“All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them. It’s kind of fun to do the impossible. I only hope that we never lose sight of one thing — that it was all started by a mouse.”
- Walt Disney
I’ve come to strongly believe in the power of dreams. Seven years ago, when I told people that I would not only lose my weight to get out of obesity (and all the issues that came with it) and one day become an Ironman, nobody believed me. But that was okay because my entire journey was and still is fuelled by the dream. Although this dream has now taken new spins and increased in stature, the basis of ultra-endurance competition, losing weight, and completing my first Ironman has never waned.
In the days of losing weight and fighting the dreaded obesity, there were some days when all would seem lost. Cheating on my diet, cutting back on exercise, and falling back into old habits happened more often than anyone would know but I truly believe that holding on obstinately to my dream eventually got me to where I am today. I must say that it is far from a finished product but when I look back, the journey has been one fraught with obstacles and difficulties but one that if given the chance, I would embark on all over again.
“There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure.”
- Paulo Coelho
Failure. I used to face this word with trepidation and fear. What if I couldn’t lose weight? What if I couldn’t complete my race? What if I picked up an injury? What if I came in last? Over the past seven years, I’ve come to realise that true failure only comes when we hold onto a dream but do nothing to move towards it. True failure only comes when we take one step forward, hit an obstacle, and tell ourselves it is now too hard to move forward. True failure comes when we let other people poke their fingers in our faces and tell us we’re not good enough and we actually believe them. Everything else to me is just a stumbling block in life, a test of how good we are and how much better we can be. A test of who is willing to take the blows and run with them. A test to determine if we are worthy of pursuing our own dreams.
Dreams and failure. These two are so often separated by such a thin line that many of us fear venturing into this vast unknown. What many of us don’t realise is that dreaming, failing, falling, and succeeding are all working hand in hand with one another to ensure we stay honest with ourselves. After all, what fun would it be if we simply needed to dream and it all came through? It is in treading this thin line and the ability to keep moving forward that forms the process. And this process that leads us to the dream is one that is thoroughly enjoyable. No dream was ever met without the process being in place. That’s how we journey forward to meet our goals in life.
Don’t fear failure, don’t fear the dream. Embrace it, live it, and journey forward with it.
Onward.
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