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Advice from Bill Strickland
Find inspiration to go against conventional wisdom and achieve your dreams from someone who did just that—Bill Strickland, president of Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild and the Bidwell Training Center and recipient of a MacArthur Foundation “genius grant.” Strickland was an aimless kid growing up in a rough neighborhood in Pittsburgh when he met a public school art teacher who transformed his life by opening his eyes to the world of art and education. Now, he shares the lessons he learned along the way:
[A] good life isn’t something you wait for, or chase after, or try to possess; it’s something you must create, moment by moment, on the foundation of your dreams. But first, you need to understand your dreams and embrace them. Most important, you need to know the difference between a dream and a fantasy, because it’s impossible to live a fulfilled, happy life until you do. Teaching our students to make that distinction is one of the primary missions of Manchester Bidwell and a key reason for its success. Too many come to us with their heads full of unrealistic cheap fantasies that they learn on the streets, believing there are shortcuts to wealth, position, and power. Most of these fantasies lead to dead ends—after all, how many kids are going to make it as pro athletes or hip-hop stars? Other, more sinister, fantasies that draw them into gangs or drugs or crime can kill them. They embrace these fantasies because the world doesn’t seem to offer them any alternatives. Once you give them a reason to hope for something real, the fantasies tend to evaporate and solid, empowering dreams take their place. All of us can learn from their experience. We’re all in danger of mistaking fantasies for dreams at times—we allow our hopes and expectations to be shaped by circumstances and conventional wisdom, just as poor black kids allow their lives to be shaped by the conventional wisdom of the ghetto. Millions of us base our lives on the conventional fantasy that the pursuit of material success is the path to happiness. I’m convinced that misguided beliefs like that can block us from achieving our full human potential. But with a little effort and experience, we can distinguish between a misleading fantasy and a life-enriching dream.
A fantasy is about having something—a big salary, an impressive house, an important-sounding title, social or professional prestige. But the satisfaction you experience when such a fantasy is realized is fleeting and unfulfilling; rather than feeding the spirit in a nourishing way, it always leaves you craving more.
A dream is about building something—relationships, identity, quality of experience. Because dreams rise out of genuine human needs, they feed the spirit in a profoundly satisfying way. A genuine dream brings direction, conviction, substance, and satisfaction to your life the moment you commit yourself to it.
But the most important difference between fantasies and dreams is that fantasies are egotistical and self-centered; they isolate you and force you to live your life as a series of win-lose situations. They define “success” as a matter of the survival of the fittest. Dreams, on the other hand, connect you to the world and to other human beings. They make it clear that individual success is enlarged and enhanced by the spiritual fulfillment and success of the people with whom you share the planet.
All my experience has taught me that the ability to base your life on sound, substantial dreams is a fundamental requirement of living a meaningful and successful life…
‘‘To find your mission in life,’ wrote author and Christian minister Frederick Buechner, ‘is to discover the intersection between your heart’s deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger.’ For me, that intersection defines the meaning of true success, which is, I believe, the point where your passions, values, talents, and dreams fall into alignment with the genuine desire to make the world a better place to live for all of its inhabitants. The interesting thing about this definition is that it not only describes the condition of success, it tells you exactly what you need to do to achieve it. Against the backdrop of the materialistic, winner-take-all mentality that pervades so many of our lives, it may seem counterintuitive, even naïve, to believe that our own personal success can be enhanced by focusing on something other than competitive self-interest. But I know this to be true. Owning up to your responsibilities as a citizen of the planet, even in modest ways, generates a sense of purpose and power in your life that is the real engine behind genuine success. It taps your deepest potential and connects you to the bottomless reserves of commitment, perseverance, creativity, and hope that can make even the most extraordinary dreams come true.
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Copyright © 2007 by Allister, LLC, and John Boswell Management, Inc. From the book MAKE THE IMPOSSIBLE POSSIBLE: ONE MAN’S CRUSADE TO INSPIRE OTHERS TO DREAM BIGGER AND ACHIEVE THE EXTRAORDINARY published by Broadway Books, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc. Reprinted with permission. |
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