Eye Fixed to the Dream

I was taught a powerful lesson this past weekend. I watched a young football team seem to give up before game day even arrived. The coach chose the strongest player on the team, who also happened to be the team's natural leader and challenged him to a seemingly impossible task, and then blindfolded him. At that point, many would think the player was being asked to double an already difficult task, and given an extremely difficult handicap.

Asked to do the death crawl but, instead of ten yards, he was told to death crawl to the 50 yard line. The death crawl is when a player crawls on his hands and feet from the end zone across designated yardage ... with another player on his back. It's tough, extremely tough and not a task for the fainthearted.

The coach told the young player that he wanted him to pull from the heart. And he blindfolded him so he wouldn't give up before he arrived at the 50 yard line. This young player, with a big strong player on his back, crawled the full length of the football field, from one end zone to another. When he felt as if he could go no further, sure he'd reached the 20, and then the 30, the coach continued to push him, encourage him and foot by foot, he made it into the end zone.

Why? Why could that young man carry a 165 pound football player 100 yards when he believed he couldn't? When the coach told him what he'd done, the young man was amazed, and completely exhausted.

And herein lies the lesson. How often do we stop short of a goal because we see obstacles, both those imagined and real? How often do we fail ... because we expected to because of what we see around us? And the most important question, what on earth could we possibly accomplish if we ceased stopping ourselves short of the goal?

Is your dream to write the next great American novel? What have you done to further that dream? Do you read? Do you attend writers conferences? Do you associate with other writers (there are many writers groups on the internet)? And most of all, have you sat down at your computer or with a notebook and written those first words? Or does it all seem like too much?

One yard at a time and anything is possible.

Is your dream to soar high into space, exploring a frontier where so few will ever go? Have you gone to college? Have you joined the military? Have you persevered and pushed through the trials to get those grades? Have you immersed yourself in learning?

Again, anything taken step by step is completely possible.

I could go through dream after dream, but each is as individual as the person who has them. One should never succumb to the minutiae of life and abandon one's dreams. No matter what it is, there is always some aspect of it you will be able to accomplish, if not the whole enchilada.

Perhaps what we are talking about is blind faith. You've developed your skills. You continually work to better yourself, as a human being and in your chosen dreams. Every day, you devote a part of your day to the pursuance of those dreams. You do everything within your power, every day, and you leave the rest of it to the Lord.

Like the lesson this young football player learned, the impossible is achievable when we don't stop ourselves. When we can't see the end, we can't see the restrictions or obstacles. We just keep pushing forward, pulling from deep within our hearts when we want to give up. From the heart is where the passion for something comes, and from the heart is where you will find the drive to continue on ... no matter what.

So, put on your proverbial blindfold, fix your goal in your mind and push forward, yard by yard and you will succeed.