Before I ripped my knee open in a motorcycle accident at age nine, dirt bikes were my singular obsession.
I remember many a road trip when I would look out the window and “ride” an imaginary dirt bike parallel with the car, jumping overpasses and fences in my mind’s eye for hours on end.
It felt so real, I would almost forget it was imaginary.
A warning sign of what was to come.
…
If you read this blog, chances are you have a vivid imagination.
When your close your eyes and imagine the house you could build, the book you could write, the business you could start… the vision is so remarkably clear and compelling that the temptation to build things INTERNALLY, in your own mind, instead of EXTERNALLY, in the real world, is a distinct and ongoing temptation.
The draw of purely mental creation is undeniable:
Your creations are instantaneous.
Effortless.
Free.
Unscrutinized.
Not so when you start building things in the real world.
Your creations will be decidedly non-instantaneous. Their completion will take months, years, even decades.
They will be among the hardest things you’ve ever done.
They will cost you blood, sweat, tears, and money.
And if your projects are bold, they will draw scorn and derision from many. Even (especially) from those you love and most want to make proud.
So WHY BOTHER?
Why take the time and effort to bring your visions to life for the outside world when you could, with a fraction of the effort, simply keep them private… caged in your mind for your own titillation?
Because it’s not about your blood sweat and tears.
It’s not about that precious reputation you’re so terrified to risk.
It’s about the satisfaction that comes from sharing your blood with the world.
It’s about creating real, material value for others.
It’s about the people whose lives would be darker if you never made your internal dream an external reality.
“Of course!” you say. “But I don’t do that. Not anymore. In fact, I’m planning out my project right now.”
Call it what you will: “planning,” “mapping out,” “researching”…
If you have a dream you’ve not begun risking faith, heart, or money for, then you’ve fallen back to the old familiar solace of internal creation.
“Planning” should be a brief prelude to action, a short circumspection before the blood letting.
If they could see what you see, they’d be begging you: move the dream outside your skull.
Take it outside the curved walls of your exquisite mind and make that shit MANIFEST.
Bring that book, that enterprise, that presentation, that song OUT of the ether and into the flesh and blood world were we can see it, taste it, feel it, LIVE IT.
Yes, I know it’s harder, riskier, scarier.
Yes, I know you’ll always be tempted to retreat to the clouds, to take up the old internalizations.
But better to pay the price now than the far heavier price of end-of-life regret.
So belly up to the mess.
Go neck deep in blood.
Bring your treasures down from the mountain.
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