One of my favourite quotes is from George Bernard Shaw:

“You see things; and you say, ‘Why?’ But I dream things that never were; and I say, ‘Why not?’”

This is a huge theme of my life – dreaming. My favourite movie is Rudy, a true story about a kid who dreamed about playing football at Notre Dame, and achieved his dream when he got to play 1 play in the final game of his final year.

Now, in life there are people who dream (like Rudy) and there are people who do (like many people who work 8-5, Monday to Friday). Everyone can dream but too many people don’t because they’re too afraid of not being able to reach their dreams. So what do they do? They try to fit their dreams into their current life instead of working to make their current life match their dreams.

Well I like to live with both a dreamer’s and a doer’s mentality. I’ll admit I often look at things that are and ask “Why” but I’m also quick to ask “Why not”. I don’t care if something has been tried before – there’s usually a reason it didn’t work the first time. Once that reason is known, why not try again?

And the nature of my passion (disc sports – ultimate, disc golf, distance, self caught flight, dog disc, etc) allows me to often dream of something and ask “Why not?” And the beauty of it is that I can actually do something that hasn’t been done (or hasn’t been done for more than 25 years).

Sometimes it’s a solitary pursuit and many people don’t get my passion but looking back over the past 11 years, I realize that I am who I am today because of frisbee and I know that when I look back on my life 11 years from now, I’ll be glad I made the decision to make frisbee such a big part of my life. I know that the more I do, the more I will inspire and amaze people and that is what keeps me going. To know that there is a chance others can share in my love for frisbee even a little bit is an incredible feeling.

So I ask you – are you a dreamer, a doer, or both?

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Some of the business books and cds I’ve been listening to lately have reinforced some great points and one of them which really stands out is the idea of how we tend to not spend time on something which will have long term benefits to our life. It can be summed up in this great quote:

A year from now you’ll wish you had started today

How many of us have projects that we are really passionate about and we have good intentions to start them (or have already done a bit of work on them) only to see them get pushed to the back burner in favour of projects with more immediate rewards (ie money or recognition). We know in our heart that the passion project(s) has potential and will be a great thing yet we’re not putting in even a bit of work to get it going, to keep it moving, or to start growing it.

Think about the project(s) you have on the go and think about which ones give you short term rewards versus the ones which will bring you long term rewards. I say spend a bit of time on the latter…even a bit of time will help you figure out if it’s worth pursuing.

Then, a year from now you won’t have to be wishing you had started today.

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One of my favourite quotes.

What it means to me:

There are things that you can do really well.

There are things that you cannot do very well.

Focus on those things that you can do really well and make it your goal to get ever better at those things.

The things that you can’t do very well – work to get better at them but your life will be much more rewarding if you are amazing at a few things instead of mediocre at many things.

Case in point – I would rather be amazing at 3 sports than pretty good at 6 sports. It lets my passion shine through more completely and I will achieve much more.

Think about those things you’re really good at – how much are you making them your focus?

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I watched The Rookie a few weeks ago; a movie starring Dennis Quaid. In it, Dennis plays the role of a teacher who chose a career and a family over baseball. However, years later he has another shot at playing in the pros. I thought it was an excellent movie but there was a line that his father said to him that really stood out for me:

“It’s ok to think about what you want to do…until it’s time to start doing what you were meant to do.”

It really hit home inside of me because I find it too easy in life to always be wanting to do something or wanting to have something (the ‘keeping up with the jones’ mentality). But, in life I feel that everyone is meant to do something. For some, it takes longer than others to find out what that is but when you do, I truly feel that you should embrace your calling, be passionate about what you do and give it everything. What you will get back from doing what you love to do will amaze you and will truly enrich your life.

Just something to think about today.

Really think about what the quote means.

Let me know if it’s as powerful to you as it was to me.

Cheers

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