Scott Robert Alexander.com

You gotta get a dream.  I know it sounds corny, but I believe it is what sets the achievers apart from the mass of people waiting for Obama to take care of them.  It doesn’t matter what is happening to you right now.  Once you get a dream, a vision, a goal of where you want to be, you will start moving toward it.  And that is the key – MOVING!

Don’t be too concerned with how long something is going to take.  Success usually does not come in incremental, predictable steps.  When it does arrive, it comes in leaps and bounds.  It will bowl you over like a tidal wave.  That is why it as often referred to as “overnight success” even though it never is.  Overnight success might mean 10, 20 or even 50 years.   But you will never have overnight success, unless you start the process of taking the action towards it.

Wouldn’t it be weird if the the Obama administration set up a Department of Success?   Geez, they have a department for everything else and they are mostly unnecessary and counterproductive  to individual success.  I guess that is why we will not see a Department of Success from them.   It would be the antithesis of what the current government stands and exists for.

Let’s imagine, for a moment that people who believe in freedom got control and replaced the welfare department with the new Department of Success.  You are feeling like you want to contribute to society and follow your dream, so you go down to the new department to apply for success.  Hey!  What’s this?  No long line!  That’s because all the old welfare recipients are outside picketing this new department. They don’t want to bother dreaming -  they just want their free money.

It is not a big office. There is only one young guy running the place and he is very helpful.  He gives you a form to fill out.  Even though the new administration is pro-freedom, government is government, and you still have to fill out a form.  But it looks pretty simple.  Question #1.  What is your dream?

See, I told you!  Having a dream is so important that it is question number one on the application at the Department of Success!  Having a dream puts you in a different realm of being. It changes your thinking.  You develop new habits.

Are you going to spend your evenings watching TV once you have a dream?   No – because every hour watching TV contributes absolutely nothing toward achieving your dream.  The old welfare department’s way of thinking was “Let’s get these people a couple of TVs to fill the void in their lives.”

Do you think you would sit around drinking beer and smoking cigarettes if you had a dream waiting to be fulfilled?   Get real!  If you had a dream, would you ever think about putting drugs into your body?  Would you mope around?  Would you whine and complain?  Would you go stand in line at the Welfare Department to see what you could get?

Mediocrity is incompatible with dreaming.  Realizing the dream doesn’t change your life -  having the dream does.  Having a dream is so important and essential that it turns out it is the only question on the application for success.  Will you reach your dream?  It doesn’t matter.  Arriving is not what is important.  The journey is what changes your life.  Think about what you really want to accomplish and start charging!!   Scott Alexander

Copyright 2009 by Scott Alexander