When I was a little girl I read a story that I’ve never forgotten, but I can’t remember the title. or the details very clearly. It was about a man who was very unhappy--his life was grey and dull. He went into a travel agency, attracted by the beautiful posters of bright and exotic locations on the wall. The travel agent asked where he would like to go and he said he didn’t have enough money to go anywhere but wanted to go someplace where people were happy and friendly and warm. The kindly agent asked how much he had in total and he dug out of his pockets all the money he had which amounted to about $39.00 and wasn’t really enough to go anywhere nice. The agent said not to worry, there was a very special place he could go for that much money with beautiful white sandy beaches. He said to wait at a particular place for a bus and then get on the bus and the driver would take him to this wonderful place. He gave the agent all the money he had and got the ticket for the bus. While standing at the bus stop, he started to doubt that this was real and suddenly thought that he had been an idiot and that this travel agent had ripped him off and taken all his remaining money. He was just about to leave when he saw the bus coming. It stopped and the door opened and he got on the bus but he was the only one on the bus, which he thought was very suspicious. Finally, the bus stopped and there, in the middle of nowhere was a barn or an old building. The bus door opened and he got off and the driver said he should go into the building. He wasn’t and hesitated, but then decided that this was crazy and told the driver to take him back to town. The door to the barn opened and there he saw in a flash all sorts of happy, smiling people, children laughing and playing on the beautiful beach. Everything looked lovely, but the door shut and it was all gone. He went back to the travel agent and asked if he could take the special trip again, but the agent was different and said there were no such trips and gave him a refund of his money. He went back to his sad, grey life.
That in essence was the story --a children’s story, but applicable to adults. The reason I am sharing it here is that every day people turn away from their dreams because they can’t believe that a better life is available. People choose to go back to their same old grey life when the sunny life awaits them and is there for the choosing, but chose you must. We just lost a client this week who chose to follow the hard path in life and continue doing work that he doesn’t enjoy when his dreams are there, bright and shiny, waiting for him to chose them. He opted to work with a coach who would hold him accountable to his goals, but not his dreams. That isn’t how we work in my company.
Now is the time to start living your dreams. Get on the bus, have a little faith in yourself.
All the best,
Talane
PS If you know of the title of this children’s story, please let me know as I’d love to get it right!
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