I believe that far too many people believe that they automatically deserve the best that the world has. Too many feel as if their birth magically means that they can have anything that they want in life. As if every goal, object, relationship or dream they want is meant to come true. In many cases, and with many people, I too believe that. However, I also believe that far too many people with this attitude, are wrong. Sorry folks, not everyone is meant to have all their dreams come true. Not everyone will have it all. In fact, the faster you realize this, the better you will be.
Now, I’m not trying to take away dreams. We all deserve to have dreams, we all deserve to want and contain all the things that we wish for ourselves, but the question I have for you is this:
Are you good enough for your own dreams?
Sit with that.
Move it around in you.
I’ll repeat it to emphasize the point here.
Are you good enough for your own dreams?
The problem is that far too many people will jump to a simple answer, “yes!” they will say. “of course!” I can hear echoed. But the problem is that many of you are wrong.
Dreams are earned, not given. They require a changing of who we are and a constant transformation of what we are. They will demand sacrifice and a shedding of what we always thought we needed, in exchange for something that we never knew we always had in us. That’s the trick about them as well. I believe that dreams are ever changing and demanding. I believe that they are a mountain that we are called to climb.
So how do you know you’re good enough?
You know you’re good enough when the amount of work you put into it, far outweighs the amount of work you’ll do after it.
How does that work? Well it happens because the work that you put into it…the sweat and pain of growth and stretching has developed something in you. It has changed you. You will not feel it at first. But it has transformed you. Oh and It will hurt, because in going after dreams and achieving them, you are in fact, moving, dumping, learning, and changing parts of yourself in order to be worthy of the dream. That’s right. You have to be good enough for it....and most likely, if you haven't achieved your dream yet, it's because you're not worth it, yet.
You don’t own the dream. It owns you...
...and it has demands for anyone who tries for it. Like you have an ideal vision of what the dream is...it has an ideal vision of what you are. You are not worthy of the dream until she says otherwise. She is the mountaintop. She is the goal. You don’t automatically get “miracled” up to the top of a mountain. You earn it…and with any good dream, the moment that you are good enough, is the moment that you can have it.
The growth that your dream required of you, allowed you to have the intangibles that made you good enough for it. Your personality will move. Your thinking we flex. Your emotions will bubble. Your life will shake. Your soul will quake. Like building muscle, you may not notice it. You don’t necessarily feel it. It happens slowly…gradually. What once was heavy, is now a paperweight. Who you were before the climb is a different person than the one standing at the top now.
One more point.
Sometimes we never realize that when we reach the top, there is always another path that we can take, another height to scale, or simply a different view that we never knew existed. Sometimes we see that the mountaintop we saw from the ground, is simply a stepping stone.
Remember that when we reach the dream…when we attain it. We are called to then maintain it because Dreams are fleeting. Dreams and goals are flexible, changing, and moving. The moment we forget that, is the moment we have lost it. Like a good relationship, you must treat your dreams and goals like a jealous lover because she will treat you the same. Work hard at making her happy. Work smart to ensure that you keep her, and work flexibly to move in and out of her demands…because without care, your mountain can crumble.