At the desk, 8:56 a.m.
It's hard to imagine how difficult it is to manifest a dream.
I mean, we all know it hard. Why do you think there are so few people actually living and breathing their one true purpose? Why do you think there are so many people who are only sort of living big? They draw easy to understand images, write non-threatening fiction, start blogs to speak their minds and end up writing about crap someone paid them to write about, or simply say they want to do something but never do.
And then there's the "Be Like Us" crowd. They speak at conferences about World Domination. They are super popular people who write books about how being different is good right now. They chime in on tired, stated old lines designed to convince themselves first, and eventually some paying audience, that they are right and you are wrong and your dream should look like what they tell you it should.
Sure, you can manifest a kind of dream. You can manifest the dream that those other guys tell you to manifest.
But what about YOUR big hairy dream? What about YOUR purpose?
When I was young, Joan Benoit Samuelson arrived at the 1984 Olympics to great controversy in my world. First, she had two last names. Second, she was a woman who ran marathons. Now honestly, I don't think my father ever thought even a moment about marathons, but seeing a women try to do it? He had a lot to say about that "womens libber."
I never thought about her dream. It never occurred to me that she had to fight for her right to run just as much as I have to fight for my right to tell stories with strong female characters.
But she did. This person that was simply part of the landscape of my upbringing had to fight like I have to fight. And she changed the world, or at least my world. Her dream expanded my idea of what a woman could be.
We need people like Joan Benoit Samuelson. Right now, our country and world need people who are willing to step up and fight for their dream.
We need you.
And when they say, "Why you?" or "You're doing it wrong because you're not like us!" Just tell them you're doing it like Joan.
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