I had the honor of sharing my story with the wonderful folks at Sir Winston Churchill Public School. The staff and students were great and very receptive. I made the mistake of not asking the age range that was going to be there so I had two switch gears on the fly. I was going to share some of the darker sides of my story but I didnt think the kindergarten kids would understand, if you know what I mean.
So, I spoke to the Dreams in the room. I only had 15 to 20 mins to talk so I missed out on alot of things that I wanted to share. This was the basis of the talk. I Hope it helped someone that night because I know it helped me.
Dreamers are usually shunned upon because there are no guarantees. no one really knows if your idea or plan will work, not even yourself. So what separates those who keep chasing their goals and the ones who fall by the wasteside? There are many factors. Some you can control and many you can't. I believe the main factor that you can control, to aid you in achieving your goals is:
Surrounding yourself with like minded people.
A Lot of your friends will not understand what your talking about, laugh at you or maybe even smile in your face then talk behind your back. If you're a dreamer you will feel out who they are. You will say things that make absolute sense to you but make no sense to them. They will stop calling to hang out with you, stop inviting you to events or social gatherings or maybe just stop calling all together. Mostly because they are just tired of calling because your always busy working on your dreams, planing, organizing, spending hours in the lab honing your craft. But other times it's because you now have become this light and its shining too bright for them, exposing them for , a) not having the courage to go after their their owns or b) afraid of your success.
Now, depending on where you are at in life, you may succumb to the pressure of not being with your friends or not excelling so you don't make your friends look bad…On a side note, there is no glory in you playing small to make some else feel better.. you are actually hurting them and here's how. You are unique. By you succeeding, you and only you, will connect with people in a way that myself or anyone else never could. So, by being your best, you are inspiring others discover the best in them.
When I was younger I gave in to that pressure. To hang with my friends, to be accepted. So i quit a lot of things. From Hockey, tennis to learning how to play the guitar. I would have to goto practice and think to myself.. Man, I’d rather be playing Nba Live on my Sony Playstation right now with the guys #FLO. Now I regret not Learning the guitar out of all those things.. lucky, I can still skate, which is a must if your Canadian Eh!? 😉
However, over the course of all of the successes of my career, I know it's never too late to do anything.. NEVER. You just have to know what you want and take the steps (baby steps if need be) to move towards that goal. Your real friends and supporters will understand that. They will also understand that you are unique and thet you will connect with others in your unique way. Those are the ones you need to surround yourself with.
“I am Getting better every day in every way, at my pace, it's not a race.” -My Daily #Montra
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