YOU WERE DREAMING OF THIS
Here are you, preparing to kick off another day, and let me guess…you are exhausted. That never-ending to-do list for today looks a lot like it did yesterday. Maybe it’s school or work. Maybe it’s practice or meetings. There are problems to solve. There are people to deal with. There is pressure to perform. There’s fatigue and frustration and the fight - ahead of you again today - for the success you say you’re after.
I’m not here to diminish the long list of challenges that are a part of your winning pursuit, or the struggle it requires you to endure. But I am here to help provide you with a little perspective for the position you’re in. Because we are hard-wired to glamorize and glorify the idea of high achievement, it can be easy for us to forget that success in the important areas of life is most often determined by our approach to days like today - by those moments that don't feel all that glamorous.
It’s not all that hard for the fatigue or the frustration or that fight we're facing once again to distort the reality - not only of where we are, but also where we’ve come from. Sometimes reconnecting to where we've come from can help us recalibrate our perspective and our approach. That's why it's a valuable exercise - because for most of us, not all that long ago we were dreaming about and hoping for the opportunity to be right where we are today. We would’ve given anything to be sitting in this seat. To be dealing with these problems and these people and this pressure to perform. Stop and think for a minute about where you’ve come from. Can you remember when you were dreaming of being here, in the exact position you’re in right now?
Can you remember when you were dreaming of being here, in the exact position you’re in right now?
Reconnecting to that simple reality serves a couple of important purposes. First, it helps us activate a key component of high performance, one that the fatigue and frustration of our daily pursuit can gradually diminish. It activates our gratitude. Given the opportunity, I bet that old version of you would willingly and joyfully approach this day ahead. They would gladly embrace the challenges that come with being right where they dreamt of being - right where you are here today.
The other benefit of remembering that not long ago you were dreaming of being right where you’re at today is that it clarifies the truth about what real success looks like, and what it will requires from you moving forward. Regardless of your current position, I’m confident you’ve got some big dreams for your future. I hope there are bigger, more important places you dream about going and bigger, more important things you dream about doing. But I also hope you recognize that getting there will bring with it a whole new list of problems to solve, of people to deal with, and of pressure to perform. It’s easy to glamorize or glorify some vision of the future, but in reality, your experience there will probably look a lot like it does here, and your success will be determined by your approach to those everyday elements of your experience to come.
So what is all this looking back and looking forward designed to help you do? First and foremost, it's meant to provide you with a little gratitude for the opportunity you've been given today - even for the problems you have to solve, the people you have to deal with, and the pressure you feel to perform. Secondly, I hope it highlights that all of it - even the challenges - plays an important part in your success, not just today, but into the future as well. Today’s an opportunity to honor where it is you’ve come from in the past, and a chance to validate once again that you are worthy of winning in the future.
