...live the life you imagined (Henry Thoreau)
I think it's important to make life happen rather than let it happen to you. I naturally find myself apathetic and this applies in its worst state to having dreams, aims etc... thinking what i want out of life so that i avoid just getting what i get but instead get what i actually want. Not in a self-indulgent way or in a way that is like a whiny teenage girl but in attaining an understanding of what i value in life and how to make that what drives me rather than letting the world squeeze me in to its mould.
Some aspects of life are out of my control. My wife having cancer, my son waking in the night and only falling asleep with his head wedged onto mine in such a manner that i can't possibly sleep or other frustrations that i can't control. Firstly i will look at these situations positively, my wife has cancer but we are already stronger as a couple for it, we already have a stronger understanding of friendship and family than it would have taken a lifetime to understand. (See http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/stacey_kramer_the_best_gift_i_ever_survived.html for a great talk on the benefits of cancer) Secondly i think these events help to chisel out our dreams and aspirations rather than diminishing them. They are not to steal your dreams but to help you prioritise them.
Another priority / potential hinderance : I will not be small in my own eyes (nor arrogant) as it helps no one for me to whinge about being rubbish or to gloat about being great...
"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond imagination. It is our light more than our darkness which scares us. We ask ourselves – who are we to be brilliant, beautiful, talented, and fabulous. But honestly, who are you to not be so?
You are a child of God, small games do not work in this world. For those around us to feel peace, it is not example to make ourselves small. We were born to express the glory of god that lives in us. It is not in some of us, it is in all of us. While we allow our light to shine, we unconsciously give permission for others to do the same. When we liberate ourselves from our own fears, simply our presence may liberate others.’"
- Marianne Williamson in Return to Love: Reflections on a Course in Miracles and quoted by Mandela in his inauguration speech. If you don't know your big potential you cannot know how to dream big.
So there you go my aim with this blog is to go confidently, work out what my dreams are then work out how to follow them. Not to be limited by my opinions of myself but to give others confidence to life their lives to the full by attempting to live mine in a way that is the fullest i can. That resolves never to lose one moment of time, but to improve it in the most profitable way i can, to live so, as i shall wish i had done when i come to die and to always do that, which i shall wish i had when i see others do it. (a paraphrasing of some of the resolutions of Jonathan Edwards - 17th century, some of the other ones were a bit crazy if you look them up)
adios for now
