For all you Dreamers

I really love when people elaborate on a passionate dream they have. I absolutely hate when they end that elaboration with five words I often hear dreamers say, “But, it won’t ever happen”. All hope comes to a screeching halt.

Excuse me, WHAT?

Why does this phrase exist?

There is a reason I get so excited about others and their passions. It’s probably because I strongly disagree with those five words above. Those words used to steal my fire, my awakened joy and the very things that I was created to do. And while I haven’t fully conquered the phrase just yet and still mumble it from time to time, I have learned to pursue the dream regardless. I’m overcoming a lot more than in years past. And now more than ever, I want you to know that you can too.

Let's start with taking that phrase out of our vocabulary, shall we?

We are all uniquely designed, no two people are alike. We will be learning about ourselves forever, but luckily at a young age we begin to recognize some of our talents and passions. Maybe not all of them, but hopefully at least one. My first known passion was puzzles, but I’ll talk about my second and more exciting passion- music.

When I fight my desire to play music because I think I suck and I will never go anywhere with it or I can’t afford a ticket to a show and miss out on the energy a crowd exhorts, I feel there is something huge missing from my life. It’s almost like I feel dead. My inner metronome stops clicking and I need to be revived and while I was traveling over the last year and a half, I didn’t get to go see much live music. There was some live Christian worship (my favorite moments), but no live local shows. My roommates would tell you how much I itched to be at a show, I even FaceTimed into a few. When you remove a passion out of doubt or fear of disapproval, or you aren’t able to rock out at a concert, you might start to feel a bit dead.

We were born alive not dead. So, why should we feel anything far from that? Without some of the jolts of joys we crave to do, we might walk around like zombies, alive, but not really.  Unfortunately too many people don’t even recognize the gifts they have. It’s like they're blind. They haven’t a clue the revival their hidden passion might set off inside of them. They could be incredible speakers, singers, jugglers, mathematical problem solvers, dancers, designers, whatever it might be, but they don’t even know!!! Hello, that is not going to fly with me. Again, this is why I am so persistent in telling people what I think they are good at because some people just don’t know! Please, if you have a friend, family member, or coworker that you know has a gift, TELL THEM TODAY.

We all need reassurance and we all need encouragement because sometimes, if we aren’t affirmed we may feel like that zombie, the person who knows the gift that makes them feel alive, but is too afraid to pursue it. So they walk around just surviving instead of thriving. Do you know who I’m talking about? That friend who when given the opportunity to show off their talent, allows fear of man to tear them to pieces? However this friend doesn’t tell you how they are really feeling, but keeps it all inside, saying it’s not a big deal.

WELL IT IS A BIG DEAL!

YOU ARE A BIG DEAL!

TELL THEM THEY ARE A BIG DEAL!

Ugh, I hate when passion is snatched away by the assumed judgment of others. 10 bucks says they aren’t even judging you.  And 10 bucks more says that your gift could actually help someone else.

I really doubt we were made to only use our gifts for ourselves. I mean, God could have been like, “yeah, let me make everyone unique so they can enjoy their passions and dreams alone. Okay, that sounds like a great idea”, then poof Adam and Eve came and here we are not sharing our gifts with one another right?

False.

We are all made different so we can help each other out.

We find our passion/gift/talent, learn it, practice it, pursue it, then share it, watch it blossom, and change lives. Sounds simple right? I know it’s not, but when we are at the point of sharing it with the world and we are living it day to day, we might just feel more alive. I think others that benefit from it might feel alive as well. It’s a win win. I think this might be how it is supposed to work.

Lets have a little example time.

Imagine if Steve Jobs and his computer wiz clan never cultivated their gifting of technology? I don’t think I would be writing on a MacBook Pro. I’d be using a PC (ahhh).

Imagine if Martin Luther King Jr. decided, “Well, I have a passion to stop the injustice going on with racism but, it’s never going to happen!?”

What!

His dream wouldn’t have helped a lot of others feel confident to share their dreams since.

What about Harriet Tubman? What if she didn’t use her gift in leadership to lead the hundreds out through the underground railroads? Would those hundreds of enslaved people been set free? Would generations later still suffer?

Modern Day:

Meet Brandon Stanton. I love this guy’s work. He founded the wildly popular blog Humans of New York after losing his job in finance. He always had a passion for photography, but didn’t fully invest his time until his 9-5 job was gone. Now he’s full time capturing moments of the everyday person in NYC. Noticing them. Reminding them that they aren’t forgotten. Brandon doesn’t have to do this. He could have gotten another safe finance job, but he chose to run with his dream and it’s incredible. Check him out.

And for you passionate food lovers, meet Guy Fieri. You might recognize his blond spikes and red ’67 Camaro on his series Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives. Guy wasn’t always a Food Network star. He once was a little lad passionate about cooking and he went for it. Fieri first owned a restaurant in Cali before landing a spot on The Food Network. It took a lot of persistence, and probably some moments of doubt, but he made it. Now he uses his taste buds to promote local diners, drive-ins, and dives. Places full of passionate chefs, pouring all they have into the business, places overlooked and being shut down by chain restaurants. Imagine if Fieri spoke out about his dream of owning a restaurant to one of his buds, but ended his spiel with, “but, it will never happen”. You might not think what he does is a big deal, but it is. Those local restaurant owners, I imagine, are full of hope and excitement for their career when a man who was a nobody, and now is a huge somebody, comes in and cheers on their recipes. 

I could write a lot more stories. Here is a site where I found the two above, plus 13 more dreamer successes.

But instead I want to simply say, “It WILL happen!”

Don’t lose hope, don’t stop when you hit roadblocks, don’t stop when you fail. Keep going, pursue, learn, and watch your dream flourish. Watch your gifts strengthen, watch others need what you offer, and watch yourself feel more alive.

The impossible is possible so do it!

Until next time…