Our Dreams Are Our DNA
Are we paying attention to the right stuff?
Take biology for instance. I never took a biology course in my
life. I really have no idea how my body works, and yet I remain
in good health. But when I visit the doctor, it's the same as
visiting an auto mechanic or a computer technician. They ask a
few questions, and then tell me it sounds like a problem with
the gobbly-gook. I nod my head, as if I know what they're
talking about, and then leave more confused than ever.
So, you could imagine my horror when my son comes up to me and
says, "Daddy, what's DNA?" I had no clue. The only people that
really care about it are the lawyers, the researchers and the
people on CSI. I figured it had to stand for something, and I
knew two things about it from watching television: it's all over
our body, and it's unique for every body.
So, I gave him my "Daddy knows best" look and said, "Eric, it's
an abbreviation. It stands for...Dreams Needing Attention." His
face lit up and he went to the phone to tell all his friends
about his new found knowledge. Then my wife came up, and said,
"Hold on Eric. I decided to Ask Jeeves, and he said DNA stands
for Deoxyribo Nucleic Acid." Silly Jeeves. So, I told my son
that was the Latin equivalent for Dreams Needing Attention.
But if you think about it, my answer made perfect sense. Our
dreams are our DNA. DNA is all over our body, and it makes us
unique. So do our dreams!
My feet have dreams to run with Olympic speed. My hands have
dreams to write another best-seller...or two. My eyes have
dreams of seeing a summer without any road construction! And our
hearts have dreams. Why else would the Internet become the
world's largest dating service?
Sure, some of us share similar dreams. Other people also want to
write a few best-sellers. But, when we look at the big set of
our career dreams, our relationship dreams, our fun dreams and
our other dreams, we are each unique in that large set of dreams.
So, DNA is all over our body, and it makes us unique. The thing
is that when we're young, we have huge dreams. We want to cook
like Martha Stewart, even if we don't know how to turn on the
oven. The gap between our reality and our dreams is huge. As we
grow older, we should be closing the gap to make these huge
dreams come true. But instead, we pay attention to the dreams
that are much closer to reality.
Our big dreams haven't gone away, we're just not paying
attention to them. They're still in our feet, our hands, our
eyes and our hearts.
Adults don't seem to think dreams come true, but they do. Dreams
come true everyday. When you get up in the morning, you dream
about getting to work on time. (For some this is a bigger dream
than for others) At the beginning of the year, your sales
manager will present a sales dream for the year. (sure, he might
call it a target, or a goal, or an objective) Then the sales
team works to make that sales dream a reality.
On a smaller scale, each day, you go about spending your time
and money trying to make your dreams come true. The dreams you
focus on will create your reality. If you're focusing on sales
of one million per year, you'll probably get different results
than if you're focusing on sales of ten million per year.
To change your reality, change the dreams that you're paying
attention to.
If you pay attention to the dream of making it through the day,
then that will be your reality. If you pay attention to the
dream of becoming the person your DNA wants you to be, then your
reality will go in a whole new direction.
We're not put on this planet to settle. We're put here to shine.
Your reality in the upcoming weeks, months and years will depend
on the dreams you pay attention to today. Ask yourself what
reality you want for yourself, then pay attention to the dreams
that will get you there!