Don’t be afraid to chase your dreams

It’s the New Year. Time for all of us to dream big.
 

And for one of us to realize that the dream is at hand.

Seven years ago, a serious car accident twisted up Family Sized Blender mom’s body. It was so bad, she had to give up a pretty good little career.

So she decided to dream. And boy, did she dream BIG. She decided to become a lawyer. At 32. A mom with two kids. Battling the physical fall out of smashed cars littering Highway 6 near Guelph.

That’s no small mountain to climb. There were introductory courses at the college, the LSAT, application to Osgoode, then, you know, actual law school. This is the natural order of things if you’re a 21-year-old, eyes full of wonder and hope.

Different story when you’re older. She went from two kids to three kids. From mom to single mom. From single mom to dating mom (and two more kids). A new pregnancy in the middle of third year. A crippling back problem that stopped the final semester in its tracks. It seemed that every obstacle on the planet dropped out of the sky, and yet the idea of giving up never crossed her mind.

This week, I watched mom put the finishing touches on the 7,000-word essay that closed out her law school career – and I wondered what characteristic you need inside of you to persevere no matter what. This is the best guess I can come up with:

You remember that you are the most important person in the world and that you are worth something.

As a parent of a very large family, this idea often gets lost in the shuffle. Every day is sacrifice with school pick ups and extra curricular drop offs, financial obligations and meal prep. It’s no different for us than it is for any family, it’s just amplified. And in that amplification, you can forget that you’re important, that you are human.

So you chase these big dreams, one step at a time. You fight and push and stumble, and eventually you get there. In getting there, you constantly remind yourself that this goal is your goal, that it’s your victory.

As you begin this new year with that fresh sheet of resolutions and dreams, pick one. Just one. That’s for you. That’s your chase. Don’t think of it as a result that you’re striving to meet. Think of it as the one thing that makes you important. The one thing that is your journey. Suddenly, it feels less like the mountain you climb, and more like the cliff you paraglide off of.

Whatever it is – lose 10 pounds. Expand your business. Start again. No matter what stands in you way, you can get there. Because it’s your journey.

Mom owns this victory. And I hope she basks in it for a while because dreaming big has been breathtaking to watch.