I’ve played Novak Djokovic, the world’s #1 men’s singles champion, in tennis.
It was such a crazy scene.
Before I even woke up, I knew that it was a dream. Did I mention that I don’t even own a tennis racquet?
Nonetheless, there we were, in dreamy color, facing each other on a rooftop tennis court atop a hotel. And … wait for it … Novak and I were playing with tennis balls made out of toilet paper.
I struggled with my serve; as did he, I might add. Every time I swung at it, the ball fell only a few inches or couple of feet away. After a few attempts, in a flash of brilliance, I thought to ask the line judge a question about the rules. Could I make a new ball out of a different wad of toilet paper, or did I have to finish out that game with that particular toilet-paper tennis ball?
I got a new start.
Now there’s an example for you of taking a leap first and asking questions later, and that’s as it should be with dreams – whether nighttime ones or daytime ones. Dreams are a time to think a new thought. Try something different. Take a risk. Create that new tennis ball.
Then serve up your best game.
Too often, though, we ask too many questions before pursuing our dream. Our self-talk starts to kick in before we’re even out of bed. We wake up and say, “Well, that’s not me, and not something that I could ever do, so why try?” And we stop right there, before we ever get started, and we let ourselves stay stuck.
Taking risks is hard, yet it’s absolutely imperative if we’re ever going to accomplish anything great, or if we’re to meet our full potential.
I know because I’m there. I have been there, and I have fallen short some times. I would have fallen short many times, except that I wasn’t always willing to take the risk in the first place.
This blog is my toilet-paper tennis game right now: My dream, my risk, my leap of faith.
Will it fall short of the net, like some of my other dreams before it? Or will I say to myself, the loudest of all my judges, “can I make this bigger?” and then give it my best effort? I suppose there’s only one way to find out whether it will sail across the net and land solidly where it’s meant to be, or drop weakly at my feet.
Serve.
What dreams do you have? What’s keeping you from turning those into reality? What’s your version of a toilet-paper tennis ball? Share in the comments or via my contact form. I’d love to hear your story.
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