A story about a wild idea

This story is an example of a one man's "crazy dream"
but I want you to apply it to your own life.
Last weekend, I was in Denver for work at a hotel called the Brown Palace.
For the past 34 years they have hosted an event called
the "Champagne Cascade."

The Champagne Cascade is a two-story Christmas Tree made out of five thousand crystal Champagne glasses. They take sabers and cut off the tops of Moet champagne bottles and pour them into the top of the tree so that it trickles down into the other glasses.

It took them FOUR days to set up for this event.
Dozens of people clearing furniture, stacking glasses, setting up cameras and audio equipment and lighting.
And it raises money for the Make-A-Wish Foundation, which is a truly amazing charity!

It was quite beautiful.

It was FOUR days of preparation for a 45 MINUTE event!

And four hours later, it was gone!
Dismantled. Removed. All cleaned up.
Like it never happened.

Can you imagine how much it cost to pay the employees for four days of set up? For the 5000 glasses? For the whole production of this event? (It's a whole thing...read more about it here).

Crazy right?

It was one giant permission slip.
Permission to take a crazy idea and run with it.
Permission to invest time and money and energy into something
just for the sake of doing it.

We often ask the question before we begin something new,
"is it worth it?"

Is it worth the time/energy/money/risk/criticism....
to follow through with this crazy idea???

Honestly, we left the event shaking our heads.
The champagne only goes in the first few rows of the tower.
It was more talking than anything.

And yet...it was so awesome to watch this transpire over the four days. It was so beautiful!

It raised a ton of money for Make-A-Wish.
It's something that the Brown Palace is
known for...

Was it worth it???

Sometimes you just have to try it to find out.

Just don't let someone else decide for you. Have the courage to say:

"I'm building a Christmas Tree out of glasses. It's going to take four days to build and then I'm taking it all down four hours later
just because I WANT TO."

It's the time of year where kids are creating their "wish lists" for holiday gifts.

We all have these "crazy ideas" floating around in our heads. I hear them all the time from people. Some of them are fantasies.

Write them all down.

I want to........

Now, use a fact checking tool that I learned from Kay Adams.

Ask yourself,
If I could really have this, would I take it?

Sometimes, the answer is no.
(It's something you wish for but are not willing to work for).

But if the answer is really yes -

Then re-write it in the present tense.

I am choosing to ....

Notice the difference and give yourself permission to take a tiny step in that direction.
(They probably started with twenty champagne glasses, right?)