Viking Coach

"Hold fast to your dreams, for if they die, you are like a broken-winged bird that cannot fly." (Langston Hughes)

If you think about it, falling in love and having big dreams have a lot in common.

When you fall in love you are pretty focused on that one person and if you want things to work out you make sacrifices for the person you are attracted to. You buy into this relationship with your whole heart and work to make this love last. You are somewhat afraid of this feeling because you fear that your love will not be returned and you do run the risk that, one day you may be left with a broken heart as the relationship just doesn’t work out.

The same holds true for dreams. . . Once you really buy into a dream you need to be pretty focused on that dream. You need to make sacrifices in order to get close to that dream. You believe in the possibility of the dream and like love, you do run the risk of being disappointed by not achieving our dream.

For the same reason that some people shy away from relationships, a lot of people often find themselves not dreaming big enough dreams.

Maybe you start to feel that you are not worthy of someone’s love or some higher goal or maybe it is your fear of failure or being hurt that over rides your desire for love and/or success. Either way people create “roadblocks” in their pursuit of love and dreams. In sports we identify these roadblocks as confidence and fear. These “roadblocks” often keep us from experiencing the joys and the challenges that really are the spice of life.

It is so important for all of us to dream big dreams because what you gain by pursuing your dreams, by far makes up for the disappointment of maybe not reaching your dream.

Like the great country philosopher Garth Brooks states in one of his songs; “Life isn’t tried it is merely survived if your standing outside the fire.” Life is about taking chances and no matter what the outcome you grow as a person and you experience the “excitement” of life.

We need to start dreaming bigger dreams!

I recently read the following in a magazine. It is from Lewis Carrol’s story “Through the Looking Glass”

“I can’t believe that!” said Alice.
“Can’t you?” the queen said in a pitying tone. “Try again, draw a long breath, and shut your eyes.”
Alice laughed. “There’s no use trying,” she said. “One can’t believe impossible things.”
“I dearsay you haven’t had much practice.” Said the queen. “When I was your age, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”

In our program I really want the girls to dream of one day cutting down the nets after winning a section championship! I want them to vividly see themselves doing this in their minds. Why??? I hope it inspires them to set goals that will help them one day turn their fantasies to dreams and dreams to bigger, things.

It is important to understand that it isn’t enough to just dream. . . dreams alone are really just fantasies. Turning these fantasies to dreams require that you actively work towards achieving the dream. You do this by setting goals. Goals are the baby steps that you start taking as you move towards your dream. Simple goals, tough goals, short term goals, long range goals . . . the key is to set them and work towards them while, all the while, you keep your eyes focused on the dream.

In the end, dream fulfilled or dream unmet, you will find you are on to “bigger things” as you have improved as an individual because you have fought the good fight, you have finished the race, you have kept the faith