I’m a daydreamer.
If my mind were a tree it would sway to and fro in a gentle breeze. Its leaves would swirl this way and that, drifting all around. Some carried far away, never to return. Sometimes the breeze is constant and sometimes the air is perfectly still.
I’ve been known to “drift away” from time to time.
I came across this shirt once that read, “Not all who wander are lost”. The famous line from J.R.R. Tolkien’s poem, The Riddle of Strider in the first volume of The Lord of the Rings. The shirt was gray and it had a beautiful mountainous background with a moose on it. Naturally, I bought it. Over time, it became so worn and tattered from being one of my favorite shirts, I finally had to let it go.
I should probably find a new one.
As I’ve mentioned in previous blogs, I tend to daydream most during the morning hours. This is also the time when big ideas arrive.
There’s ideas.
And then there’s IDEAS!
The ones that make you stop.
And then they make you GO!
You suddenly start thinking of everything. You get excited. Nervous. Hopeful. Something deep inside tells you that you have to try, even though you’re scared out of your mind.
I call these my big, hairy, scary ideas.
Maybe the kid in me still associates scary things with, “Where the Wild Things Are”. I have no clue why, but that’s exactly how these ideas make me feel inside.
They’re big – they feel overwhelming and so much larger than I am.
They’re hairy – they have twists and turns and lots of unknowns sticking out of them.
And they. are. scary – they require sacrifice and a willingness to venture far beyond what feels comfortable.
Years ago at a work conference, a presenter shared the phrase, “if it doesn’t scare you, it’s not worth doing”. While the origins of this phrase are uncertain, I’ve heard variations of it many times since.
Today, I find myself agreeing.
Some of my big, hairy, scary ideas haven’t worked out as I’ve imagined they would. Some failed entirely. Some took me down roads I never expected to travel.
But all of them taught me something.
The lessons from these experiences became stepping stones for my next big, hairy, scary idea.
So yes, they were all worth it.
Because sometimes the ideas that scare us the most, are the ones that help us grow into the person we’re meant to become. So the next time you have that big, hairy, scary idea…
GO FOR IT! And to my fellow daydreamers – keep daydreaming my friends. 🌈💛
