Are you a dreamer? Do you imagine your life being different? Is there something you have wanted to do for a long time and just not got round to it? Or are you unsure how to make it happen? Do you have belief that it will happen one day?
Many of us talk about the day our ship sails in or the day when we win the lottery. We imagine a step change from a point of monotony to a place where the beaches are golden and the world is our oyster. A click of the fingers, a sudden upheaval, an incredibly unlikely fluke, the numbers on our lottery ticket.
It is strange that we look at people who have what they want in this life and think how lucky they must have been to get there. We seem to ignore dedication, hard work, endless rehearsal and heart stopping moments of despair in these people getting to their elevated position. I am not referring to those who have large salaries but rather to those who have what they want in their life.
Even if we do see these things and believe we can commit to them, many of us will still not engage this change to a different life. And what stops us. No guarantees, no absolute belief in a perfect outcome. Namely a fear of failure.
I find this funny. As adults we encourage children to have a go. The rhetoric is constantly to believe in yourself. Sometimes it is to believe in God. We dismiss the idea of failure with our children, make them think themselves ridiculous to be afraid of it. Or do we? Do we not teach them to hug the status quo? Follow a path to comfortable living rather than to be a game changer in this world. Keep your head down, work hard, don’t annoy the boss.
When did we decide that all risk is too much? When did we decide all failure must be avoided? When we do this, we don’t think in new ways, we don’t enable our dreams and something inside dies. The creative spark expires. As a Christian, the image of the Creator in me fades.
I say time for a new manifesto, time to take our risks. Time to embrace new thinking about people. Reach out to the difficult person, the lonely person. Put our neck on the line by going over the fence, go and see if the grass is greener. Let’s be courageous in the face of change, continuing on until we reach our destination, ignoring those who would decry us. Be prepared to be different, to take a real punt at this life. Cos you know, things never turn out as bad as you thought they might. And they often become a lot better than you thought they ever wo
uld.
G R Jordan author, poet, and top Dad apparently!