The Field of Unfulfilled Dreams

Dreams are wonderful, but for every dream that’s realized twenty of them go unfulfilled.  The field of unfulfilled dreams seems like it would be a dark and depressing place, but actually it can be a source of encouragement.  More on that in a bit.

As you walk through the field of unfulfilled dreams you find thousands of entrepreneurial attempts and ideas that failed for any number of reasons.  Some were so big they never had a chance while others were just too small.  Some of them failed because of a lack of resources, others didn’t make it because there was a lack of drive and energy to sustain them.  A few will be resurrected, modified and renovated when resources are made available, or the timing is right.

The field is littered with hopes, ideas and dreams that never made it. Failed business plans, athletic aspirations, education, marital and family plans, projects, careers, houses and much more collect dust as tributes to something that went wrong, or fell woefully short of something that once created a fire in the belly.

We can look upon this field with melancholy eyes or hope.  History is filled with foiled dreams and failures of great men and women who despite those setbacks were able to rise above them and move forward.  Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Edison and Phil Mickelson all fell short of their dreams in their quest to fulfill a vision in their respective areas of politics, technology and sports.  But instead of listening to the pundits and naysayers they managed to rise above momentary setbacks and defeats to fulfill another dream.

Baseball Hall of Famer Ted Williams once said that those who fail only seven times out of ten attempts will be the greatest in the game.  Williams had a lifetime batting average of .344 leaving him 7th on baseballs all-time hit list.  Ty Cobb the best hitter to ever play the game only managed to hit .366 in his career.  The greatest in the game only got hits 3 out of 10 times at bat!  Statistically that is horrible, but in reality it is a legendary accomplishment that only a few of the greats ever achieve.  He kept getting up to bat even though he didn’t get a hit the majority of the time!  If that isn’t perspective on dreams I don’t know what is.

There’s a lesson there.  Keep swinging for the stars!  Is there an unfulfilled dream in your life?  Keep pressing, keep believing, keep trying.  Got a failure, or two like me, littering up the field of unfulfilled dreams? Don’t focus on the field.  The fact that you have a failed dream is good, it means your dreaming.  Imagine if Mother Teresa had given up on trying to eradicate hunger one mouth at a time in India?  Sure, she could’ve quit after all those who eventually died, but she kept bathing, cleaning, feeding and helping Calcutta’s poorest.  And she made a difference.  You can too!  Keep swinging for the stars and who knows you might end up getting a hit 3 out of 10 times at bat like the great Ted Williams.