Your Dreams Are Only As Atainable As Your Resolve Is Unshakable

One of my favorite movies is “The Pursuit Of Happiness”, starring Will Smith.  It’s based on a true story about a man, Chris Gardner, who was bound and determined to make a better life for he and his family.  Coming from the slums of the inner city, Chris had to work hard to just make ends meet.  But he had a much bigger vision than this.  He wanted to break out of his life of poverty and gain his freedom.

In the movie you see a man who will stop at nothing to be successful in his pursuits and bring about new opportunities for him and his son.  As he struggles his way through, he is hit with every obstacle you can think of.  But the one that is hardest of all is the onslaught of people telling him he couldn’t do it.  From his wife to his peers, Gardner was told no over and over again.  But his resolve was unshakable.  He only knew a few things for sure and one of those was that he was never giving up.

His philosophy is summed up beautifully in this scene:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQlzz6jGCfI

As you can see, even he was quick to assume that, just because he was unable to do something, his son couldn’t either.  He thought it would be better to let him down now instead of allowing him to be filled up with false hope that one day he could reach his dream of becoming a professional basketball player.

He then catches himself and you really get a glimpse of the core message of the movie.  “You’ve got a dream, you’ve got to protect it.”  “You want something, go get it.  Period.”

Now there are some that may take caution here.  I know that my first question might be, “What if someone has an outlandish dream that they waste their whole life pursuing and never attaining?  What if their so called ‘dream’ ends up just being a big distraction from their family and friends?”

I think this is a valid question and something you have to contemplate if you are in pursuit of a dream or about to embark on the journey.  Dreams can often turn into addictions or distractions.  But you also have to be careful that you are not living less of a life that you should or could be living.  You have to make sure that you aren’t giving up on a better future because you fear the unknown or others say you can’t.

Why big dreams produce big results

Often times we are told to make ‘realistic’ goals so that we will be able to reach them.  The problem with this is, “What the heck is realistic?”  We can’t know our true potential if we don’t push ourselves.  But here is the real issue…

If you under-dream then you will under-succeed.

Let’s say you want to own a car wash.  So you save up and eventually buy one.  Well, now you own your car wash.  This is perfectly fine.  But what if you really wanted to start a chain of car washes and have them all over the country.  This might start with a single car wash, but would eventually have to move well beyond that.

If you except the premise that the chain idea is un-realistic, you will naturally stop progressing and just start maintaining.  Once you get your car wash you will throttle back and only do what’s necessary to keep it running and maybe a little more.  But if you always have it in the back of your head that, “This is only the beginning”, you will always be on the lookout for the next step.  You will be pushing yourself harder than the other car wash owners because you know you will have to work harder to move beyond this point.

Everything in life is like this.  If you have a vision of where you want to be, in anything you do, you will put that amount of effort into reaching that goal.  Reach for the sky and you will live your life in-line with that goal.  If you are happy with where you are then you will happily accept your situation for how it is.

It’s up to YOU

I am not here to tell you what is the right lifestyle for you.  You may be perfectly happy where you are and that’s wonderful.  But for those who envision something different or who have given up on their dreams, I am here to tell you that it is up to you to make things happen.  No one is going to make you live the best life you can live.  If anything, many will try to keep you from such things.  But at the end of the day, the only one responsible for the life you live is you and you alone.

“Determination gives you the resolve to keep going in spite of the roadblocks that lay before you.” ~ Denis Waitely