Page 16 - March2022 Barbecue News Magazine

Vic Clevenger
Chimney Cartel
victor0568@gmail.com
Reading motivational and goal-oriented books all speak about chasing your dream. I love reading them. They encourage us to move forward. These authors tell the reader it isn’t wrong to go after that dream we’ve had to be a success. As a matter of fact, they almost say we’d be doing ourselves and the world a dis- service if we let this dream remain just a thought. So, we set out to make the dream a reality. We put the dream on a post-it note and place it on the mirror so it’s the first thing we see in the morning while brushing
our teeth. We dress for suc- cess and hang around suc- cessful people all because “success breeds success.” Our dream is well on its way to becoming real.
But what happens when the
dream fails. We do everything
those books say we must do.
We work hard for this dream
only to realize we’re just
spinning our wheels. All
those successful people we’ve
been hanging with continue
to be successful, but it isn’t rubbing off on us. What are we doing wrong? Why aren’t we successful like we thought we should be? Should I give up? We can ask ourselves tons of questions about why our dream fails. We can get depressed, lis- ten to the naysayers, and give up or we can step back, take a breath then re-evaluate everything.
Re-evaluate the Dream
When it comes to re-evaluating, it must begin with the dream itself. Is it really something you want? Are you passionate about it? There are a lot of dreams we have which are just a dream. I’d like to be a movie star, astronaut, rich, etc. But the question to ask yourself is, “Am I passionate about this dream?” Passion for something is the difference between suc- cess and failure. If you’re not passionate for your dream, then
why pursue it? Stephen King, J.K. Rowlings, Tom Clancey are household names because they were passionate about their genres of writing. Some of the top fictional literature is enjoyed by us all because they had a passion for their dream. As you begin to re- evaluate the dream, your first question in this process is about your passion.
While you are re-evaluating your dream and the passion you have, another part would
be, does this passion drive you to accomplish you dream? This drive pushes you, even on the days you don’t feel like doing anything. The amount of drive you have can be the difference between success and people wondering if you even have a job. You may get discouraged but it’s this drive for your dream which lifts you from the pit of despair and elevates you to the mountain of triumph.
In a recent interview, comedian Drew Carey relayed his journey to becoming the host of The Price Is Right. His passion was to be a comedian and let nothing stand in his way. Then his dream transformed from being a comedian to being an enter- tainer to the gameshow host. When you re-evaluate your dream, perhaps your dream needs to transform. Drew’s core dream is still the same, it has just transformed into what it is today. The same can be said of yours. But a word of warning – let it transform naturally. If not, then it will be forced, and a failed dream may once again be in your future.
Re-evaluate the Skills
Every dream requires skills of some kind and every person has a skill/gifts/talents, the Bible even addresses this in 1 Peter
BarbecueNews.com - 16
MARCH 2022
When the Dream Fails