Learn From Kids – Dream BIG!

By: D.A. Slinkard
What is one thing you would do if you knew with 100% certainty you could not fail? For some it may be starting a new business, for others it may be switching careers, and for others it might be performing mission work in a foreign land. If you want to know what you are truly passionate about, ask yourself the question above, and your answer is where your heart is. Too often people go to work and have no meaning to their life. Let me ask you this – why is it you that go to work?

We have too many people going to jobs they hate only to live a life they know is nothing but a lie. If you look at the world around us, you see many people who are hurting, who are living broken lives, who are lacking purpose in their life. Why is that? It is pretty simple if you think about it. When a child says they want to be an astronaut, we tell them they can be anything they want to be; but when an adult says they want to be an astronaut, we start to think they are off their rocker.

At what point in time do we give up on our dreams? At what point in time do we concede to the fact we are not going to make it? It seems the more we think about this topic, we see people on two ends of the spectrum. We have those people who hang on to their dreams too long, and then, we have the other group of people who give up too early on having their dreams happen.

From my perspective, more and more people are quicker to give up prematurely than they are to hang on too long. What kind of passion do they truly have? What is the mindset of the adult versus the kid? How do we carry the same mentality from our youth into our adult years? This is the million dollar question.

We need to take a look at our life through the eyes of our younger selves and take the same mentality of not hearing no for the answer. I can remember being a child and wanting an expensive item. My parents did what a lot of parents don’t do today, my parents told me no. I see too many parents who just give in without thinking about the repercussions of continually giving in to their children. I, being the child who did not understand the cost analysis, merely suggested to my mom that she could just write a check for the item.

To me this was the simple answer in that she could just write a check for the item, and I would be satisfied. Unfortunately, I didn’t realize you couldn’t just write a check for anything and everything you wanted in life. Now, I did have the mentality of a child and I was persistent. I wanted that gaming unit and I wanted it bad. I started saving my money, working hard to save up enough money so I could buy the item myself. Eventually, I ended up getting what I wanted, but I had to work for it every penny of the way.

My mentality was that I was not taking no for an answer. Sure, it would have been nice for my mom to have caved in and bought the item for me, but she didn’t. I never lost focus on what I wanted, and in the end, I was able to make the purchase of the item I wanted. Now, think about your life today and how many times have you taken the wrong mental approach to getting something you wanted? How many times have you been told no and just rolled over instead of going after what you wanted with the right amount of persistence?

We all have one opportunity when it comes to life, and the question is: What are you going to do with the time you have? Are you going to keep doing the same old thing you have been doing, just wasting your days through life? Or are you going to take a look at your life through the eyes of your younger self who was quicker to take on a challenge? Sure, you can play it safe, but over the next 25 years you will be disappointed not in what you did but in what you did not accomplish. Why wait on making your life happen?
By: D. A. Slinkard
D.A. Slinkard is the manager of the Athens Staples store