Saturday, April 25, 2009

Pursuing

I saw an article on TV the other evening that had me disbelieving my hearing. There was a lady talking about how to succeed, having goals and meeting them. She indicated that 90% of the people around us will do nothing but criticize, negate, condemn or otherwise negatively react when we share our dreams and goals. Her suggestion? To keep your goals a secret. To hide what you want to do or accomplish, to hide, really, who you are.

Now, I'm not a proponent of sharing your deepest thoughts or dreams with just anyone you meet, but I do strongly believe that we need to talk about the things that create passion within us. If we do not share our goals and dreams, we cannot hope to achieve them. Yes, there will be people who will laugh at you and provide many reasons for why you may or will not succeed, but if you are passionate enough, if you want it badly enough, you can take their comments, see a way around them or just dismiss them as being unreasonable. It is true that there will always be someone who will try to beat your dreams out of you, to discourage you from achieving your goals, but only you can choose how to respond - to let go of the dream or to be strengthened to pursue it.

Dreams are a huge part of who we are and who we become. When we let go of our dreams because someone else said we should, then we fail ourselves and become one of the living, walking dead. I've been there. I would far rather be bold and share my dreams so that I hold myself accountable for accomplishing them, than for hiding them in a box and taking them out to look at every now and then. If I hide them in a box, I cannot see that they will be accomplished.

Perhaps I misunderstood the context of the TV article. Perhaps I did not listen long enough to walk away with a true understanding of what she was trying to say, but I know that as I passed by I was distressed that people were being admonished to hide their deep desires, to refrain from sharing them with others. It felt, to me, that the suggestion was to put up walls and barriers between others and ourselves, at least where our goals are concerned.

Alternatively, today at church our pastor called us to step out, to make friends with others in our own community, to get to know people, to allow people to get to know us. Personally, I would rather be willing to share myself with others and to have them share with me than to hide away from them out of fear that they will criticize or condemn me for my goals and dreams.

What about you? Are you willing to share of yourself, confident enough in your dreams and goals that someone else's reaction will not sway you from pursuing them? Put yourself out there. Get to know the people around you and let them get to know you. If someone criticizes or otherwise is negative regarding what you desire for your life, then evaluate and move on. They aren't living your life, you are.

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