How To Defeat Your Dream Killers with Lessons Learned from Martin Luther King, Jr and Robert Kennedy

Brad [00:00:00] Hello again, good people and welcome to Beyond Adversity with Dr. Brad Miller. That's me. I'm Brad Miller. So happy, pleased, and privileged that you have chosen to spend a little bit of time with me sharing with you some things that are important about how to have a life overcoming adversity and achieve your

peace, prosperity, and purpose. I'm coming to you today from the Loft Studio. Just outside of Indianapolis, Indiana, and that'll be a pertinent fact as we have our conversation today, and I look to bring you a message here about how to defeat those who are going to try to steal your dreams. There are people who want to kill your dreams in your life, and we're gonna talk about that here today about defeating the dream.

Brad [00:01:00] Killers we've had, we've had a week of several episodes in this week where we've talked about having a way to free your dream. Our special guest, most of this week has been Cliff Ravenscraft and he's talked to us about how to have a process to free the dreams in your life. We talked about overcoming, we had three episodes with Cliff during this week.

Brad [00:01:30] We, there were episodes 238, 239, and 240. And Cliff talked about us, about his story, about overcoming, overcoming his dream, those who would crush his dreams in his life, how it was about a matter of mindset. He's the mindset answer, man. To have a great vision and to fulfill that vision and to then overcome the fear of.

Brad [00:01:59] that's holding you back. And then how to make the profound decisions that you need to make to have a great life. The great life is all that you thought it would be. and that's what, uh, he taught us about. Cliff did. I want to encourage you to go back and check out those episodes and go to mindset answer man.com/free for a great video.

Brad [00:02:23] talks about the decision-making process and about the consequences of not leaving out your dream. Today. I wanna share with you a little bit about some of the things that are on mine. About having a dream in your life, how to achieve it, and how a big part of that is how knowing how to deal with the dream Steelers in your life are those who'd want to crush and kill your dream.

Brad [00:02:51] I'm talking to you in the week of Martin Luther King Junior holiday. and I have to, uh, share with you that [00:03:00] I think that this is a holiday that has some, uh, interesting dynamics to it. . What I mean by that is a lot of people, uh, in, in the African American community, in many communities, it is highly observed with, uh, celebrations of significance and other, uh, events regarding civil rights and justice and peace and justice.

Brad [00:03:26] And there's, uh, programs on television and special athletic events that are all part of that. But a lot of folks, kind of overlook this holiday. And, uh, sometimes it's for whatever reasons they may have my mother talk to you about one of the things that I've done in my family to be a part of this process.

Brad [00:03:49] a Few years ago I took, uh, my family to see a memorial we have here in Indianapolis. Now, a lot of cities, uh, have a Martin [00:04:00] Luther King Jr. Uh, uh, center or a. Road. We certainly have that here in Annapolis. Martin Luther Jew, junior King, uh, uh, the drive is here and they have other indications of that as well. They lifted the significance of Martin Luther King Jr.

Brad [00:04:22] In their community. Here we have an interesting dynamic, an interesting, um, monument to Martin Luther King Jr. And I'm gonna say more about that in a little bit. About how that particular monument here in Indianapolis has particular significance. But it took our family to visit that monument for Martin Luther King Jr.

Brad [00:04:45] day a few years ago to visit that monument a monument other days when our family went to visit the Martin Luther King Jr. Monument in Washington DC about how that is such an important thing. . In both these cases, we're gonna talk about people who want to steal the dream of Martin Luther King Jr.

Brad [00:05:05] And you know, almost everybody knows that when we, when Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday rolls around, we hear again, either said, even in the phrase or sometimes the whole speech, then I have a dream speech that Martin Luther King Jr. Gave in in Washington. as a part of the great March for Freedom that he talked about, and it was there that, uh, he gave that.

Brad [00:05:35] Great. I have a Dream speech, which is considered one of the greatest speeches in history, really, and certainly pivotal to the whole human rights and racial equality standards that Martin Luther King Jr. Was all about and extends it to today. . But I want to, uh, share with you that how that dream is just kind of sets the stage for other things that Martin Luther King Jr did and how they think they're pertinent to your dreams that you have in your life.

Brad [00:06:05] And I have in mind. You see, I think, uh, you know, cliff talked to us about having overcoming fear and about making the decisions that we need to make, but there's always gonna be those people who want to kill your dreams or there's gonna be those situations or those circumstances that I want to crush your dreams, whatever they are.

Brad [00:06:28] There's an author who wrote a book. I read a couple of his books, Stephen Presfield, and he had a book. Do the work. And that's one of the places he outlined his process. He talks, about overcoming what he calls resistance. And he said, Presfield said, I stand in awe of anyone who has hatched a dream and shows the guts to hang tough all along and see to reality when we conquer our fear as we discover our boundless, bottomless, inexhaustible well of passion.

Brad [00:07:01] And when he was talking about that's what you need to fight. What he called the resistance, is the forces that want to crush your dreams, and they're insidious and they will do it in any way that they can. Martin Luther King Jr. Was certainly one of those people who had people want to crush his dreams, and some people thought they did it when an assassin's bullet killed him in April of 1960.

Brad [00:07:31] there are those people who want to kill the dream of Martin Luther King Jr. As he said, you know, in his speech about having children of all races who could learn to love and live together and have equal opportunities. . But I was reminded though, uh, about another quote from Martin Luther King Jr.

Brad [00:07:54] That I saw at the memorial there in Washington, DC when I was there on a couple of occasions. And I took [00:08:00] my kids there a few years ago. And as you go into the Martin Luther King memorial in Washington DC there, the kind of the entranceway that goes into it, there's the quote on the big, uh, granite monument there that says, out of the mountains of despair, A stone of hope.

Brad [00:08:21] You see, uh, friends, uh, it's quoted there that the area, cuz you enter into the Martin Luther King Memorial in Washington DC and it's a reminder of all the trials and tribulations that he went through. Uh, incredible racial strife. Uh, the f b I was after him. He had people, uh, from all walks of life who wanted to crush him.

Brad [00:08:47] He was arrested 29 times. He, a lot of people don't know this, but he survived many threats to his safety, including another assassination attempt when he was still in his twenties, uh, about 10 years before when he was actually. And yet we also know this about Dr. Martin Luther King, he was one of the youngest people to ever, probably the youngest person to ever win the Nobel Peace Prize, and was also became Time Magazine's person of the year.

Brad [00:09:19] Besides motivating a movement that caused what we now know as the Civil Rights movement that still goes on today. There's a story there. There's a story there. He's known to us. I have a dream speech, but he put up with the people who wanted to crush and kill his dreams. In his last speech, Martin Luther King's Jr's last speech before he was killed, he had a line in his speech, he gave there in, in Memphis, Tennessee, where he was killed the day before he was killed.

Brad [00:09:55] He. about, I've seen it's about, it's called the [00:10:00] Mountain Top Speech, and he goes, I've seen, we've got some difficult days ahead. He says in his speech, and I quote, where the city's sanitation workers were striking, but he said, we've got some difficult days ahead, but it doesn't matter to me now because I've been to the mountaintop.

Brad [00:10:21] I've seen the promised land. I've seen the Promised Land. That's the story of Martin Luther King Jr. That he saw the Promised land and yet the very next day he was killed. People wanted to kill, literally kill his dream, and yet it extends on. . Now, I mentioned to you about how I live just outside of Indianapolis, Indiana, and how that's just an important part of, of, you know, of who I am and what I'm about.

Brad [00:10:50] One of the things that we have here, one of the things we have here in Indianapolis is an interesting monument that I took my kids to see. and my wife a few years ago on m l King Jr. Holiday. You see on the day that Martin Luther King Jr. Was killed. Senator Robert Kennedy was running for president.

Brad [00:11:15] He was a senator, and as you probably know, was later killed himself. He was a senator and there on April 4th, 1968. It wasn't like today where you had all kinds. You know, social media and all kinds of things going on. It was a time well before that, and Martin and Robert F. Kennedy were making a speech to a crowd in the urban area of Indianapolis that very day, and it said that that evening, a large crowd together at this park, mostly African American folks.

Brad [00:11:53] said that he is the one who gave the word to many people [00:12:00] that night that Martin Luther King Jr. Had been killed. And there is a powerful thing that happened there when Robert Kennedy came here. And I just wanna read you a part of what he said to the crowd of hundreds who were gathered around to hear his campaign speech, but they ended up hearing the speech that he gave.

Brad [00:12:20] That day it went. Parts of it went like this. He said I have some bad news for you, for our fellow citizens and people who love peace all over the world. That is Martin Luther King for a shot and killed tonight. And Kennedy goes on to say, Martin Luther King dedicated his life to love and justice for his fellow human beings, and he died because of that.

Brad [00:12:44] in this difficult day, in this difficult time for the United States, it is perhaps well to ask what kind of a nation we are and what direction we wanna move in. For those of you who are black, considering the evidence there evidently is that there were white people who were responsible. You can be filled with bitterness, hatred, and a desire for revenge, we can move in that direction as a country in great polarization.

Brad [00:13:09] Black people against black, white people against white, filled with hatred towards one another. Or we can make an effort as Martin Luther King did, to understand and to comprehend and to replace that violence, that stain of bloodshed that is spread across our land with an effort to understand, with compassion, and with love.

Brad [00:13:30] What we need in the United States is not division, what we need. The United States is not hatred. What we need in the United States is not violence or lawlessness, but love and wisdom, compassion towards one another, and a feeling of justice towards those who still suffer, whether they be white or whether they be black.

Brad [00:13:51] And he goes on to say a little later on in his speech, the vast majority of white people in the vast majority of black people in this country want to [00:14:00] live together and want to improve the quality of our life and want justice for all human beings. Who abide in our land. Let us dedicate ourselves to what the Greeks wrote so many years ago to tame the ravages of man and make it gentle to live in this world.

Brad [00:14:17] Close quote from Senator Robert Kennedy. And here's what I want you to know about. On that night when Kennedy gave that speech here in Indianapolis to a crowd of mostly black folks, folks went home quietly. In our country in 1968, it was not unlike, it's been the last year or two here around our country, and there was a real powder keg of, energy and animosity one towards another.

Brad [00:14:47] And in Indianapolis there were other cities around the country that exploded in violence. Much of it, is racial. There was lots of violence in New York and Detroit and other cities. . [00:15:00] Lots of burning, lots of things happen, but nothing like that happening in, in Indianapolis. Doesn't say it. Didn't mean it can happen, but it didn't happen there.

Brad [00:15:10] Why? I believe a big part of it's because Robert Kennedy gave a message of hope, even amid violence, even in Huff, the most horrific violence. Anyone's ever experienced, and now I went to a monument, was erected some years later in that very park, which shows Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr.

Brad [00:15:34] Extended a hand towards one another, extending of hand toward one another, which indicated unity. In peace. That's a dream that both ML King had. Martin Luther King had JR. And Robert F. Kennedy, rfk. They had that dream. Then, as you know, they were dream killers who wanted to take out Kennedy too, and they killed him later that same year he was killed.

Brad [00:16:02] The dream killers mean what? They're all about everybody. They mean. They mean it. They want to kill your dreams and mine, and they have been about it for a long time. Assassin Bullets took out Martin Luther King Jr. And Robert, Robert Kennedy, and maybe there is a dream killer assassin out for you and your dream as well.

Brad [00:16:29] You see, dream killers are mean business because they're kind of like, what? What? What Presfield said about, about those who would keep us from our dreams, you know, those, uh, people involved with the resistance, they don't want us to succeed. They don't want us to be happy. They're jealous. They want what you have.

Brad [00:16:55] They want, they want what You and I have to have a bigger vision for ourselves. They are about meaninglessness over meaningfulness. They are mired in mediocrity and we want to excel. They want to drag you down to their level and we want to rise. It. There's an analogy about, you know, crabs in a bucket.

Brad [00:17:17] Maybe you've heard about it. If you put crabs in a bucket, if one crab tries to c crawl out, the other crabs below will grab that crab and bring it down to the bucket, and they all boil together. Dream killers play for keeps. But you gotta play for keeps as well. You gotta fight a fire. With fire. You got to, you know, dream killers that went too low.

Brad [00:17:38] You just sleep and then push a dagger into you and cut your heart out. You gotta have a heart bigger than that. You gotta have energy bigger than that. Dream killers are all about fear. Those who dream and want to excel are all about faith. They want you to be scared. I want you to live with courage, to have yours.

Brad [00:17:57] dream killers are liars and they're [00:18:00] gonna lie to you. A dream fulfiller is a true giver. They're about procrastination and about putting things off a dream. it is about taking action. That's what I want you to be about here, and that's what the Beyond Adversity Podcast is all about, taking action on my case.

Brad [00:18:20] I got a big dream killer in my life right now that I'm dealing with cancer and heart disease. It wants to take away, one of my great dreams, which is to see my granddaughters, who I just talked to a little while earlier. They're five and two years old. You see my granddaughters become young women in graduate high school and going to college.

Brad [00:18:42] if you get married and all those types of things. Young adulthood means 20 more years than I need in my life. And cancer and heart disease are threatening that. And there are people who wanna say, give up. You know those dream killers. So I'm gonna invite you to face up against the dream killers in your life and to.

Brad [00:19:04] Something about it. Do something about it. I know that you can and I know that you can, and I'm here to try to be helpful to you, to bring you people like Cliff Ravenscraft who can speak into your life about having a dream and free the dream. Let's also talk about what you can do in your life to deal with the dream killers.

Brad [00:19:25] Well, I want to invite you to think about these. These are how you can respond to the dream killers. One is to act and take massive action. I call this my ACT plan, my A C T S plan, and to take massive action. To fulfill your dreams, whatever your dream is. Maybe you have a dream of a better job.

Brad [00:19:49] Maybe you have a dream of, getting out of debt. Maybe you have a dream of preparing for a relationship and having a better marriage. Maybe you have a dream, of overcoming some

Brad [00:20:00] disease like I do. Maybe your dream is to deal with, something profound in you. To have some advancement and there are people, or maybe your dream is to write a book or to go on a long trip or to travel the world.

Brad [00:20:13] Whatever it is, have your dream and you gotta take action about it. Don't just think about it and stew on it. Take action. Take massive action. You need to write something about it, write it. You need to read something about it. Read it. You need to, uh, make a phone call. Make a phone call. You need to get with other people.

Brad [00:20:30] Do that. Take action. For me, it's about working out more often and about getting my, uh, My health together on my diet about being much more intentional, about intermittent fasting and about, uh, keto diet and drinking more water. Those are some of the physical things I'm doing and the things I need to do with medical testing.

Brad [00:20:50] What's your massive action? I also invite you to think about the C and the word acts stand for Connect with a Higher power.

Brad [00:21:00] Cliff talked about in our interviews with him about having meditation and mindset. This has to do with those shifts that you need to make. Prayer, fasting, and journaling are some of the things I'm doing.

Brad [00:21:12] If you need counseling, do that. It's okay. Bible study prayer. Center yourself, times of quiet, times of meditation. You need to connect it with something greater than yourself to be transformed and you gotta connect to that. That means it's an intentional thing that you do. You got to do this.

Brad [00:21:36] Intentionally on purpose. . So A is to take action. The C is to connect to a higher power. The is to the T. And the word is to think with discipline. This is the process that you're gonna be using to get through these things. What process are you gonna be using? You know, what is your, uh, dream? gaining process

Brad

[00:22:00] So what are your goals? What are your aspirations? You know, cliff talked about writing out 50 goals. What are your goals and then what are you gonna do to accomplish that? What are your disciplines, what are your habits, and what do you need to do? For me, it's been setting my alarm a little bit earlier and give them a, going to the gym.

Brad [00:22:17] I'm there by 7:00 AM every morning at the gym I go. and to be disciplined. And I have an app I use on my phone that helps me track my water intake and my diet and things like that. So what are you doing? What is your process? In other words, perhaps the A C T S process is for you. A. A is for action.

Brad [00:22:39] The C is for connect with a higher power. The T is to think with discipline and the S and the word access to serve others. In other words, you've got to not only have your own inner life, but you've got to have a purpose. And I believe most time our greater purpose comes into play when we serve others.

Brad [00:22:57] Serve others. Certainly Martin Luther King Jr. Was all about, about serving others. Certainly, Robert Kennedy was about that as well, and their legacy lives on in these memorials in Washington DC in Indianapolis, and maybe in your town where there are people who remember this dream. Jesus had a great purpose, right?

Brad [00:23:17] Jesus talked about having this sensibility about serving others with love, to love your enemy as yours. He loved Peter who denied him. He loved Judas, who betrayed him. He loved the thief who was beside him in crucifixion. Dare to love others in this process and to serve others. Do not be sucked into the dream Steelers and the dream killers, but look to serve those who want to share your dream or you can inspire.

Brad [00:23:49] That's what I want you to do. Take action to be about that. One of the actions that you can take is to tune into my podcast Beyond Adversity. You could find [00:24:00] it@drbradmiller.com. And you can also find my starter guide to this actts plan@drbradmiller.com 40 days. Way slash 40-day way. Those are some things that can be helpful to you.

Brad [00:24:14] I have over 230 episodes of this podcast with great interviews with people like Cliff Ravenscraft who are here to design, to help you to indeed grow through what you go through and achieve your promise given life peace, prosperity, and purpose. I'm here to help and here to be of service to you cuz of mine.

Brad [00:24:35] I plan on being around for a long time. I'm gonna defeat those who want those and that entity that wants to hold me back from my dreams of seeing my daughter, my granddaughters, uh, go to young adulthood. I'm gonna be here. I have a big dream. I'm going to accomplish it. Why don't you join me in this process? I got some things to offer you.

Brad [00:24:59] I have 42 years of experience in Christian ministry and I have a doctoral degree in transformational leadership. That's not as important as the fact that I'm gonna share my love and care and compassion for you. For you, my friends, and we're gonna do this together. I'm gonna come to you every week and we're gonna continue this process to grow through what you go through.

Brad [00:25:22] My name is Dr. Brad Miller. You can find me@drbradmiller.com I love you and I look forward to seeing you real soon as we come to you very soon with another episode of the. Adverse Day Podcast with Dr. Brad Miller. Until that time comes, my friends, be well and remember to do, always do all the good that you can.