The difference a dream makes
Have you ever been to another country where the pollution is so bad that the sky is always grey? The sky and the countryside and the buildings and even the people look grey. People who live there don’t know what it’s like to have a clear blue sky – the brightness and the light and the colours. They don’t know there’s anything else to see!
That’s what it’s like living without a dream. You live in dullness, and that’s where the anxieties and depressions are. But there’s more to life than that.
When we start to see the blue sky and get into the light, our dreams come out and ignite us. Let me show you the way to the blue sky.
Have your dreams been smashed?
If a bloke’s dreams have been smashed, he becomes harder inside. He doesn’t dare to dream, he doesn’t get courageous about things, he holds back more. He goes into ‘same-old same-old’ mode. He says things like, ‘It’s all right for you, you’re young, but I’ve missed my time.’
When a man’s dreams get smashed, it’s like a sponge that used to be full of water but has slowly dried out. The sponge is still there, but it needs life. Give it life! Give it water! It’s not dead yet.
As a boy, I dreamed of being a schoolteacher. I wanted to teach physical education (PE). I loved sport and I was a natural leader. But I didn’t win a scholarship to go to teacher’s college, and my father couldn’t afford to pay for me to study. My dreams were smashed. I was dulled and disappointed and dejected. I thought, That’s the end of it.
As I sat at my desk in my pencil-pushing job for the next 22 years, I didn’t even give it my best shot. I felt trapped. Blokes looking in from the outside saw my great superannuation and my flexi-time and envied my security. But it didn’t feel like security to me. It felt like a noose around my neck.
Well, that wasn’t the end of the story, and for the past 23 years I have been a teacher after all – a teacher of men. I’ve taught blokes to drive trucks, and even better than that, I’ve encouraged tens of thousands of men into becoming the realdeal champions they were created to be, dreaming their own turbocharged dreams.
How’s that for a smashed dream that came back to life?
Looking back, it’s easy to see why it took so long for me to become a teacher. To be a real-deal teacher of men, I needed real-deal life skills in manhood. How could I teach a man about being a man if I hadn’t done the hard yards myself?
Maybe your dream is taking a long time, like mine did. But that doesn’t mean it’s dead. Some dreams take longer, and men need time and space.
Now I know that the Boss of all dreams, my Creator, always had me in his radar. He’s got me going hard and enjoying my dream at the best time of the race – teaching and encouraging men and boys into a great life, pursuing their own dreams.
He’s got you in his radar too. My dream to be a PE teacher was shattered so it could emerge as something different. Maybe your dream is being rebuilt like mine was!
