Around sixty years ago, Martin Luther King dared the world with his “I Have a Dream” speech, challenging us to imagine what the future could be. Last week, I wrote about owning our dreams and then moving forward on them despite what others thought. Staying with that theme, on this week’s podcast with Denise Kirtley, we talk about how, for many of her clients, stating a dream is what is difficult; not so much the physical training.
All of us have the power to dream a future for ourselves and for the world, but it requires courage to even imagine what that future could be. The older we get, the more likely we are to take ourselves out of our dreams, not daring to go there anymore. Be brave, be audacious, and say it out loud, go big, and don’t hold back: What is your dream? Someone recently asked me that question, and it was challenging for me to put my dreams into words. It felt daring to say what those dreams are, the words pushed up against a parentally installed voice in my head that asks me “Who do you think you are to be so recklessly self-serving that you dream big?” It hit me that even though the mission of AGEIST is to expand the possible, I am self-limited in what I dare to dream. Self-realization can be a bitch.
The realization was that not only are we limited by our imaginations of what we consider possible, but also by the voices in our heads telling us that we are not worthy of such aspirations and that when we fail, disappointment awaits. I have yet to speak to a 90-year-old who was disappointed they dreamed, they tried, and they didn’t quite make it to the top. Dreaming big is risky, but only to our self-limitations. That is a risk — you may actually be bigger, stronger, and more worthy than you thought, and you may have to change to accommodate that realization. This is a challenge and, as unlikely as it may sound, it requires courage. Take a deep breath and go big. You are worth it.
Onward and upward,
David
