The Dream

Remember when you were a kid?  You had big dreams and goals of what you wanted in your life.  We all wanted to be someone important and make a difference in the world.  None of us dreamed of working a dead end job with no chance for advancement or challenge.  So what happened?  At what point did the dream get moved to the back burner?  Why do we simply accept life as is?  Well, there is still time to capture that dream.  I don’t care if you are 10 years old or 80 years old.  There is always time to chase after your dream and accomplish your goals.  When we were little, parents told us to shoot for the stars and we were excited, like I get at an all you can eat buffet.  So, if we are told to shoot for the stars and make our dreams reality, why did we not succeed in doing so?  Well, part of it is that we are afraid.  Afraid to take a risk or gamble and see what happens.  We have a fear of failure.  In high school, I was terrified of talking to girls and at the same time I had no clue when one was hitting on me.  This fear paralyzed me from approaching and talking to girls I found attractive.  In time though, thanks to alcohol, I built up the confidence to talk to girls and conquered my fear of rejection.  I think it would benefit everyone to do a sales job just for a few months so they can get used to rejection and conquer their fear.  Being rejected sucks there is no doubt about it.  How will you bounce back from that rejection?  That is what separates the winners from the losers and I am not just talking about sports, but about life in general.  What defines us as people is how we deal with rejection/failure and how we respond to that situation.  Will you accept your failure or will you continue to push on no matter how hard the obstacle or task that lies ahead to accomplish your goal?  It is very easy to give up.  Many people do it every day.   That is fine as long as you did everything you could and left it all on the line.  If you are going to fail, fail big time and hold nothing back.  As a very wise Jedi once said “Do or do not, there is no try.”  Think about that phrase for a second.  Either get off your ass and make your dream reality or continue to sit on your ass and just dream about dream.  We have a short time on this planet, so you might as well make the most of it.  Ask yourself what is your dream and when are you going to make it happen.  If you fail in the process, so what?  At least you made a run at it.  The greatest president in my opinion, Abraham Lincoln, failed in life and business several times before becoming president of the United States.  He worked tirelessly to unite our country and end slavery.  Thousands of people every year still come to Springfield, Illinois to pay their respects to him.  I think that says a lot for someone that passed away over a century ago.  Just because you fail at one thing does not mean you will fail at another.  Keep pushing and never stop until that one day when you succeed.  When that day comes, embrace it and respect the journey it took to get there.  Nothing is given to us, but at the same time everything is there for the taking.  It is just a matter of how bad we want it?  You hear it many times that the team that won just wanted it more than the other.  Your mind is an incredible and fascinating body part.  You can basically control the outcome of a situation by the way think.  If you can visualize the outcome in your head, then you can accomplish it in life.  No matter what the dream, if you can visualize it, you can achieve it.  So back to the beginning.  What is your dream?  It could be a childhood dream or a dream you have now.  What are you doing to make that dream a reality?  Remember, we have but one life.  So go chase that dream.  It doesn’t matter how ridiculous it may be or what people say.  Go after that dream and live a life to the fullest knowing that you held nothing back and gave it everything you had.  I think Vince Lombardi said it best “at the end of the game win or lose can you say you gave it your all and did everything you could to win and can look into your teammates eyes say the same thing?”  In this life, when you maker comes calling can you look them in the eyes and say “I lived a full life and did everything I could to achieve my dream.”  Dreams are not meant to be just dreams.  So go and live your dream and stop dreaming and start living!