We all have dreams that give us butterflies. They are buried somewhere deep but if you dig a bit, you will find them right there, waiting to be chased the way we used to chase butterflies as kids.
For some people, it’s playing an instrument, hiking the Himalayas, becoming an actor, starting a business, starting up an exercise routine, and many other different things you may have in mind just like butterflies which come in different sizes and colors, there are 17,500 species of them in the world.
The truth is that most of us keep our dreams locked somewhere and keep living our lives sitting very comfortably under the umbrella of one way and in our hearts Dreams are just dreams, our rational brain tells us and we go back to the mundane day to day.
One of the things I always dream of is writing a book. It's a dream that I have kept in the one-day category. Believe me One day is a dangerous term, a comforting timeline that makes us feel good and safe.
Truth be told, we do not have the courage to say never, because that would mean openly confessing we are too scared to dream, which can be literally letting the butterfly go altogether. So, we say “one day” instead, giving us a momentary placebo.
You can try it: One day I will…(fill in the blank with your dream).” I bet it felt good right?
The power of today
Instead of hoping for that “one day”, your today will possibly make your one day a reality depending on how effectively you make use of your today, your now.
Can I challenge you?
Try the same sentence you have come across earlier, just changing one word:
“Today I will…(fill the blank with one step that will take you closer to your dream)”.
Not tomorrow, not next week but “today”
For me, that one step was sitting down and writing one page of my book. The very first page. That very first page marked a before and an after. I realized that taking one step, however small, is one step closer to your dream.
It does not have to be big either. For you, it could be telling your friends about it, signing up for a course, making that one call, taking that five-minute walk, etc. You know, once you take the first step, breaking out from the circles of procrastination, that's it! You are at the start line and all of a sudden your dream is not just a dream, it’s a destination, it becomes a finish line, you can see it on the horizon and you are one step closer to your butterfly not just running around it, of which you'll be letting it go at the end.
And so, my question to you is, what will you do differently today? Are you going to chase your dream today or will you continue to sit under the umbrella of one day?
