind of more of that blind faith faith in ourselves ? And it led me to I'm Reading the Alchemist

The Alchemist and Your Personal Legend

Speaker 1 3:02

by Paulo Coelho . Currently . It is my third read .

Speaker 1 3:06

I had seen a lady on TikTok talking about how she reads this book every year in January and I found my copy . Well , actually I found two copies that I had and I realized my original one . I had already read it twice and so when I started leafing back through it , I realized I had annotated in it and I was like , oh my gosh , this is so cool because it's like little love notes to yourself . Like when you go back and read something you've already read and you've made notes in it , you're like , oh dang , you're so smart , I would have picked that too . And you're like wait a minute , I already did , but I digress . So today I actually wanted to read .

Speaker 1 3:42

I wanted to focus on us you , me , my five listeners Thank you , guys for showing up on Sundays or Wednesdays or Thursdays or whenever you listen to this but I really wanted to focus on our personal legend right In the alchemist and the alchemist . The whole story is about our personal legend , like staying on the path we're supposed to be on , and every time we get distracted from where we're supposed to be , it's just taking us longer to get to that final place , that final goal , that what we were meant for . But so often we get that job that we thought would be great or we meet that person that we're like this is the love of my life ,

Discovering Your Stupidly Big Dream

Speaker 1 4:22

but we're not supposed to like be with them yet or meet them yet along the way . So I really want you to think about and maybe you could even press pause at the end of these questions just to jot them down . Write them down .

Speaker 1 4:35

Number one what is a dream that feels so stupidly big that it scares the bejesus out of me ? What is a dream that feels so stupidly big that it scares the bejesus out of me ? What is a dream that feels so stupidly big it scares the bejesus out of me If I were living that life right now ? How would I be moving , talking differently If I were living that dream right now ? How would I be moving or talking differently If I were living that dream right now ? How would I be moving or talking differently If I were living that dream right now ? What would that feel like Like ? Sit with that one for a second In your journal , write down .

Speaker 1 5:10

If I were living this crazy , ginormous dream right now , in this moment , what would I be feeling ? Would it be a sense of joy ? Would it be a sense of stress ? Would it be a sense of this is insane ? Would you look out your window and see mountains instead of a yard ? Would you look out your window and see three kids playing in the yard and realize you don't have to go to work tomorrow ? Would you look to your left and see your wife or husband making dinner and know that you're going to go for a walk later and this dream that you have is coming to a reality ?

Speaker 1 5:49

And then the last question I want you to ask yourself is well , let's do two . One what would it take , what is one thing you could do today to start moving towards your dream ? Okay , so example I have this insane dream that I am a famous podcaster and I write fiction and nonfiction books and I get to go around the world and be a speaker at different conventions or corporations and I lead retreats to help men and women learn how to fully love and embrace themselves . Like I've written this whole thing out , I feel like I am meant for this , and so I have just started showing up as if this is already happening . So I again podcasting every week , creating series , trying to do lives at Sunrise at Lake Michigan . I'm just starting to move , like it already is , and things are happening like little things Now that I can look back like little things are happening . But what is one thing you could do today that you could start moving in the way of your crazy big dream is already a reality . And then I want you to write down what are whatever one to four things that are standing in your way , and usually my first thing that's standing in my way is me . That is almost always the first thing that is standing

What Stands in Your Way

Speaker 1 7:16

in my way Me , self-doubt . Who do ? I think I am Okay , we can get rid of that . What else is standing in your way ? Write those things down , all right , so I'm going to read . I'm on pages 23 to just the top of 26 . I'm also an English teacher as my side job , so I do a lot of read alouds .

Speaker 1 7:41

But our main character is on this journey to see the pyramids and he is meeting the King of Salem , and this is the message he gets that I feel like is very connected to this crazy big dream , or as he calls it , the personal legend . Okay , so the old man says I am the king of Salem . Why would a king be talking with a shepherd ? The boy asked awed and embarrassed , for several reasons . But let's say that the most important is that you have succeeded in discovering your personal legend .

Speaker 1 8:10

The boy didn't know what a person's personal legend was . It's what you have always wanted to accomplish . Everyone , when they are young , knows what their personal legend is At some point in their lives . Everything is clear and everything is possible . They are not afraid to dream and to yearn for everything they would like to see happen to them in their lives . But as time passes , a mysterious force begins to convince them that it will be impossible for them to realize their personal legend . None of what the old man was saying made much sense to the boy , but he wanted to know what the mysterious force was . The merchant's daughter would be impressed when he told her that it's a force that appears to be negative but actually shows you how to realize your personal legend . It prepares your spirit and your will , because there is one great truth on this planet Whoever you are or whatever it is that you do , when you really want something it's because that desire originated in the soul of the universe . It's your mission on earth , even when all you want to do is travel or marry the daughter of a textile merchant yes or even search for treasure , or marry the daughter of a textile merchant yes , or even search for treasure . The soul of the world is nourished by people's happiness and also by unhappiness , envy and jealousy . To realize one's personal legend is a person's only real obligation . All things are one , and when you want something , all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it .

Speaker 1 9:39

They were both silent for a time , observing the plaza and the townspeople . It was the old man who spoke first . Why do you tend to a flock of sheep ? Because I like to travel . Old man pointed to a baker standing in his shop window at one corner of the plaza when he was a child . That man wanted to travel too , but he decided first to buy his bakery and put some money aside . When he's an old man , he's going to spend a month in Africa . He never realized that people are capable at any time in their lives of doing what they dream of . He should have decided to become a shepherd , the boy said . Well , he thought about that . The old man said but bakers are more important people than shepherds . Bakers have homes while shepherds sleep out in the open . Parents would rather see their children marry bakers than shepherds . The boy felt a pang in his heart thinking about the merchant's daughter . There was surely a baker in her town . The old man continued in the long run , what people think about shepherds and bakers becomes more important for them than their own personal legends . The old man leafed through the book and fell to reading a page he came to . The boy waited and then interrupted the old man , just as he himself had been interrupted .

Speaker 1 10:52

Why are you telling me all this ? Because you're trying to realize your personal legend and you are at the point where you're about to give it all up . And that's when you always appear on the scene . The boy asks Not always in this way , but I always appear in one form or another . Sometimes I appear in the form of a solution or a good idea . At other times , at a crucial moment , I make it easier for things to happen . There are other things I do too , but most of the time people don't realize I've done them .

Speaker 1 11:22

What is your personal legend ? What is something ? And the reason I love these specific pages is because I think it reminds us that when we were kids , we had and I have stopped reading the book , just I didn't say that . I'm so sorry when we were kids , we had these ginormous dreams

Reconnecting with Childhood Dreams

Speaker 1 11:41

. We had these wants . Right , like it's funny , I'm a teacher . But when I was little , like in kindergarten , I used to set up a school room in my house and I handed out worksheets to my friends .

Speaker 1 11:55

I wanted to be a teacher . That's like the thing I wanted to do . I also wanted to be a writer . I used to write these stories , a lot of stories about the Philippine Islands . I was very obsessed with the Philippine Islands . My friends and I used to put on dance shows for our family , and then , somewhere along the way , you kind of lose sight of those dreams .

Speaker 1 12:16

I really believe that when we are kids , we know what we're supposed to do . And then the reality of being adult , and adult , the reality of like we got to make money . As I'm saying this , there is the most beautiful yellow butterfly flying by my window . I don't know if it's a sign I believe in all signs but what is your personal legend ? Okay , I want you to go back to those questions that you I asked you to ask yourself . What is that crazy huge dream ? If you were living it and you were looking outside your window , maybe , what would you see ? How would you be feeling if you were living that huge dream ? Like , get so specific .

Speaker 1 12:55

I've been really trying to get specific with different things in my life . Like so specific so that when that feeling comes , when I'm feeling that like immense peace or that crazy joy that just wraps around me and I smile without even trying , I feel like those are my signs . I'm like , yep , I'm on the right path . What is standing in your way and we all know number one is probably yourself . It's always me . Okay , it's me . What kind of talk do you have to have with yourself ? What kind of reprogramming do you have to tell yourself , maybe it's you're worthy of it , maybe it's you do know more than you think you do . Maybe it's you are smarter and more talented and more creative than you could ever believe you were are . And then , what is one thing you could start doing today that makes you that ? I'm already performing for millions of people , you guys . So let's make that a reality . What is your personal legend ? All right , y'all . Stay cute , stay kind , stay loud and keep dancing , even when everyone is watching .