Pursuit
What’s your dream?
It’s a question worth pondering.
Many have stopped dreaming because they are convinced they’ll never get what they were dreaming about. There is a lot of truth in that conviction. You may never get what you’re dreaming about, but when you stop dreaming you stop your life.
Dreams are the incentive that keeps life pouring through you. You allow life to dam up in a stale pond when you leave the dream behind.
The Grasshopper prompted this blog yesterday when he piped up out of the blue and said:
“Having a dream is as important as achieving a dream.”
It instantly made sense.
Life is really all about the individual steps and has little to do with the planned outcome.
Life flows when we have a pursuit. It stagnates when we stop taking steps.
There are those who abuse their dreaming power and entertain so many, that the sheer number paralyzes them not to pursue any of them. They’re caught in the cultural land of “nice to have.”
“Nice to have” has little passion behind it and will have you start and fizzle each time. That’s not dreaming; that’s wishing.
Dreaming has juice behind it. It’s something that you really desire. It’s something worth pursuing because it’s the pursuit that keeps life’s juices flowing.
There is an aliveness in Wile E. Coyote. His dream is to catch the Road Runner. The chances of that happening are nonexistent, but it doesn’t prevent him from reveling in each step he takes while pursuing that dream.
It may dawn on you one day that a particular dream no longer makes sense for you and decide to set it aside. That’s prudent assessment that helps you streamline your pursuits. It’s when you decide to stop riding altogether that it’s most appropriate to saddle up again. Reminds me of a story . . .
When I was a teenager there was an older guy named Bernie who came to the community swimming pool one day. He was a trick diver – a stuntman on a diving board. He did all sorts of pratfalls and choreographed slips, and he was quite entertaining and talented.
He was giving some of us younger guys tips on our dives. He was coaching me on doing a back flip, a dive I had desired to do but never attempted. I did do the flip but hit my head on the board. It was a minor graze but it scared the heck out of me. I had no interest in ever attempting a back flip again.
Thank God for Bernie. He got up on the diving board and explained to me, and then showed me why my mishap happened. He replicated my dive including the slight graze on the board. He then got me up on the board with new instructions to do it again. I did fine. My back flip dream came true.
You may or may not achieve your dream, but when you give up the pursuit, you deaden your life.
Here’s my suggestion. Dust off an old dream you’ve stored away and start stepping towards it. You may or may not get there, but the pursuit of it keeps life flowing. It’s a much better feeling than being frozen with fear that you may never reach your dreams.
All the best,
John
http://cdbaby.com/cd/johnmorgan
http://www.cafepress.com/grasshoppernote/3580301
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