Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Driven By Your Dreams

After I read this, I posted on this blog. Matthew talks about the Power of 3. It was triggered off by my personal ordeal yesterday when I was hit by a cab while riding. Thanks for your genuine and deep concern, mate - I appreciate it - and I assure you that I had some epiphanies during my time in hospital. My second, self-directed, medical examination revealed my post-trauma conditions as normal (I'll skip the disconcerting details). Just in case (Power of 3), I am slated for one more check for my cheek next week - rest assured.

I was reading a new piece on Macca’s blog, and was touched by his focus on dreams.

Is it all right to dream? Have you been chided by a teacher or your parents for dreaming too much? Have you heard ‘Stop dreaming! Study hard!’ or ‘Dreams do not pay the bills?’

What’s the criticism and brickbats about? Why is it wrong to dream? Is it merely a luxury to be enjoyed by those with fame and success on their hands? Can the poor and under-privileged have their own piece of dream?

Many inventions began as dreams; the Wright Brothers offered us motorised flight. Magical illusions began as blueprints; recall David Copperfield walk through the Great Wall of China? Disneyland was a dream led by a mouse and a cartoonist. Dreams got man on the moon. Remember JFK’s famous words: ‘We will be the first to send a man to the moon!’ or Dr King’s ‘I Had A Dream’ speech.

Today, thousands of people around the world pursue dreams of running their first marathon, first triathlon, Ironman triathlon, Kona ticket for the world championships, or Boston Marathon. For me, it will be my ninth Ironman (okay, tenth!), my first full ultra-marathon, and a ticket to the Boston Marathon (and a PR of 3:19) within the next fourteen months. Of course, I have more dreams – and so do you! It can be speaking before an audience of 1,000 people, winning an award for creativity, training in a foreign tongue, teaching in a new country, touching an ancient wonder, or raising the target amount for your favourite charity.

Take a sketchbook, or journal, and write down as many dreams as you can. Then sieve through the list for the one’s that are more realistic in the near future; these become your goals when you intend to achieve your dreams. Select those goals that are achievable (although for a lack of budget) and write down what you will need to do to get there. When my Triathlon Tribe began the triathlon lifestyle, we committed ourselves to swimming, riding and running regularly. Regular fixtures in a week passively encourage an organic group to entice neophytes and new members; forum veterans actively encourage them to join. Hesitant breaststrokers became adept front-crawlers, and some crawled their way to amazing swim times/

Chase your dreams! Live your dream! Dream big!

1 comment:

daftbitch said...

I always liked Steve Job's commencement speech at Stanford in '05 : Stay Foolish Stay Hungry. That drives one to go further. Perhaps you are one of those.

I remember being one of the breasts stroker who aim to start front crawling... and two years on, i only do front crawl mostly. It's that innate desire to always try new ways to be the best that you can be.

When you went down that day, i am sure you had that many thoughts or that blank. But those 8 minutes is like "alarm bells ringing all over your head". And extremely worrying. 8 minutes allow one's mind to go really crazy. That being said, one minute is enough to torture me. I trust you have done and gone through your neccessary checks. REST WELL! Please... there's always some other fights down the road. Cos we're all staying foolish, and staying hungry.