If you’re feeling a bit jaded about your life, the advice of a 6 year old could change everything quickly. I listened to her and immediately got a motivational buzz. It happened when I had the good fortune of falling in behind her, her mother and her sister on way to junior school.
As they walked she asked how old her Mom’s friend was. Her mother replied ‘very old, 81’. The daughter continued ‘that’s not old. I’m going to be 900’. The mother responded that it not physically possible to live to 900. ‘Well’ said the daughter ‘I’ll die, ask God to make me alive again, and then I’ll come back.’ ‘Then you’ll be like an angel’ added the little one. ‘Yes’ said her sister ‘I’ll fly everywhere’. They both laughed spreading their angel arms in imaginary flight.
They weren’t the only ones doing some enchanted flying. The conversation got me soaring too. It brought a deep smile to my being but also reminded me of a fundamental principle of success and motivation – we need to dream – actively. Moreover we need to dream beyond the constraints of what we personally believe is possible.
George Bernard Shaw said ‘The reasonable man adjusts himself to the world. The unreasonable man adjusts the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.’ Dreaming big dreams is the state of mind that nature intended for us. Being jaded is not.
Encouraging your imagination to soar in a positive way is the doorway to doing something worthwhile. It also has an instant physical benefit since the brain releases chemicals that induce states of well being. It’s about giving the nervous system a bath in happiness. Whether you get to turn your dreams into reality or not, simply entertaining them in your mind gives your body a shot of happiness power.
You might say to yourself ‘all this dreaming stuff is fine for others but not me’ or maybe you’re feeling a bit lazy to change your thinking – even a little afraid of challenging life in this way. This is not an unusual response. In my early adult life I significantly held back these feelings myself.
At the time I regularly took my clapped out old car to a chap called Mannie for repair. He was 40 and active and so I was stunned when he suddenly died of a heart attack. I remember standing in his reception area realising I had no guarantees how long I’d be around either. Suddenly I was imagining myself standing before the ‘guy in the sky’ accounting for MY life so far. I didn’t like what I saw.
I had been holding back from living fully. I’d let my choices be formed by what I thought others might say. I’d wasted precious opportunities by trying to keep everyone else happy. I’d given away my power too many times by saying yes when I really wanted to say no. Worst of all, I’d done my level best not to take scary risks.
But Mannie’s early death gave me a new perspective and I became 100% resolute that I would do whatever it took to live a life that I would be proud of – to say yes to my dreams, to live fully. My life changed that day and I never looked back. And yours can too.
Winston Churchill, Nelson Mandela’s and Thomas Edison all have one thing in common. They achieved brilliant things because they dared to entertain brilliant dreams. They held fast to the notion that they could succeed irrespective. Their accomplishments are testimony to the power of dreaming, and whilst your name might not be destined for the hall of fame, take inspiration from Martin Luther King who said that ‘not everyone will be famous, but everyone can be great’.
So this week do your life a favour, invite your inner 5 year old to tea and ask him, or her, what great things he/she had in mind for you. Reconnect with your childhood dreams – your own business? A gorgeous partner? Making a difference? Live to 900? And as you do, consider that living to 900 could be as unthinkable now as walking on the moon was to our grandparents. Impossible? Not so!
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