‘Sometimes it is easier to delegate plans to the dreams department…’
In less than three weeks my inaugural book is being released. It is something to which I have aspired and dreamt of for many years. We talk of passions and callings in life but these phrases are brandished about by those who have been successful in making their passion a reality. For they have skipped over the prospect of failure and headed straight for the ‘life’s purposeful meaning’ door.
But to those about to embrace their lifelong dream, their passion, their reason d’etre then the ‘you failed, what were you thinking, keep to the day job!’ door is wide open. This first doorway seems far larger than the sliver of success door next to it.
So instead of falling through the failure door, in an exhausted heap after many attempts to squeeze through the well-done door then why not close them both and not move? Stay firmly where we are and enjoy the fluffy dream carpet we’re standing on? No one can laugh at us for trying and the secret passion remains our own.
For me, it is this and subsequent books. I had finished Olivia 18 months ago but it took me a year to gather the self confidence to push it out there. For Olivia, it was finding the confidence to leave home after the death of her mother and hence the excerpt this week is her push to buy the Australian plane tickets:
‘Jason, our ideas for our life are often easy to formulate yet nearly always impossible to execute. Sometimes it is easier to delegate plans to the dreams’ department. My dreams knocked at my daily thoughts and kept me happy as only dreams of a promise of better times can…..
……The catalyst to walking into the shop was Janet; she dared me, gently at first then with a bit more vigour until the taunting began. She claimed I would never leave, that I would sit around the house irritating her until I was grey-haired, owned a brown sofa and cuddling cats all day. “No life and no hope” she would tease…’
Janet, Olivia’s sister arranged Olivias’ travels to Australia because of her love for her sister to realise her dream of travelling. It was because she was pushed that Olivia could realise her Oz ambition.
For me, my Janet was a friend who asked me: ‘what have you got to lose?’ I replied ‘I suppose nothing other than public humiliation and literary condemnation.’ Her sweet answer was, ‘Dear Heather, you can live with that, right? and in any case, maybe you’ll get lucky and no one will read it!’
So there it is, a life long ambition realised in just a few weeks. I don’t know which door I’ll go through but I’m pleased I was pushed.
That’s all we need to succeed, a gentle to firm push.