12,000 Dreams

I rebroadcast this episode because Dr. Darren Johansen gave great advice when I interviewed him during my first season. Dr. Johansen counsels individuals, families, and others on financial and relationship matters. He served as president of the Mountain West Chapter of the National Speakers’ Association. He shares insights based on research and counseling hundreds of couples on how to create, stre...

Michele inspired me so much with how well she lets her dreams work to travel, give, do so much more that I decided to rebroadcast her interview from my first season. Professionally, she purchases jewelry for a high-end catalogue. She also travels multiple times a month. In addition, she volunteers for a community garden, county sports facilities, other ventures. Finally, she cares for her mother w...

This is a story of an event I attended with three previous podcast guests. Dora and Daphne decided they wanted to compete in an iron event. Existing (or sanctioned) events did not interest them. The dream included putting the whole thing together: mapping the swimming, biking, and running routes. In addition, they arranged for people to staff the help stations and encourage them around the routes....

My grandson Jack shares how others (optimizing connections) helped him achieve many dreams to * Compose music for computers games and a fugue * Sing in the Indiana All-state Choir * Perform the role of Harry in his high school performance of Mama Mia * Write a book and adapt an episode from Doctor Who into a one act play for his high school I share this to help other teen ages, parents, grandparen...

This is a repeat of the interview with Dora Requena from my first season. Dora works for Shriners Medical helping physicians understand the benefits of referring disadvantaged patients to Shriners. She also travels to see exciting places like India and more. In addition, Dora lifts others in her community through service, tutoring, and more. If you enjoyed this podcast, you may consider reading my...

James Glade established the Glade Candy Company at the turn of the last century. The produced salt water taffy, hard candy, chocolates, and other candies. In the 1990s his sons David, Vernon, and Bud decided to focus their efforts on producing outstanding tasting salt water taffy using a unique production method. They whipped their taffy instead of the traditional pulling. The result provided a li...

This repeat of episode #63 shares my interview with Anjanette Mickelsen on how to improve your singing and speaking voice. Anjanette has coached singers who appeared on American Idol , America’s Got Talent , and other shows. She explains techniques to improve your voice range, improve the timber of your voice, and align vocal chords to improve the tone of voice. If you enjoyed this podcast, you ma...

Today’s fast-paced environment of torrential information, saturated stimuli, and frustrating situations send us to our reptilian mind where we either fight, flee, or freeze. Another limitation many encounter involves facing too many options in life and allowing the FOMO (fear of missing out) of one option if we pursue another to paralyze us. This episode shares some ideas on how to break the paral...

Listen to a nine-year-old describe the science birthday party involving learning about fire, pressure, dry ice, volcanoes and more. This is outlines 4-5 of our 12,000 dreams effort. If you enjoyed this podcast, you may consider reading my other publications: * 12,000 Dreams Podcast (Mondays) * Life Lessons Learned (Tuesdays) * Scholarships at Any Age (I will not add new material. You may review pr...

This episode describes people who encountered very real limitations related to poor health and how they overcame the limitation to move forward with their dreams. If you enjoyed this podcast, you may consider reading my other publications: * 12,000 Dreams Podcast (Mondays) * Life Lessons Learned (Tuesdays) * Scholarships at Any Age (I will not add new material. You may review prior posts) * Let Yo...

The wildfires in Los Angeles County, my hometown, destroyed thousands of homes, caused hundreds of thousands to evacuate, and traumatized a nation. This episode shares my feelings of seeing places I visited in my youth disappear. If you enjoyed this podcast, you may consider reading my other publications: * 12,000 Dreams Podcast (Mondays) * Life Lessons Learned (Tuesdays) * Scholarships at Any Age...

This episode introduces the fourth season of my podcast. We modified our theme music and thumbnail art. We still provide advice and guidance on how to use our life-changing model to let your dreams work to BE, SEE, DO, HAVE, and GIVE More. We’ll include more guests to share their successes, challenges, and approaches. If you enjoyed this podcast, you may consider reading my other publications: * 1...

I met Sarah while attending the Michael Jackson musical in the Neil Simon Theater in New York City. She ushered us to our seats. She exhibited greater than usual service and kindness. During the intermission I took time to talk to her. She shared her story of working as a legal assistant, getting fired, spending 3 years homeless, getting a job as a production assistant for television productions,...

My very successful brother-in-law describes people who constantly talk about, plan for, or obsess with their dream—but never act upon them—schemers. Scheming about your dreams creates frustration rather than results. This episode shares examples of schemers and how acting consistently and synergizing purposefully increases the probability that your dreams will come true. If you enjoyed this podcas...

Each of us have multiple identities: origin, relationship, professional, and more. Those identities may enhance or limit our ability to let our dreams work. This episode explores several identities (health, student, and job seeker) may limit our abilities to achieve our dreams. They may also enhance our abilities to succeed. If you enjoyed this podcast, you may consider reading my other publicatio...

The multiple exhibits on Ellis Island inspired me with how many people immigrated to the United States over the last two centuries. They contributed their diverse cultures, traditions, and perspectives to what we perceive as today’s United States. They passed stringent medical and “desirability” tests to be accepted. The exhibits embarrassed me with the exaggerated advertisements that lured cheap...

This episode describes how optimizing connections, acting consistently and small miracles combined to let my daughter’s dream of being on Times Square as the ball dropped on New Year’s Eve. * She generated the possibility of being in New York City on New Year’s Eve * She optimized connections with her sisters and web sites for reservations * She acted consistently prior to, and after, arriving in...

The end of the year provides time to generate possibilities for your dreams for next year. You may follow these simple steps to enrich your life and enhance your success: * Identify the roles in your life that you wish to improve * Review the possibilities you generated last year that you want to work on next year * Ask yourself what you want to BE, SEE, DO, HAVE, & GIVE for each role * Select a f...

I lost a 94 year-old friend, a 49 year-old neighbor, and my cousin’s teenage son all in 3 weeks. Their deaths reminded me that Kubler-Ross’ work on grieving correctly identified the stages of grief. However, the nice sequential pattern she identified only works with a few survivors following cancer deaths. Instead, the current model describes a tornado of grief with the various stages of grief cyc...

My youngest child, a daughter, turned 40 today. She pursued her dreams throughout her life, including seeing all 7 Disney resorts. She pursued her professional dreams to work on as a youth counselor on a cruise ship sailing the Hawaiian islands. Currently, she works as Title 1, Special Needs, and non-English speaking preschool. She loves helping children with development disabilities, poverty, and...

Optimizing connections enhances and accelerates the achievement of your dreams. This strategy will help you take full advantage of people you know and people you don’t know. These three steps will guide you to optimize your connections: * Connect with people you know or don’t know who already achieved your dream * Connect with people who possess skills you need to pursue your dreams * Anybody can...

This episode describes the downsides of overscheduling yourself in the pursuit of a dream. My dream of being a better father and grandfather leads me on what one person describes as the Larry Stevenson Tour of 2024. The overscheduling began, three months ago, when we * Booked airfare to visit our son and his family in Indiana. * A month ago our daughters scheduled a two-night staycation a week lat...

I describe how optimizing connections and acting consistently helped me, over years, to reduce my anger and terminate my temple (mostly). Anger abounds in today’s world. Stress, lack of control over vital issues of life, and hostile environments trigger tempers. I hope this helps others to BEing more calm and less angry. If you enjoyed this podcast, you may consider reading my other publications:...

Periodically our family rents a 40 foot trash dumpster to declutter our home. We stripped our garage of all the clutter, 40 year old cheap bookshelves, and other stuff. The serenity and peace that I derive as I pull the car into our clean garage surpasses description. Through life we accumulate physical, emotional, and mental items that may detract from our peace. Periodically reviewing what we ha...

A recent experience gutting our garage and a storage room highlighted how much some activities have changed over the last few decades. The experience emphasized to me the importance of adapting to change in our practices and methods for pursuing our dreams. It also reinforced the need to ground our lives in a few foundational principles that should not change. Principles like integrity, honesty, m...