From the Editor's Computer
In the news a few months ago there
was a story about a Canadian man who wanted to trade a red paper clip for a
house.
Kyle MacDonald started off with a
red paper clip in July of 2005. A mere
fourteen trades, and one year later, he achieved his goal - a house in Kipling,
Saskatchewan.
What would your reaction be if
someone came up to you and asked you to trade whatever you had for whatever
s/he had as they ultimately wanted a house?
Would you help him/her out? Would you laugh at him/her? Would you dismiss it all as foolishness? Would you go out of your way to help the
person along to their goal? Would you
dismiss them as crazy? Would you get
excited about the possibilities not only for them but for yourself?
Every one of us has dreams and
goals. Every one of us also has people
in our lives who either help us along our chosen path, or else people who try
to derail us, dragging us off our path.
The dream helpers know that if
they help someone else achieve their dreams that they will be that much closer
to achieving their own dreams. The dream
helpers know that what you put out into the world will be returned to you
multiplied many times.
The dream stealers on the other
hand, act out of fear. They fear that
the status quo will change (which it probably will), that the person will
change if they help them with their dreams (most likely that will happen too),
and they fear that they will lose their excuses as to why they haven’t achieved
their dreams (if one person can do it, anyone can do it).
We need to listen to the dream
helpers and minimize our contact with the dream stealers. We also need to discover if we ourselves are
dream helpers or dream stealers to the people in our lives.
Kyle MacDonald didn’t let anyone
stop him from achieving his dream of owning a house, and he started off in a
rather unconventional manner, but there were people out there who believed in
him and wanted to help him along.
Anything is possible if you
believe in yourself and what you want to accomplish. Just make sure you have some dream helpers on
your side to inspire, encourage and push you when you need it.
And by the way...if you have
anything you want to trade, come see me and we’ll see what we can do to further
your dreams!
Beth
To contact The Chautauqua, email: thechautauqua@gmail.com.
