The new year is now in its 12th day and I began wondering what would be a truly worthwhile challenge for all of us to pursue over the remaining 353 days of 2013?
So I started thinking of all those many things that I have wanted to do, or wanted to achieve and have put off for so many years.
“It’s not the right time,” is one of the best excuses I have used to convince myself to put some lofty goal on hold. But that’s certainly not the only excuse I have come up. I am been so skilled at delaying the pursuit of dreams that many of those dreams have now faded into rusty, faint memories.
I have an idea. Why don’t we all make this year the year of chasing dreams. Why don’t we make this the year during which we agree to set aside all those excuses, all those reasons why we can’t do it, or shouldn’t do it and just go ahead and do it anyway.
Let’s jump at this opportunity to take an entire year and use every available moment to pursue one or more of those forgotten dreams that life caused us to put aside “until the time was right.”
The problem with waiting for the right time is that it is never the right time. There are always a million reasons to put it off until, well … never.
An oft repeated misquote attributed to Henry David Thoreau informs us that “Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them.”
It’s interesting that we always make time to do those things that are important to us in the moment and yet sometimes we forget how to define important.
When we put off pursuing our dreams until “the time is right” we are essentially saying certain conditions in our lives need to change before we will be ready to pursue those dreams.
Having misquoted Thoreau three paragraphs back I would like to accurately quote him now. He wisely informed us of a simple truth when he said that “Things do not change; we change.”
I think what he meant is that in order for things to change, our thinking has to change. We have to change some of those things that we believe to be true. Whatever we believe to be true is true for us and as long as we believe that “this isn’t the right time,” it isn’t.
Thoreau also told us that, “The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it.”
What he didn’t tell us is that everything in life comes with two price tags. Life always charges a price for doing something and a price for doing nothing.
Sadly for many of us, choosing to “wait until the right time,” is the equivalent of paying the price for doing nothing and, as experience has taught many of us, all too often in the long-term this is a far greater price to pay.
I believe that chasing dreams brings purpose to our lives and the bigger, more powerful the dreams, the greater our purpose.
Purpose, to me, means self-actualization. Fulfilling those desires that lie deep within us is what, more than anything else, gives meaning to life.
I am not for a second proposing that we dedicate ourselves to selfishness, to the exclusion of all those around us, what I am saying is that I believe it is important for us to lead lives that are fulfilling and fulfillment comes from the journey of striving to reach those things for which we long.
Imagine this scenario. You are at an advanced age, in the last stages of life, and as you reflect on all that you have done and all you have accomplished the first thought to cross your mind is one that says “I wish I had …”
That would be a very sad reflection, wouldn’t it?
I am not a great believer in the Law of Attraction, if you believe that the Law of Attraction means that simply focusing on, and thinking about what you want will magically transport it into your life.
I am a huge believer in the Law of Attraction, if you believe that the Law of Attraction means that by focusing on what you want you will become passionately energized into taking the action necessary to bring that which you so desire into your life
They say a visionary is a person who, when looking out a window, does not just see what is there but sees what could be there. A visionary is a person who does not see the status quo but instead sees possibilities.
Dreaming big dreams is Visionary Thinking. Let’s make this the year we take our big dreams and put everything we can, and everything we have, into turning them into reality.
Life offers only one guaranteed way of avoiding failure – never trying. Putting everything into the pursuit of a dream does not guarantee its attainment but by waiting to begin, by delaying your start until “the time is right,” adds greatly to the likelihood of never starting, and never starting absolutely guarantees never achieving.
So take a few moments and reflect on those dreams that you have put off for many years and tell yourself that the right time is right now. Then get started.
And please don’t convince yourself to wait “until the time is right” to get started.
Till we read again.
P.S. on Wednesday I posted my first article in my new blog called “Habits cause Have Its.” If you have not already subscribed, or at least checked it out, please click here.
