Over this past summer I have grown increasingly more interested in the things I love to do. Music and Stories. In the past they have been simple fascinations. Ya I may have stepped out a bit further with music for a while but never with creating the stories that rummage around in my head every hour of every day. None-the less when my start in music came and ended I left it at that for the time being. I was still young. All I could think about was just having fun and hanging with friends.But since I got out of high school, I was forced to start considering where it was I was headed in life. During this process both music and stories came up. When I say stories, I mean the creation of a message that offers some kind of meaning to the watcher, reader, listener, etc. Anyways during these past years and my struggle I have only dabbled with these passions. However as I am coming into a better time in my life, I can’t help but think about these.
They are my dreams. My hopes. My longing to offer something positive to this world. Growing up I had always wanted to be someone that makes a big mark on the world. I have never been one for keeping only to the small world I live in. I want to help people, I want to touch people, and I want to inspire people. Just as important, I want to be doing what I love in the presence of people who feel the same way. This ambition, along with the fact that my father is the same way, has led to be more of a leader then a follower. But it wasn’t with out the lessons in following that I learned what leading even meant. In any event, during high school I chose to follow the path of leadership.
However the past couple years, when I hid away, I chose nothing. I stuck to myself in the hopes that I would just be catapulted out of the hole I was in. Not so. I ended up having to pull my self out one step at a time. In fact I would say I’m still on the tail end of that. Yet the point of this post is to talk about dreams and embracing the cost that comes with them.
So this past week I have been noticing that in order to not only achieve a sense of happiness but the dream itself, I have to put a lot of time into these things. A friend of my dads once told me “Achieving a dream means time has no constraint. It means going till you drop. Getting everything done in every minute you have.” This statement becomes truer for me everyday. Going for something big, requires a massive amount of work, determination, perseverance, and hard skin for all the blows that come along the way.
Now I’m not saying that means abandoning everything in your life for this one thing to concentrate on every moment your awake. Of course there is the day job, family, friends, and even sometimes having some good old-fashioned fun. But in order to achieve a dream you have to be willing to sacrifice a lot of this. For some it will only be for a while, although for the rest of your life you will sacrifice certain pleasures to feed your family and continue to fulfill your dream. However for some, like my dad’s friend, he gives almost all his time and energy to his passion. I can’t say I fully agree. I do believe you can eventually establish some sort of balance. I am a firm believer in community, family, and fun. However in my instance I am noticing that it comes down to more of a work now play later philosophy. This simply means that at this moment, it is very important to give the most I can to pursuing what I love so that I can firmly establish it in my life for years to come with a solid foundation. Only when you have that foundation will you be able to juggle such a giant with the joys of family and community.
The thing is, although this might seem like a great cost, especially to someone my age (21), the reward is much greater in the end. More over you have to decide what kind of person you are. Are you some one who wants make a mark or are you someone who is content with changing peoples’ world one day at a time in a career that doesn’t require a huge time sacrifice. Either is quite admirable. Let me be clear: just because people choose to work a 9 to 5 job in a an office or a janitor at a school doesn’t mean they don’t love what their doing and it doesn’t mean that their not making a difference. I know from experience that an employee of my dads who might seem to be just a simple or standard worker has changed my world. He has taught me to be thankful for any job and to give your best at every minute of everyday. In addition he has taught me to go above and beyond, giving 150%. This man changes people’s worlds and still has plenty of time to go home and spend time with his family. Doesn’t mean he does not want to eventually do something else. But it does means he is content with where he is and he is making a difference there. Point being either path, in my opinion is worth taking. I just happened to be a person who wants to take the first path. However there is also a third alternative of sticking only to your self, doing only the bare minimum with no regard to others. I hope this path doesn’t sound good to you, cause it doesn’t to me.
To end, I have come to the conclusion from what others have shared with me these past years that I have to be willing to take that cost of only having fun, free to do whatever whenever, working minimally and being lazy in order to achieve something I have long to see realized for years now.
This, for me, has taken a while to accept, but over the past couple weeks I have begun to realize that the reward for all this cost is far greater for me, my family, and all those people touched and bettered by it…
Thanks for reading.
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