Dreams do come true

Today as it snows yet again as Old man winter waves goodbye, I dream of warmer weather, but I guess my dream will have to wait another week or two.   

Today I watched a video someone linked to and then I did something unusual.  I watched about a dozen more and came across an inspiring story.  I came across a video for Susan Boyle on Britain’s Got Talent.  Yes, it’s from a couple years ago and apparently I’m out of the loop, but if you haven’t seen it, please watch. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8OcQ9A-5noM&feature=related

Here is a 47 year old woman who has a dream and has never given up.  As you’ll see in this video (go watch it, if only the first couple minutes to where she starts to sing, but I think you’ll watch to the end) it doesn’t matter who you are, where you’re from, or what you look like, if you hold onto your dream you will succeed.  Susan may have taken the long road to get to where she now is, but she’s there.  In a moment, her life changed.  She’s been singing since she was 12 years old and had a voice coach, but hadn’t reached her dream of becoming a professional singer.  Still she persisted, and at age 47, this plain looking woman, shocked and stunned the world with her performance of “I Dreamed a Dream”.  What a perfect song choice for this monumental moment in her life.  I love watching these moments when someone who has had so much faith in themselves, finally gets recognition.  She had faith, courage, persistence and a dream.

Do you have a dream?  Do you take action to make that dream come true?  Do you persist when people reject you?  There are so many examples of so called overnight sensations, who in fact have been pursuing their dreams for years and didn’t give up.  I think of JK Rowling, a single mother that received multiple rejections before finally finding a publisher for her Harry Potter books.  There’s Stephen King, trying to work, support his family and write while they struggled to buy the things they needed.  When Carrie, his first published book, was accepted, his first thought was they would be able to afford the antibiotics for his daughter’s ear infection.  These are simple people not so different from any of us, who had a dream and stuck with it until it became a reality.  

I encourage each and every one of you to have a dream, a well defined and clear dream that you can pursue with all your heart.  Your dream doesn’t have to involve fame and fortune, but whatever it is, if you believe in yourself you can achieve the dream with courage, persistence, faith and belief in yourself.  Never give up!