ON DREAMS

Dreams

“If you can dream it; you can do it. remember, this whole thing was started by a mouse.” Walt Disney

Imagine that you are about to be inducted into a Sports Hall of Fame.

This could be the Hall of Fame at your school, in your state, for a national association, or the World Hall of fame. Write down what you would like to hear people say about you and what you accomplished. Think of the players and people you would want to be delivering your induction speech. What part of your personality would they comment on? What would they say about you as a competitor? What stories would they use to illustrate the strengths of your game? Would they talk about your tenacity, your accuracy, your work ethic? How would they describe your composure, your attitude, your guts? Think of as many details as possible that would capture you as an athlete.

Without being specifically asked, you have described your dreams. This is what you want to accomplish in your sporting career. Go pursue this with a vengeance.

Just as Ben Hogan was responsible for making (and remaking) himself into one of the greatest golfers of all time, you too are responsible for whatever greatness you hope to accomplish in your sports. His dream was to be one of the best ever in the sport he loved. Your dream can be whatever you would like it to be. It can literally be anything you desire. If does not have to be approved by others. It is all yours and no matter how worthwhile others perceive it to be does not mater. In fact, if some people question your dream, it is probably very worthwhile. And if everyone thinks it is a realistic or attainable dream, it may not be grand enough. Think big, dream big. Remember, you only get one shot at living your dreams.

A true dream, once you have envisioned it and imagined it, does not go away. You don’t have to remind yourself every day what your dream is. A true dream sticks in your mind like a song that you can’t quit singing. It is there, over and over, reminding you constantly of where you want to go.

Although a dream is always present, always there for you to ponder the possibilities, this does not mean your dream is “set.” Dreams are never set. They may have a dominant theme for many years, but they are always undergoing evaluation and adjustment as necessary. Again, if your dream doesn’t grow some as you make progress toward achieving it, you may need to reevaluate it.

A dream is like fuel, it provides energy - energy for you to withstand the rough times and pitfalls which are inevitable in any long-term pursuit. A dream will keep your motor running when you feel like you have no choice but to pull over and stop. However, also like fuel, a dream can do nothing by itself. You must make the dream, the fuel, come to life. You must drive the car powered by the fuel for it (dream) to become a reality.

Hopefully by now, you realize I am talking about chasing your dreams. Your grandest visions of all the things you love to have happen to yourself. The dreams you dreamed about when you were a kid. Making the shot to win the NBA Championship or the putt to win the Masters. I am not talking about goals that you Hope to check off a list. They are very clear in your mind, but they are so awesome they do not have limits or boundaries which would allow them to be checked off.

It is nearly impossible not to have dreams. As a human, one of the greatest gifts you have is your ability to imagine. You may feel like you don’t have any dreams, but you do. You just may be afraid to let yourself chase them. Don’t be afraid. What is the worst that can happen? You don’t achieve your dream? Wouldn’t it be better to have tried and “failed” than to never have tried at all?

You don’t have to quit your job or change your entire life to pursue your dreams. It is not always possible to make gigantic steps along this journey; I know that. It is possible, however, to plan for the future of your dreams. It may be just small steps that you can take which use only minutes or hours a day. Believe me there is no hard and fast rule about how much time or effort is required to achieve your dreams. Just follow your gut. You will know. If you are finding ways to squeeze out any minutes you possible can to chase your dreams, you are doing all you can. If you are making excuses that you don’t have time to chase your dreams, you don’t have a dream. Instead, you have a wish. But if you do have a dream, an awesome, all-you-can-think-about dream, go get it. If you don’t chase it, you’ll never know if you could have caught it.

Imagine . . . you are the editor for the yearbook and you have been assigned a page that chronicles you and your team’s accomplishments for the year. What would your page say about your season and you? email a copy of you Yearbook 'Dream' Page