Track runners do not see hurdles as road blocks; they see hurdles as an extension of a normal step. Sure, it may take practice to build the confidence necessary to jump hurdles. Even to start practicing, you need to set aside any fears or trepidations you have about the road ahead. You need to ignore the fact that hurdles are obstacles. You need to see hurdles as a part of the game. If you signed up to play the game, learn to love the hurdles. Obstacles are only obstacles if you see and treat them as obstacles.
Tag Archives: Dreams
What You’ve Never Had
Want something? How badly do you want it? Are you prepared to take a chance? Are you willing to try something new? To get what you’ve never had, you must do what you’ve never done. Think outside the box, open your mind, and approach your desires from a different angle. If you’re doing it the same way you’ve always done it and you’re not winning, then you’re doing it wrong. It’s okay, but stop wasting time. Give it a different go.
Your Dreams, Not Theirs
You prescribe your own dreams; do not let anyone else do it for you. Listen to the advice and wisdom of others, but form your own opinions and goals. Do things your own way. Do not be afraid to do things differently. After all, different is key to making a difference.
Calibrating Your Core
We get buried by our own lives. We’re far too close to our routine to see the flaws, see the compromises, understand the sacrifices we make in conflict deep down. We’re too busy moving forward and surviving to remember who we really are. We forget who we wanted to be in the first place. We misunderstand our goals. And we lose sight of our virtues.
It’s very important to stay in touch with old friends. Old mentors. Family. The people who remember what you said you wanted to be when you grew up. The people who saw you change. The people who can point out what never changed. Members of your past can remind you who you were. Knowing who you are now, you can sift out the continuity. You can identify your core again. You can re-group, re-center, re-align your sights. Remember what’s most important in life. With a little effort, you can find yourself again.
Stay in touch. If you do not, you will lose track of yourself. You will forget who you really are. Life will fall out of balance and your soul will be scrambled. Stay in touch. All it takes is a phone call, a conversation, a visit home.
Do not ignore your past. It holds the key to great strength.
Rules Destroy Imagination
As children, sky was the limit. The word “impossible” never slipped our lips. I vowed to build a spaceship in my backyard. I knew, without question, that I would be the first six-year-old in orbit. With scrap cardboard and colored pencils in hand, I set to work.
As we grew up, we were taught rules: the laws of physics, etiquette, mathematics, morality, sexuality, language, health, justice, economics, politics, and responsibilities. We were told what to do and how to do it. Worse, we were told what NOT to do and threatened with consequences. Sure, we were being educated. But that education undermined the innumerable liberated conceptions we had as children. I’m sorry, child, you cannot defy gravity. You cannot live forever. You cannot leave the house without wearing pants. 1 + 1 never equals 3. Things cost money you cannot afford. No this. No that. No, no, no. The endless list of constraints continues to grow everyday of our aging lives.
I realized how tragically detrimental these rules could be to your imagination as I nostalgically revisited a Winnie the Pooh cartoon on YouTube. When I was young, this scene terrified me to the bone. I feared falling prey to the beasts and maligned physics Pooh suffers throughout his dream. Watching it for the first time in 15 years, I felt some of those visceral reactions come back:
But then, reality sunk in and this video was not terrifying anymore. I now know that hovering and transforming on this level are not feasible in the physical world, and that such creatures do not exist in nature. The boundless scope of my childhood imagination enabled these possibilities in my mind and allowed me to fear the things I did not understand. But my adult mind, constrained by rules of the natural world, can dismiss this scene as psychedelic fiction.
Would our lives be better without rules? No, of course not. Rules will always exist whether we want them to or not. I do not think anarchy or ignorance make the world a better place. But I do think it would liberate mankind’s imagination a little more if we understand rules as surmountable obstacles to our dreams, instead of barriers we cannot pass.
The best thing my parents never did was tell me “no.” They let me play in the backyard until my heart’s content. I figured out on my own that I could not build a spaceship. But because no one I respected ever tried to stop me, I never gave up. I signed up for the movie business to get me closer to orbit, closer to building that spaceship, and closer to the stars – if only through models and effects. I fight the rules every day and refuse to let anything stand in the way of my dreams.
Go out and fight the rules. Never say never. Dream big.
Imagine the possibilities.
How Daydreaming Can Help You Discover True Passion
Believe it or not, I do not think very hard. I am a creature of intuition. I let my mind wander all the time. And I use it to my advantage.
Like involuntary dreaming during REM sleep, daydreaming taps into your subconscious. Without focusing your mind, various images, ideas, sensations, emotions and reactions will crop up and fill the thought void.
Stare into space. Let your consciousness drift. Then sit back and listen. Track your thoughts. Where do they wander? A memory? Another project? Someone special? Something specific? An abstract concept?
Take note of your mental journey. Journal if you need to. Keep an eye out for repetition and redundancy, especially recurring themes or concepts. Pay attention to and follow patterns – they can shape your values and interests. Core values and interests will help frame your subconscious and offer macrocosmic insight into your heart’s brightest fires.
What is the common denominator? With enough practice, you should be able to identify a common thread through all of your mental wanderings. Weave this thread through the conventional world and you can chart a personal campaign to feed the fire. Relationships, careers, literature, conversations, invention, art, food and travel can all take part in bringing your true passion to life.
The first step to feeding your soul is to learn what your soul likes to eat.
What Do You Want to Be When You Grow Up?
Frankly, the question is bullshit. We are guided to answer it with a profession, a title or a lifestyle.
“I want to be an artist.” “I want to be the president.” “I want to be a film director.” “I want to stay at home and raise my children.”
The problem? There’s far more to life than a title, many roads to travel, and too much time to do only one thing. Your answer will change. It has since you were born, it will continue to evolve until the day you die. My answer changed throughout my life from Locomotive Engineer to Meteorologist to Starship Captain to Video Game Designer to Film Producer to Technology CEO. I have been all over the map, with passion and curiosity. I am sure you have, too.
I understand the question. “What do you want to be?” It is a focusing mechanism, the answer of which can help guide you into the trials and tribulations of adulthood. Unfortunately, the question suggests that there is only one answer per person. It distinguishes between future (“what will you become”) and present (“what you are now”). And it prompts you to cite conventional societal roles or industries as a solution to your life problem. Woe is you if your job title is at the core of your eulogy.
I propose a new question:
“What is your purpose?”
Purpose is your mission in life, your agenda, the core principal that guides you when you wake up in the morning and drives you to make decisions. No matter the career or role you play, purpose underlies everything you say and do.
What would you die for?
I want to bring people together. That’s my purpose. And that purpose is far more noble and omnipresent than my resume or my title.
Craig Ormiston 