This is a chapter in my book, Pathological Positivity.
We start out as little kids and there are lots of games for us to play. Preschoolers often learn very important things like the ABC’s, counting, and motor skills through games.
Then we get older and there are less games and more lessons.
What happened to the fun?
The things that we were learning, capturing, mastering were smaller, more attainable.
Somewhere in life we saw the horizon and imagined that would be a good point to reach.
So we run, and run, and run without getting to the end.
The problem is not dreaming an impossible dream, the problem is thinking we can reach the impossible end, (or we create multiple endings).
So we run, and run, and run without getting to the end.
The problem is the horizon is not a place, it is not attainable.
So we run, and run, and run without getting to the end.
It is exhausting.
It is tiring.
We can’t get there, we weren’t meant to get there.
We also set up rules for ourselves and sometimes those rules don’t serve us well. These could be values, and beliefs that were formed at a young age.
At an age when we didn’t understand as much as we do now.
When our critical thinking skills were not as developed.
We tell ourselves we need to get to the horizon.
So we run, and run, and run, without getting to the end.
The horizon is helpful when learning to use a compass.
We see landmarks on the horizon, like a telephone pole or a tree and we move in that direction.
The goal isn’t the tree, it is the direction.
When we are moving toward the ideal, we are putting ourselves in a better position in the game of life.
We are moving toward the ideal or the standard and that is fun.
The fun is not in arriving at the horizon, it is moving toward it and knowing that we are making progress.
So we run, and we run, and we run.
We aren’t tired now.
We stop to take breaks, to evaluate where we have been and where we are going.
The spark is still there.
We want to get up the next day and move toward that ideal.
Nothing in the world is perfect, but we can progress in our goal of moving forward to the dream. We know that is possible.
So we wake up every morning, lace up our shoes and we LIVE ON PURPOSE.
Dr. Paul
