The first category was the hardest and worth fifty points. The second, forty points and the final category, which was the easiest, was worth thirty points. When the students had completed the exam, the students who chose the fifty-point category were given an A. The students choosing the second were given a B and the ones who chose the easiest category received a C.
The students were somewhat frustrated with the professor and complained that they were not sure what he was looking for in the process. The professor smiled and explained that he was not testing their material knowledge per se, but instead, he was testing their future aim.
It has been said, “Make no small plans for they have no power to stir your soul.”
Tom Clancy said this, “Nothing is as real as a dream. The world can change around you, but your dream will not. Responsibilities need not erase it. Duties need not obscure it. Because the dream is within you, no one can take it away.”
The challenge is to believe it and believe it boldly. Virtually anyone can think in “small” terms. It isn’t difficult and does not necessarily challenge your brain to pound out detailed plans and stirring goals. In essence, a little does just fine. However, to secure the true dream, it demands more than simple idle pondering of the future. It demands you to fully awaken your total abilities.
It has been confirmed that too many people aim low with their dreams and even those who have what they term as "big dreams” too often set their sights and plans much too low. If we look more closely at this reality, it is somewhat understandable. Many people have a fear of failure and frankly, no one wants to be labeled a failure. Thus, they strive to play it safe so that possibility does not arise.
Just as the students in the professor’s class made their choices, each of us have similar choices we can make about ourselves and our futures. We can truly find the essence of our “purpose” in life or we can allow it to remain a blurred horizon that is never reached.
We must challenge ourselves to BIG dreams. We must challenge ourselves to BIG thinking if we are to ever unlock the valuable treasure chest that lies deep within each of us. It is imperative that we pull that treasure out of its hidden corridors and set it firmly before us. It is the very instrument that allows us to more actively utilize the greatest adventure we shall ever take: bringing those dreams to reality.
Langston Hughes put it this way,
“Hold fast to dreams for if dreams die,
Life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly.
Hold fast to dreams for when dreams go,
Life is a barren field frozen with snow.”
Your dreams can open new doors to great adventure. All it demands is for you to believe, to give them the opportunity to bloom, and to then pursue them with every ounce of strength and determination you can muster. What the future may hold will most often come from what you allow your dreams to display.
