Tenacity Required to Fulfill a Dream

My Diva wants to dance.  It is her dream.  She wants to be on stage, travel around the world, and reserve front row seats for me. 

 

It is her dream; her goal; her heart’s desire. 

 

And it is one that requires hard work. 

 

It is a dream I can’t buy – and wouldn’t buy if I could. 

 

Money does amazing things.  It can open doors and provide experiences.  It can take us places that we might not be able to go otherwise.  But it can’t buy dreams.  Or can it?

 

Perhaps it can buy some dreams.  If we dream of sky diving, money will pay for the lessons and the flying time.  If we dream of playing the piano as an amateur, again, it pays for the instrument and the lessons.  Money can buy the things that are required to walk the path toward dream fulfillment. 

 

But what about the work?  What about the actual price that a dream costs?

 

The tenacity to fulfill those dreams or pursue them is something that lives within us.  It is something that can’t be bought.    

 

So often it seems that we have desires.  We want this and that.  We want it now.  Throw money at it and make it happen.  But how often do we stop and consider the work that is required to make a dream happen?  Do we stop and consider where we will get the money required to pay for that dream to have a chance?

 

When I lived in Prague, the older teachers wanted to return to Communism.  They stood at the brink of capitalism with their dreams and goals lying before them.  The possibilities were endless; opportunities were plentiful.  But the cost… the cost of fulfilling or beginning down the path to dream fulfillment was too high.  The cost of freedom was too high.  They liked the security of communism.  They preferred the idea of being safe and comfortable to taking risks on fulfilling their dreams. 

 

When I talk to my daughter, I tell her about the risks.  Given all that she has to do to perform, she understands the choices she must make – and she makes them on her own.  There aren’t parties or play dates if there is ballet.  She is choosing to pay a price for her dreams.  She understands, at some level, the risks that she will take – she knows that it is a hard, rough road requiring great tenacity and dedication.  She recently was not chosen for a role because she wasn’t tall enough.  But that, as she has learned, is what ballet entails. 

 

And yet she continues.  With growing tenacity, she travels the road to her dream. 

 

How many of us travel down that road with tenacity?  How many of us want dreams to come true simply because that is what we want?  Do we stop and consider the cost of those dreams?  Do we consider the risk that is required?  Do we strive for that dream or do we find ourselves focused on the fear of what happens if we do not achieve that dream?

 

Dreams come true!  They require risk, hard work, tenacity, and years of planning and preparation.  Can we truly believe that dreams can be achieved any other way?  A large percentage of people do.  I wonder why?