Are You a Dreamchaser?

Are you motivated toward adventure or away from risk and danger?  (Note: There's nothing wrong with either answer.)  Often our choices will vary depending upon the circumstance.

If I'm surfing, I want to swim out toward the big waves.  But if sharks have been reported nearby, I may stay on shore until the coast is clear.

I may be attracted to adventurous activities like skydiving or secretly wish to obtain a pilot's license (and hope the two never come up simultaneously).  And yet I may sense a restless fear holding me back.  (Parachute jumping is an expensive indulgence we can't afford.  I hear about small aircraft crashing on the local news all the time.)


Neuro-lingsuistic programming teaches that each of us has a predominant compass that we tend to navigate by.  Being aware of your tendencies and those of the ones you love can be a useful tool for figuring out compatability in anything from vacation plans to career ambitions and raising kids.

One of you may be more concerned about playing it safe, saving for rainy days and sicknesses and a college fund.  Meanwhile, the other one wants to spend summer in France, to learn to scuba dive, the costs be damned.  It's easy to see why human society needs both types in order for it to function properly.

Which is why the division of labor is such a godsend.  I'm glad somebody likes repairing cars and is good at it, because outside of changing my own oil and some preventative maintenance, I'm virtually clueless.

I can think of a million jobs I'd never want in to try in as many years: mortician, tax attorney, ER doctor, slaughterhouse worker, politician... the list goes on and on.  Again, that's not because any of these are "bad" jobs; we all depend upon each other's skills for our nation to thrive.  I just hope that the people doing those careers enjoy them because I might survive at any of them if I had to, but I doubt I could thrive.

My brother works in the California prison system and I don't know how he does it.  He's a gang specialist and gets called at a moment's notice around the US whenever there's a riot.  He's tough, an ex-football player.  And still, I worry about him every day.  Yet when you ask him about it, he shrugs it off as no big deal.  He likes his job.  So there you go.

I love to teach, but don't love the educational system.  And yet  I meet people all the time who wonder how anybody could enjoy dealing with kids -- especially high school kids -- on a daily basis.

For my part, I ask myself how anybody can lead a pack of seven year olds for a whole day and not go utterly crazy.  But then again, elementrary teachers almost always adore what they do and wouldn't want to deal with the same kids as they get older.

So by asking whether or not you're a dreamchaser, the question is not judgmental in any way.  Rather, it's simply bidding you to search inside about what motivates you -- how strongly you are motivated to achieving your heart's desire before time runs out.

Where it matters most is if you're out of alignment.  That is, if you're really a dreamchaser down deep, but you've been living your life as a scared rabbit, hiding away those big, ambitious projects for a someday that seems like it will never come.  Tick tock, the days fly by... and those yearnings remain locked away in a closet, waiting for you to bring them out and fulfill them.

My meditation teacher used to say that we have to learn how to die like the Buddhist monks who meditate in a graveyard to remind themselves that time is short.  "Do not die with regrets," he would say.  "Make peace with your friends, with your family, with yourself.  Do it now, before it's too late."

Potential energy which remains unspent -- that's the real tragedy in death.  It's why we mourn so much for a kid who gets cut down by stray bullets or suicide or god only knows what else, but feel life has given someone a fair chance who fades away in their 80s.  Acknowledging, of course, that all death is ultimately sad to the loved ones left behind.

What's on your list of things to do before you die?  When did you plan on attacking that list?  Will it be a "bucket list" for you?  Are you waiting to win the lottery or be diagnosed with a terminal disease before you start?

Why not start today?  Right now?  With your very next breath?  Do you believe that's possible?

Are you a Dreamchaser?