Pull Up A Chair…

What were your childhood dreams?  Seriously, we all had them — but how many of us ever pull them out and think about them.  Let alone achieve them.

This "last lecture" given by Randy Pausch has made the rounds quite a bit on YouTube and beyond.  And I’m certain a lot of you have seen it, or at least bits and pieces of it.  But in case you haven’t, I’ve embedded it at left for you.

I started thinking about this lecture this week upon learning of Sir Edmund Hillary’s passing.  There are some people that live…really live.  And Hillary always struck me as that sort of person.  Having been a National Geographic junkie my whole life, he really was one of the giants of my childhood.  And even though I haven’t made it to Mt. Everest yet, there is still time.

At least, I hope so.  And that’s sort of the point of this piece today.  How can you know?

Tim McGraw had a wonderful song a year or so ago that really hits that sweet spot for me.  (Here’s the YouTube of it.)  The gist of the song is that he’s speaking with a man who was diagnosed with a fatal illness, and then starts living every moment to the fullest, only to later find that he’s still living.  What it teaches him is not to put off the important things for a later time, but instead to live in the now.  Every time I hear the song, I start thinking about all of my "some day" dreams and try and find one that I can do now.

Sometimes I’m better at it than others.  We all are, I suspect.  But, as Jane pointed out yesterday, leaders shouldn’t wait until later to start leading, so why should we give ourselves any more of a pass for not doing the same with our own lives?  We often say to "be the change you want to see."  But that change starts with a dream of something better.  Something brighter.  Some goal so wonderful it’s worth pouring your heart and soul into it.

Life is short.  But the list of amazing things that you can do with your life is a long one. 

So lets talk dreams this morning.  What were your childhood dreams for your life?  Have you done some of them and, if so, which ones lived up to the dream?  If money and time were no object, what would you be doing…right now?   Maybe it is a dream for someone else?  Whatever your passion, your goal, your whatever it is that makes you joyous just thinking about it:  do share.  Get yourself another cuppa, and pull up a chair…

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