In Pursuit of Dreams

           Over the past couple of months, it has seemed as though the majority of my public speaking work has been centered around one specific topic and program: my keynote speech entitled “In Pursuit of Dreams.” From college classrooms, to abridged two-part versions of the speech being given in my local Toastmasters group, this speech has truly been the only speech in my arsenal that I have been presenting over the past few months and is booked to be the only one presented in future months to come. Although my ideal target audience for this presentation is soon to be graduating college Juniors and Seniors, this is a speech and message which is truly relevant to ALL young adults struggling to find their niches both personally and/or professionally in the real world (myself included). Nevertheless, ALL of these factors considered, coupled with my devotion to begin writing more articles has led me to putting an abbreviated version of “In Pursuit of Dreams” into written form. Enjoy!

           I refuse to believe that there is a single person on this planet who does not currently have nor has never had a dream in their life either personal or professional which they sought to pursue and one day achieve. Even if our current situations in life are fairly well off, the human animal is always evolving and striving for more then what it is we currently possess and have built for ourselves. From ideal professional careers or jobs that may seem out of reach or impossible, to simply wanting to one day find true love and start a family of our own in our personal lives, I am CONVINCED that there are very few individuals on this earth that do not have a dream, a goal, or something that they are striving to one day achieve. Now whether or not we actually take action to pursue these personally and professional dreams, however, is a completely different story. In my most popular keynote speech to date entitled “In Pursuit of Dreams” I strive to implore my audience members to rediscover their passions and dreams in life as they set back out on the path to achieve their loftiest personal and professional dreams. As I have come to discover firsthand: pursuing a dream is not always easy; the realization of our personal and professional dreams does not occur over night. However, the consequences of NOT pursuing our loftiest personal and professional dreams in life and simply letting them fall by the wayside as life gets in the way, is absolutely deadly.

           One of the most exciting and ironic components to my “In Pursuit of Dreams” speech is that while I am up on stage preaching to others to follow and pursue their dreams, I myself am in the midst of pursuing my own professional dream of becoming a paid professional full-time speaker. In fact, the majority of the speech draws on lessons learned while embarked on my young journey and the principles I have implemented into my pursuit and seen success from following. Ten principles, abbreviated below, which I have lived by and adhered to while pursuing my professional dream and which I am convinced are necessary and present on the successful pursuit of any dream in life:

1. First things first, without a passion we don’t have a dream. Without passion for what we are pursuing, we have a job. Finding something you are truly and healthily passionate about is the most crucial and yet most difficult step in the dream pursuit process. We can spend countless hours scrounging our minds and lives for our passions however, I have come to find that similar to true love, true passion often arises out of nowhere. Like true love, it hits us when we least expect it and yet it feels so fitting and obvious when we discover it. So as I implore my audience members, keep searching until you find your passion and the thing you could imagine seeing no end in doing while bearing in mind that your true passion(s) are likely going to be different then that of your friends or parent’s. When you do believe you have identified your passion however, BURY YOURSELF IN IT.

2. Once we have our passions identified and locked down (no minor accomplishment by any means) I have found it massively important that we have something to aim ourselves towards. A vision. An idea of what our lives could and more importantly WILL one day be. Having a rough idea of where we are headed with our passions and dreams gives us something to strive towards and look forward too. The power of vision, the law of attraction, and simply envisioning one’s success is empirically supported to provide tremendous personal benefits. If our vision and cause is clear and powerful enough, we’ll do just about anything to attain them. Including some of the following:

3. So, we have identified our passion(s), have a vision of where it is we wish to aim ourselves towards and work to achieve, now we have to commit to the process it is going to take to achieve our dreams. No plan B’s. No what ifs. No maybes. Too many times, too many of us flirt with the idea of going all in on our dreams or of improving our lives. When it comes to pursuing our dream lives however, we can’t afford to be half in. Sooner or later, we have to make the commitment to achieve the life of our dreams. This means being committed to both the good and the bad. Committed to the consistent daily grind and toll it takes to achieve something great. Committed to having the discipline and focus it takes to achieve our loftiest dreams; despite any distraction’s life may throw our way. Committed to the long road and patience we will need to implore while on our journeys. Our committed, consistent, disciplined and patient work ethics are ultimately going to be what sets us apart from achieving our dreams in life and letting them fall by the wayside.

4. I suppose I would be remiss if I did not allude to some of the less glamorous aspects I have found there to be when pursuing a dream or a life that is not “ordinary.” Although at this point in my young professional speaking journey the downsides have been little, there has nonetheless been two main negative dream pursuit components which I touch upon in my In Pursuit of Dreams” speech:

4a. Haters – Admittedly, I have been a hater in my life. Whenever we see someone doing something well which we cannot do well ourselves, even if we have no desire to excel at that particular thing, it seems it is almost a human defense mechanism to lash out at that person, become jealous and negative, and hate on him or her. No matter what it is that we do and pursue in life, good or bad, there will ALWAYS be someone that attacks the work we do; so we might as well allow that hate to be directed at work that we love. There are haters and there is negativity in this world; and it’s only amplified when you start doing something special that you care deeply about. My advice and tactic has always been to instead utilize that negative energy and hate which is directed at you, as motivation and fuel to turn your game up another notch and take your work to the next level.

4b. Fear – The greatest and trickiest thing about fear is that it doesn’t really exist, except in our own minds. The only true fear in life is that of fear itself. With that in mind, as with any other anxiety or personal fear that you may have in your life, my advice is to recognize that it is there, say hello to it, make friends with your deepest fears and anxieties, and then simply allow your voices of confidence to overpower and carry you past that fear. Because in the end: what even is fear but a figment of our powerful mind’s imaginations?

5. When in pursuit of a dream or simply when going through the often-exhausting motions of life, we will at times be tired. Which is why I have finally come to understand that proper rest and reflection are crucial anchoring points while in pursuit of a dream. I am not advocating for stopping or quitting here but rather, something as simple as taking a day off. Taking some time to ourselves to reset, reflect on how far we have truly come on our journeys, and then consciously planning how we will attack our dreams going forward. When we do this, we often return to our work and dreams recharged and HUNGRIER to attack our dreams, passions, and visions then we were before.

6. The last and potentially the most crucial principle I have found that we need to abide by when going after a dream (or anything worthwhile in life) is the actual pursuit. All of these things we just discussed could be in place however, if we don’t take action to go after our dreams with a ferocious and relentless pursuit there is no chance, they will ever come to fruition. The journey is the destination; or as I like to say the pursuit of the dream IS the dream. Stay hungry. Keep pushing forward. And ALWAYS be grinding.

           Throughout my young dream pursuit journey, I have come to understand that pursuing our loftiest personal and professional dreams in life is by no means easy. Add to the fact, that in addition to pursuing our dreams we are often juggling college course works, social lives, and the anxieties that come along with being a college student; working full time jobs and trying to stay in shape; or raising a family and simply trying to get by and survive. This is a lot of hard work and often requires us to burn the candle at both ends for consecutive weeks and sometimes even months in a row. Often times, we don’t even know for certain that all of our hard work and determination will pay off or if our dreams will EVER come to fruition. All we have to go off of is a belief in ourselves, our mission, and our purpose. There is simply no way around it: pursuing a dream in life is often dangerous, risky, uncertain, and a hell of a lot more work then taking the safe path. But you know what else is a lot of hard work? Life. Sitting in a job that you don’t enjoy a second of. Living a life of unfulfillment and misery. Man, that’s a hell of a lot of work then going after something that brings your joy, fulfillment, meaning, energy, and impact. In the words of the great Kevin Smith “we’re ALL going to die screaming” so we might as well pursue the life that we truly want and deserve.