Back in the days when all men spoke the same language, they got together and made a pact to make a name for themselves by building a great city and a tower that reached up to heaven. They wanted a place they could call their own so they would not be scattered all over the earth. Soon God came down to see the city and the tower and He said “The people are united, they have one language and have already begun to build so now nothing will be restrained from them if they can imagine it.”

What an incredible statement! Here, it declares boldly, are the three principles of accomplishment. The first principle is unity. You and your team (if you have one) must be united – of one mind, one heart and one Spirit. A house divided will always fall but single-mindedness, as it refers to unity in thought and purpose, gets better results accidentally than many other tools and techniques can get on purpose.

The second principle is effective communication. One of the greatest impediments to living your dream is poor communication. People can speak the same language and be completely unable to communicate with each other because of different backgrounds, preconceptions, experiences, expectations and much more. Your words may tell people what you think, but the background noise of your facial expression, posture and other non-verbal signs of what you are truly experiencing at the time (no matter how unrelated) could distort your message beyond recognition or cause it to be lost entirely. On the other hand, some of the greatest men and women in history were those who were able to communicate powerful truths simply.

Thirdly, get started. Stop procrastinating. Stop dreaming about your life and start living your dream. Wade in the water. Do something. Start at the beginning. So many people have urged us at different times in different ways to do this one thing. Get started. How do you eat an elephant? One mouthful at a time. It doesn’t matter how big your dream is. If you would just get started where you are with what you have, you would be amazed at how things and people conspire to work together to help you accomplish your dream.

There are so many other principles that others would raise as being key such as having wise counsellors, good time management, financial planning and more. But I humbly submit that none of these would work if we do not first establish these three: unity, good communication and just getting started.

But, our story does not end there and the ending has one final principle that is perhaps the most important of all. When God saw that the people would accomplish their dream, He decided to put a stop to it by causing them to speak different languages. They quickly became frustrated with each other, stopped building and scattered in language groups across the earth.

I don’t know for sure why God did that. My guess is that it was because He had already commanded mankind to fill the whole earth. But they didn’t like the idea of being scattered so they decided to make a name and metropolis for themselves so they could stay put, rather than obey the command of God. It’s a great shame for I believe that God would have caused them to build great cities and towers across the whole earth if they had been obedient. Instead, they disobeyed and the very thing that they feared had come upon them. They were scattered and, on top of that, were now unable to communicate with each other.

You may or may not believe this biblical story is true but it does hold a very important principle. Stay true to what you have been called to do. Don’t get distracted with mediocre notions of greatness and lose out on the better plan of God for your life. Staying true is also essential for achieving unity, communicating effectively and giving you the kick up the wots-its to get started on your dream.

As for me, I love the different languages of the earth. Now every time I hear someone speaking one I don’t understand, I try to remind myself: Stay True. Live Your Dream!

Jenny Lee is the founder and director of the I Will Tell International Film Festival. Feel free to CHECK OUT OUR WEBSITE