The city doesn’t sleep. In just keeps going and going. Always active with the movement of planes, cars, trains and people shuffling back and forth. The city is what many consider the ultimate symbol of humanities control over nature. A never sleeping, giant hive of activity, designed to fulfill our every need. With so much going on, the hustle and bustle of city life can be an addiction to some and unnerving to others.You could get lost in it and maybe, just maybe never come back out.
There is usually one spot in the city that is still, the park. A refuge of the natural world surrounded by the monuments of human progress. Here we can get away from some of the noise and activity and find a bit of reflection, a moment of peace.
Dreamers tend to be self-driven and motivated people. We have to be. When we are alone, when no one else believes in our dream, it is up to the dreamer to make a way forward. We have to be motivated or our dreams will stumble and falter along with us. This allows us to be strong in our weakest times but it can also create in us an insatiable appetite for progress. A relentless drive to always move forward, even when our efforts are subpar, or even blatantly wrong. Let me provide you with a recent example from my own life.
I am a huge fan of NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). Every November the group throws down the gauntlet, write your novel or 50,000 words in thirty days. This is, by all accounts, a good thing. My current manuscript was crafted during this headlong dash forward. It was great and it proved to be successful. I blew past the word count and kept on going, finishing up the first draft in late December. Then NaNoWriMo 2014 came, I was deep into the revision process on my other manuscript, so I was eager to write something new. I chose a short story (with your help) and embarked out again, fully expecting to make the same progress as the previous year. I failed. I think I only got 10,000 words into it (I started with 1500) and the wheels just fell off. The story was going nowhere, the characters were not interesting and I was tired.
Now NaNoWriMo was not at fault for this, I was. I had built up my expectations from previous experience. I was already involved in several projects, each of which was making great progress. I realize now that it was foolish to rush headlong into another project. Instead of adding more to my to-do list I should have stopped to complete one of the other projects. Or stopped everything for a time and prepared properly for the month long writing challenge.
I feel like many of us have made the same mistake. Emboldened by past success we charge forward eager to capture the next bit of the dream. We leap ahead into territory that we may well be unprepared for. And while it is good to challenge yourself, everything has a limit. We must be careful and brave. Cautious and bold. We must push our limits to find them, but leaping out past our limits will only lead to ruin. We must take time to not just push our dreams forward, but we must also take the time to take care of ourselves. In the midst of the hubbub and grind we need to find time to catch our breath, find a bit of peace or a moment of reflection. Take the time to take care of you, or your dream will never be complete.