There’s a running visual in my mind. A thread of life existing out there ambiguously floating, spied but not yet owned. It calls out to me where I am in today busy with little details and deadlines, distracted by all that must be done. And all must be done or the days bleed.
A day where the ground evens, the grade not quite as steep and the dirt not so loose and shifty; a day when accomplishment stays close to me and I have nothing left to prove to myself or God, in my mind. In that day, I am an author who writes easily about the dark, recounting scars and stories, waxing lyrically of the damnedest of days and grace lifting me near weightlessly. I will have reached a peak of accomplishment. A book will have been written, more books following the first, my family will be stronger and even more grounded in purpose and path, and all will beat with the rhythm of a day better than behind when grace was only a crutch and a cradle.
Those days glow ahead invitingly. ...oh, the glory those days ahead hold.
Getting here to there is a journey of making my way home to a place where I belong. Purpose, passion and meaning, all belong to that day, the one starring in the running visual in my mind.
It’s a day I must belong to, be in and reach for. That day when all comes together rightly and a smile hangs honestly displacing this tired look.
But now ... in this day ...
I get lost easily in the day to day, little steps leading to the broad expanse glowing on the horizon. I trust what’s ahead is good, but I don’t act accordingly. Distracted by insecurities, intimidated by fears, my eyes lock to just the dirt around my feet and all promise ahead shrinks miles away. And if I’m honest all I want to do is quit. Everything.
Almost two years ago, I set out to write a book, my first.
Manuscripts don’t write themselves and authors don’t just appear out of thin air. It takes work, lots of work. And like any reaching dream larger than the day current, determination is a necessary pace to be adopted if that day is to be pulled out of the sky and your dream is to live in real life.
That book, my nearly two year old effort, is being written. And that’s the whole of it completely.
This week marks my measured sprint to the finish. While I shelved working on my manuscript for 7 months, now it’s time to fully finish. It’s just not enough to dream big, pull hard, progress to a little acclaim, yet abandon all effort because of fear or doubt or weariness.
The visual still runs through my mind and the day still waits for my coming.
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All dreaming is a calling.
Undoubtedly, you feel the draw of dreams specific to your days lying in wait for you. It is never too late to be who you should be, to pick up where you left off, to brush the dirt off of the leading path buried in abandoned surrender.
Tomorrow awaits. It’s path is found in the little of today.
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Determination feeds can do thinking and effort leading to accomplishment. With anything bigger than now, any reach at more or tomorrow, determination is fundamental to success ultimately. In the end, bridging the gap between dreaming today and living in dreams tomorrow is quite simple. It is the guy who simply won’t give up, who wins little by little in each determined step today, that captures tomorrow.
Here are little steps I’ve held taken to be determined in finishing:
- define what I’m going after :: identify a focused finish and work everyday to close in;
- organize, schedule :: my work must have a pace and rhythm or resistance wins out and I don’t do what I want to do;
- reassess/evaluate progress :: celebrate another chapter complete, look back at progress and ahead to ensure my direction is on course and on time
- prayerfully do the work :: invite God right into the vulnerability and all moments I want to quit
In the end, writing the book is small compared to what the dream is doing inside of me. It’s the pursuit, the journey, that prepares me to belong and exist within the dreams of tomorrow ...the determination forged in the little of today.