Who Dares Begins

I'm a big believer that books can hit a chord inside you that resonates. I remember someone reading to me Julius Caesar and it mesmerising me, I remember teaching Of Mice and Men to groups of students and finding comfort in the description as I could almost read it word for word without even looking at the page. "Books are boring!" is something I've heard a lot and to be honest I just think you haven't found the right book yet. As a busy dad, ferrying my kids to clubs and then any work commitments on top of that, there can be little time left over and you're left asking the question "When do you get the time to read a book?"

It's core concept was to build a vision, and then meticulously plan for that down to the specific days. In doing so, you create a sense of urgency that makes you achieve more. The first thing the book mentions that was hugely useful in reframing was when it stated

"When we imagine a future significantly bigger than our current reality... People immediately ask how would I do this. By asking What if? you give yourself permission to entertain the possibility."

It's true. If you're anything like me, quite a lot of the time you've talked yourself out of doing something because it seems impossible, or that "those jobs" aren't realistic, and if you even manage to get over that self-defeating hurdle, the logistics of how would send you crashing! How do I find time when I have to take my boys to their training? How do I do this when realistically, after work I'm back at home for 6 pm?

Questions like that flood my mind and largely stop me from doing things, but the book offered me a different question to think about.

What if? What if you could do the project you imagined? Such a question gives your mind some breathing room - imagining the lifestyle, the opportunities and how that would feel. This (especially if written in great detail) fuels the how. I wrote down my vision, what it would look like, what I would do, and why.

"You don't know how to do it, because if you did, you would likely be doing it already... It creates the perception that it's impossible."

The answer to that question came in the form of a train heading out to London as I accompanied my son down to the capital. If we were in industry they'd define it as "trapped time" when you have little other choice than to endure the travel as it's the only way to get to the event. My son had already got the train's wifi sorted and was listening to music. I could sit looking out the window, play on my phone or I could choose to read a book. I chose the latter; "The 12 Week Year" written by Brian P. Moran and Michael Lennington was my book of choice. It had sat on my shelf for well over 12 weeks so the irony wasn't lost on me, so I popped it in my bag for the journey down. I'm so glad I did because reading it made me think this blog, this website was a possibility. If you have always had an idea or project, but not acted on it - then this could easily be the book for you!

This again hit home. Think of all the ambitions and dreams you've had. How many have you actually achieved? If you're like me, they probably seemed too big, impossible even. Couple that with as you get older you might want to raise a family, and own a house so it's easy to see why you put these thoughts on the back burner for more "realistic" goals.

Now though, as a dad myself, what if my child has similar aspirations? What example would I set if I didn't try an achieve things out of the norm?

And what if they had ambitions that seemed huge? No good parent would crush these, no you'd foster them, help them to make plans, and facilitate when you could.

Starting this project is in some ways to say to my children, follow that thread of a thought as you never know where it may go...

Chris is a freelance writer & illustrator. Thanks for checking out our site. You can stay up to date with our blog, comics and artwork by signing up to our FREE newsletter.