We’ve had several speaking gigs since the Olympics has started and I’m finding it’s a great conversation piece for people. There seems to be a common denominator of interest: the individual stories and montages. The most inspiring ones are the ones where the Olympian overcame a major adversity to get to where they are today – whether injury, personal defeat, loss of a loved one, or just years of discipline and sacrifice.

If you’re not happy for Shen Xue and Zhao, the Chinese pair skaters (and married couple), who finally won gold, then you may not be human. That’s simply an awesome story! Or Lindsey Vonn skiing through her recent shin injuries (OUCH!) to take the gold on the slopes in downhill, the first American woman to do so — now that’s strength and focus. These stories warm your heart and make you proud of the power of the human spirit. But is this remarkable spirit limited only to athletes or is the Olympics merely a tangible showcase of the spirit we ALL possess?

Unless you’re already training for the 2012 summer games in London or heading to Sochi in 2014, you need to start training for your own personal victory…

What’s YOUR gold medal?

What’s the one goal that you would sacrifice TONS to accomplish? That thing that you believe to be possible, but not without a remarkable amount of discipline and strength of character, some moxie, a decent dose of stubbornness, and a boatload of courage.

It’s the same goal that sends chills down your spine when you think about achieving it. It makes your heart skip with excitement and anticipation when you envision the reality of its accomplishment.

The reason these individual Olympian stories are so inspiring and fun to learn about is because they help instill us with the confidence that great achievements are possible with some honest perseverance and spirit. It’s never easy. It’s a road filled with countless falls, doubts, fears, and critics. However, the gold is always worth the journey.

I believe the road of everyday life is filled with potential champions. We are all destined for our own greatness — in our own little worlds.

Jason and I are always working towards gold in different areas of our lives. We walked away with gold medals two Decembers ago when Lucy entered our lives. Anyone who knows our story knows that we had spent the previous eight years of our married life together working and sacrificing to get to a point where having a family would be supported by our business of helping people live lives with less stress and more fun. We “trained” for this gold year after year: going without what our peers were attaining, toiling, praying, hoping that one day our efforts would pay off. To provide us with a lifestyle that we dreamed of, one where we could work together on our mission and have a family (and not have to live in that crappy apartment anymore!) Our hard work and faith ultimately paid off.

So, what’s YOUR gold medal?

Don’t sit on the sidelines. Don’t settle for just getting on the podium. Fight for the gold in your life.

Let me tell you, it’s worth it.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what college will look like when Lucy is ready to graduate high school. It fascinates me, because considering that she’s only fourteen months old as I write this, I only know it will look nothing like it does right now.

Degrees earned online used to be the domain of people looking for a promotion or a new career and already juggling a job and family. But now I’m seeing commercials of college-aged students talking about taking classes online. iTunes U is filled with audio downloads of educational courses from some of the most highly regarded institutions of higher learning. And increasingly, degrees from traditional universities are becoming worth less while costing more than ever.

When I was in college, email was just coming on the scene. Dial-up was the norm. And my walks to class were accompanied by a Walkman, because iPods hadn’t been invented yet.

This was only ten years ago.

Things are changing fast, and the rate of change is getting ever faster.

What will college look like in 18 years? The experts barely have a clue what next year will bring, let alone five years from now.

Eighteen years from now is completely up for grabs. It’s very possible that college as we know it — the kind with heavy textbooks, ivy-lined brick walls, and ginormous tuitions — will no longer exist. Seth Godin has effectively proven that the benefits of an MBA can be achieved –and exceeded — without going $100,000 into debt.

It seems to me that now, more than ever, we need to embrace a childlike spirit in order to navigate future that awaits us. You can succumb to Adultitis, get all curmudgeony, and resist the changes, wishing for things to stay the same, or worse yet, expecting that they will. Or you can tap into the open-minded spirit of childhood to curiously ask new questions, create new paths, and see the changes that are coming as an opportunity for a great adventure.

You’ve been warned: Stay shackled by Adultitis, and you’ll be left behind.

The future belongs to the childlike.

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“All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes, to make it possible.”
–T. E. Lawrence

(Click comic to view larger)

I’m not sure if you’ve heard, but the economy is bad. Like, really bad. It’s not a good time to go out and do anything outlandish, like start a business or invest in learning a new skill. You definitely want to keep risk taking to a minimum, that’s for sure. Oh, and the housing market is still pretty bad — and we’re now getting into the worst part of the year — so don’t even think about trying to sell your home, because no one will buy it. It’s always better to not try at all than to try and fail and be disappointed, right?

*Ahem.*

Dream stealers with Adultitis are everywhere. You can find them on TV, giving their opinions on the “news.” You can find them in universities, citing facts and figures for why the way things are now are as bad as they’ve ever been. You can find them in counseling offices, helpfully suggesting that maybe you should give up this because you’re really better suited for something safe like that. You might even find them on the street corner, in the conference room, at the barber shop, or in your own home.

True dreamers know times like these present a unique set of challenges, but not without a unique set of opportunities. True dreamers know that in order to become an overnight success, you have to work your face off. And true dreamers protect their dream, no matter what anybody says.

“Those who say it can’t be done are usually interrupted by others doing it.” — James Baldwin

Don’t ever let somebody tell you you can’t do something. Just because it’s hard or unlikely or never been done doesn’t mean it’s not possible.

[ Hat tip for the video to Fallible Blogma ]

Like this article? Cool. Make sure you’re subscribing to our RSS feed so you won’t miss out on any future installments of similarly inspiring prose. And stuff.

Are you in your dream job? Do you sometimes wish you could be like Jerry Maguire and rebelliously leave your current workplace behind and break out on your own? Or are you thinking, “Yeah, right, in this economy? I’m glad I HAVE a job!”

We had a chance to interview Pamela Slim, author of the blog and book called Escape from Cubicle Nation. She is a seasoned coach and writer who helps frustrated employees in corporate jobs break out and start their own business. We turned the interview into an ebook, which you can download for free. In it you will:

• Gain insight on whether you should break free from the cube or stay right where you’re at.
• Get great advice for starting a business.
• Discover the most important childlike trait an entrepreneur needs to be successful.
• Learn tips for balancing a business and parenthood.
• Uncover the hidden opportunities in this current economic climate.
• Find the answer to the question, “If chasing my dream is hard, am I doing it wrong?”

The ebook contains our interview with Pamela, as well as few additional articles, a handful of Kim & Jason comics, and some fun useless trivia. Download it here, or listen to the audio version of the interview below.

P.S. Have you recently started a business and feel like you might be crazy? Read Pam’s explanation of why you’re perfectly normal.

by PortocalaMecanica

Pop quiz: What is the opposite of success?

I’m no psychic, but I’m gonna go ahead and guess that you’d probably say that the opposite of success is failure.

That would be wrong. The opposite of success, as Joe Malarkey (the Worst Motivational Speaker in America) recently reminded me, is doing nothing. Failure is actually an integral part of success. Joe points out that all successful people have failed. They just didn’t stay there very long.

We hate failing. We really hate losing. Most of us go to great lengths to avoid experiencing either.

Everyone who’s ever learned to ride a bike failed. At least a few times. Sometimes so much so that you may have felt like filing a restraining order against the sidewalk. But time and time again, you got back up, slapped a Hello Kitty Band-aid on your knee (just me?), and got back on your bike. With a little coaching, and a little persistence, you found it: success.

Failing isn’t fun. But it’s awfully hard to learn how to ride a bike sitting on your couch.

Old people are often accused of being stuck in their ways.

“Old” is a relative term, though. It does seem to be that as our age climbs, we tend to get more comfortable and less open to change. But that can begin to happen just as easily when you’re in your twenties as when you’re taking advantage of the senior citizen discount at Applebees.

This little trait doesn’t usually serve us all that well. Even less so during economic recessions.

The doom and gloom is everywhere. The media gleefully heaps on the bad news daily. Politicians are wasting trillions of our money on false promises and passing the problem to future generations. There are a number of reasons why we got into this mess, and plenty of people who can share the blame, but ultimately, there’s a certain cyclical nature to it all. Just as summer can’t exist without winter, booms can’t exist without the busts. 

But this post is not about the struggling economy and who’s to blame. It’s about you and what you’re going to do about it.

Frankly, there’s not a whole lot you can do about the macro situation. But in the micro situation, all of the shots are called by one person: you.

The way I see it, you have two choices. You could resist change, hunker down and fearfully wait for the worst to happen. Or you could look at this situation as a child would, with big dreams, boundless optimism and a vision of what’s possible. 

Thomas Edison invented the incandescent light bulb in the middle of the Panic of 1873, a six-year recession. He established GE (General Electric Co.) in 1876, which is now the third largest company in the world.

In the late 1970s, we experienced a major energy crisis and inflation ballooned out of control, causing a major recession, which lasted for 30 months. In the midst of the economic storm, Applebees, Ben & Jerry’s, Olive Garden and Fuddruckers were founded. In 1981, IBM sold their first personal computer.

In fact, all of the following companies were formed during a recession: Burger King, The Jim Henson Company, FedEx, CNN, Hewlett Packard, MTV, Hyatt, Trader Joe’s, Sports Illustrated and Wikipedia.

The first Apple Store opened in the recession of 2001 and was declared dead upon arrival. In the recession of 2008, many consider it to be recession proof.

The people who will survive this recession are not the frustrated ones hoping for things to get back to the way they were. Not gonna happen. The ones who will survive — and thrive — will be the ones who embrace the changes and take advantages of the plentiful opportunities that abound.

Unfortunately, no politician or trillion-dollar buyout can give you the ability to see through new eyes and find the opportunity that is right under your nose.

Fortunately, there is a child inside of you that is already well-suited for the task.

Is it possible for a whole town to be Adultitis-free? I don’t know about that, but Bethel, Maine sure comes close.

In 1999, the ski town of about 2,400 residents set the record for world’s tallest snowman.

In 2008, the record was finally broken.

By them.

This time, they built a “snowwoman” and she was no dainty lass. Her name was Olympia, and she clocked in at a towering 122′ 1″ tall (about 30 feet shorter than the Statue of Liberty) and a scale-tipping 13,000,000 pounds. She featured eyelashes created from discarded skis and bright red lips made from painted car tires. Schoolchildren made her huge red hat and her 8-foot long “carrot” nose. She sported a 100-foot-long scarf and her eyes were made from giant wreaths. Her arms were 30-foot spruce trees!

Olympia was built with a series of concentric circles with the help of over 100 volunteers. A crane dumped the snow into frames, and volunteers climbed in for long hours shoveling and packing the snow. It took a little over a month from start to finish.

I think this is the coolest thing I’ve seen in quite some time. (Thanks for passing it along, Marilyn!)

I wonder how many people scoffed at the volunteers who contributed to this whimsical project. “An epic waste of time and resources!” I can imagine them saying. Another example of taking things too seriously.

Lots of people live in areas with snowy winters and the ones with Adultitis spend a big chunk of the winter grumbling about it. A snowy day is an exciting one for kids; a cause for celebration. I know that there are a lot of extra hassles that come with the snow when you’re grown up, but it sure is nice to see a community that still knows how to have some fun with it.

How are you doing in that department?

One of the questions that Kim and I almost always ask when we interview someone is, “When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?”

Sometimes the answer to that question is the best sound byte of the whole interview. It’s certainly always interesting, and it never ceases to amaze me how often it ties in to the life’s work of the interviewee. Particularly the ones who are doing what they love.

Our friend Brett Farmiloe is making a career out of getting people to think differently about their career paths. We interviewed him a while back (listen to it here) and when we asked him that question, he told us that his favorite video game growing up was Cruisin’ USA. Well, he and the gang at Pursue The Passion have driven an RV all around the country and interviewed hundreds of people who love their job. They too, have found an interesting connection between what people wanted to be when they were kids and the career they pursued as adults.

A shoe designer who began drawing shoes on little 3×5 notecards when he was in the seventh grade.

A park ranger who loved the outdoors since he was born.

A director of communications who was hooked at the age of five when he picked up a horseshoe crab and touched it.

The video below offers a compilation of people they interviewed who have taken a childhood interest and turned it into their career.

If you’re in a dead-end job, or a career that’s sucking the life out of you, maybe it’s time to ask yourself the question: “When you were a kid, what did YOU want to be when you grew up?”

It might just send you off in an exciting new direction.

Even in this “supersize it” culture, there’s something magically childlike about seeing the world’s largest pumpkin. Steve Connolly turned his hobby into a passion, setting a personal goal of growing the biggest pumpkin in the world!

How childlike is this?!

Apparently the conditions were “just right” this year in Sharon, Massachusetts, which helped to bring his record setting pumpkin to a whopping 1,878 lbs… and its still growing about 11 lbs. per day! Yikes! The coolest thing to think about, though, is that this very same pumpkin started from a seed just five months ago. Whew… I’m sure glad this baby of ours isn’t growing at the rate. Although I do feel like I’m carrying around quite the pumpkin, I’m thrilled it’s not the world’s largest… or is growing 11 lbs. a day!

There are two lessons that jump out to me from this story.

1. It’s important to set fun goals.
Life can be so darn serious. It seems every five minutes I’m hearing about the dow dropping or some other pending crisis. Yes, it’s important to be responsible and set good goals to get through the challenging times. However, as we set our goals for the future, it’s important to remember to interject some fun ones, too. Kids are setting fun goals all of the time… like loosing a first tooth, riding a bike without training wheels, and catching that first fish. The fact that Steve Connolly set the goal to grow the most ginormous gourd says a lot about him. That is simply a fun goal! So, what kind of playful and childlike goals can you set for yourself? It could be attaining something new, like a tandem bike to ride with your best pal. It could be the goal of throwing a surprise party for someone you love. It’s good to think beyond the seriousness of finances, degrees, responsibilities, weight management (all important things, mind you!). Are you having fun with your goals?

2. When conditions are right amazing things can happen.
In a different summer this pumpkin would never have grown to be 1,878 lbs. It’s good to remember that sometimes it’s all about timing and forcing things will do no good. In fact, forcing things is a very childish action. The trick is knowing when to be persistent and when to let things go. For me, the answer is usually found in silence… listening to the small whispers from above. The key is to be aware and keep asking yourself if the challenge you are facing can be faced successfully now or in another timeframe when conditions are better. Are you forcing something that needs to be filed for later?

UPDATE: A special thank you goes to one of our Club K&J members from IL, Sarah Tipperreiter. She sent us the latest news about Steve’s pumpkin…

A world record was not to be for Steve Connelly of Massachusetts after his 1600 pound pumpkin “sprung a leak.” A half-inch crack in the base of the pumpkin disqualified him from the Giant Pumpkin Grower’s annual weigh-off, and now Connelly has to decide the fate of his pumpkin (nicknamed The Beast From the East): sell it to a buyer from New York who wants to carve the world’s biggest jack-o-lantern, or put on his apron and bake it into 5,000 pies. What would you do?

We recently started back on the road for a fall filled with speaking gigs. One thing Jason talks about is to “Stop living by rules that don’t exist.” This is a major way to fight your Adultitis. Living by this philosophy is exactly what gives the typical two-year-old the bad rap as “terrible.” In defense of parents of toddlers everywhere, let me point out that two-year-olds are in the business of testing everything, discovering the world around them and how they fit into it… which doesn’t always look pretty. Jason and I joke that inevitably there’s always a two or three-year-old throwing a major fit on the floor in the airport security line stubbornly objecting to take off his shoes for the TSA staff. We smile because they are the only ones who have the naivety (and guts) to stand up to the TSA, even if it is a losing battle. I secretly cheer the toddler on… how I wish I could refuse and throw a fit one of these days!

There is a lesson to be learned from the stubborn naivety of the terrible twos. You must challenge the status quo. Most of the time the “rules” that you insist on following are either insignificant or they simply do not even exist. As I think about our life, I smile at the opportunities when Jason and I have bucked the system, jumped off the conveyer belt of life, and taken our own path. It’s very childlike and with any lesson taken from our younger years, it creates a life of adventure and spunk.

Here are a few examples of how we’ve demonstrated that childlike grit by living by our own rules…

Rule: Get a job with good solid benefits. We ultimately rejected the safe school district insurance for the high deductible life of self-employment.

Rule: After you get married you should invest in a home. We chose to delay owning a home, and decided instead to invest in our business, ultimately gambling our house fund for a lifestyle that we love.

Rule: Professional speakers travel alone and keep a schedule that puts them in and out of cities in a 36-48 hour cycle. We set our own company policies that dictate both of us travel together. We fly in the day before the event and fly out the day after. If we are visiting a new area, we tack on a day or two for sightseeing. (Sidenote: Unfortunately, there is a high divorce rate in the lives of professional speakers, largely in part to their consistent absence from home.)

Rule: If you decide to move somewhere, you should have a job lined up or at least have contacts in the area to help you secure employment. Our first apartment in Madison was cosigned by our parents, because neither one of us had jobs yet. We came to Madison because we felt a strong pull to be here… it didn’t really make sense on paper but it did in our hearts. It’s been home ever since.

Rule: GenXer’s in Madison, Wisconsin must channel their generationally stereotypical cynicism towards the war, the government, and the environment. Jason and I are two of the few proud conservative thirty-somethings in this city.

Rule: You must prepare for childbirth with a doctor and deliver in a hospital. We are thrilled to have found an awesome fit with an excellent team of midwives at the Madison Birth Center.

You get the idea. It’s exciting to observe others breaking the rules as well. Jason’s brother and his wife maintain a lifestyle with two careers and yet only have one car, even though they work in different cities. They share the car, allowing them to save hundreds of dollars every single month. (Rule: You must have a car for each driver.)

Friends of ours sold their newer, four bedroom home and moved into an older, three bedroom home, so that she could quit her job to stay home with their children, avoiding daycare. (Rule: You must have two salaries to provide for your family.)

Here’s the dirty little secret… most people like it when they aren’t the only ones playing it safe, so it’s hard to find others who will challenge you to step out of your box. If someone they know starts rocking the boat, it’s often met with gossip and criticism because it challenges everyone else’s decisions. What a boring life! I’m not advocating you go to the extreme of childishness and shirk all responsibilities just to “make your own path.” Just do yourself and your loved ones a favor by asking yourself some hard and honest questions, “Why do we do things this way? Is this what’s best for me today and down the road?” Ask these questions and have the childlike spunk it takes to jump off the conveyer belt if you’re unhappy with your answers.

So, what rules are you breaking?

This week’s Escape Plan challenge (aka our Tip of the Week) is #6: Daydream Believer: Write down one big dream of yours. Draw or find a picture to go with it and put it somewhere you will see it often.

This is such a fun challenge! Who doesn’t like to dream about the future? It’s inevitably filled with hope and possibilities of wonderful blessings!

The law of attraction is a mysterious thing. I had a neat moment last Friday when I was cleaning out some papers near my desk. I found two copies of Wisconsin Women Magazine, one from October 2007 and one from December 2007. I remember picking them up with the conscious mindset that I wanted to be in there somehow. Maybe if I looked through them closely, I’d find a connection. Of course, as life happens the magazines got placed under some papers and weren’t seen again for what ended up being seven months… the exact same day that the August issue of the magazine came out, with Jason and I on the cover. The cool part of this story is that we were approached by them to be on the cover. (Read the article here.) By the way, Jason broke records with this… being the first man to ever grace the cover! Don’t you love his socks?!

Don’t skip this challenge! It could truly impact the details of your future.

Share with us in the comments of the Escape Plan blog what dreams you’re recording this week. Be sure to stop back and let us know when they are accomplished.

One of my blog posts recently received a very intriguing comment. It was loaded with interesting observations and great questions and I wanted to address them here.

As much as I love reading your website, and others like yours, I have realized that reading about it, and actually doing something about it is 2 different matter. Believe me, I’ve been a long-term reader of sites such as yours and am always comforted by the fact that there are people out there like you. I also talk about your sites, and my thoughts with my friends.

But lately, my friends have come to the conclusion that, yes, many people out there ditch their jobs to chase their dreams (or something less dramatic), but there are also just as many out there who go to work like we all do, live a 9-6 life and enjoy the weekends.

They’ve actually concluded that I’m torturing myself here because I read all these encouraging articles, dream all my dreams, but still am miserably stuck.

Don’t get me wrong. I love this article. And your site is very inspiring. But HOW do you actually get people out there to ACT and DO it? How are we to ditch our salaries, health benefits, career prospects, etc, and go, say pursue our dream of volunteering in a third-world country?

I know it’s illogical, and I know all the arguments against staying at a job just for the money, perks, whatever. But still we are not taking action.

If we are, there will no longer be visitors to your site!

So how and where do people finally say and go, right, enough of reading….I’m gonna do it!? How do you get to that point?

First of all, it’s never a bad thing to read or listen to things that inspire you to make positive changes in your life. Encountering the stories of people — people just like us — can help us to see that impossible things are actually more possible than we realized. And they can help us build up the courage we need to launch off on our own epic journey. However, a good many people go out of their way to avoid — and even criticize — these sorts of stories. After all, it can be quite unsettling to have your own self-limiting beliefs challenged, forcing you to face the possibility that you’ve settled for less than your best.

One of the things I was fortunate to learn pretty early on in my career as a professional speaker and writer was that I can’t get anyone to DO anything. Not one person. Not one thing. It’s easy to forget that sometimes — because I really wish I could — but remembering that truth has saved me a lot of frustration. Conversely, if someone is waiting for some speaker or some book or some fairy godmother to wink twice, twitch her nose, and magically transform their life for them, well, that person will be waiting for a very long time indeed.

What I can do is try and live by example and use emotion and intellect to communicate a message that serves as a catalyst for someone to make a positive change in their life. Believe me, that’s the ultimate. But when it all comes down to it, nothing I do or say can make them do anything.

All that being said, one thing that seems to be very effective in getting people to take action is bad news from their doctor.

As enticing as a dream may be, the good ones always involve some sort of uncomfortability and a certain level of risk. Two things most human beings aren’t too fond of. Change and risk are scary things, and most people choose to stay in their current situation (which although admittedly not ideal, is at least a known quantity) than set off into the unknown. Bad news from a doctor, or a near death experience, or a sudden death of a loved one does a pretty good job of helping people realize that the things they worry about are not really worth worrying about after all.

I also think people get so caught up in the big picture that they forget that a journey of a thousand miles begins with one step. It’s a cliché, but it’s true. It’s understandably overwhelming to consider the concept of quitting your job, abandoning a career, taking a pay cut, giving up benefits, and moving to a third-world country (or whatever the dream requires.) But in most cases, dreams are accomplished in baby steps. Books are filled with examples of people who began chasing their dream while they were still in school, still had a family to support, still had kids at home, or were still working at a job they didn’t care much for but at least paid the bills.

Indiana Jones is a hero because he takes action when most of the people around him are too afraid (or cynical.) That’s not to say he isn’t afraid (snakes, anyone?), just that he moves forward in spite of the fear. He doesn’t always plan everything out to the last detail (that can become just another form of inaction) because he knows that unexpected things are going to come up anyway. We, too, can expect the unexpected on our journey. Just like Indiana, our quest for the holy grail — our “dream,” if you will — is wrought with peril, lonely paths, and bad guys. Undoubtedly, it’s an adventure of a lifetime and the journey is totally worth it.

But nobody can do it for us.

If you’re feeling stuck, maybe you just need a little bit more courage to take that first action step. A baby step. You’re closer than you think.

This week’s Escape Plan challenge (aka our Tip of the Week) is #19: Future Forecast: Spend 10 minutes visioning yourself 10 years from now as having accomplished one of your biggest dreams. Be as detailed as possible; imagine in all five senses.

Every time Jason and I end up at a mall he makes a joke about the “Ice Cream of the Future”… you know, Dippin’ Dots. This frozen treat company has been claiming this title for over 20 years.

When is the future, anyway?

And speaking of the future, when is our transportation system going to mirror that of The Jetsons? Speaking around the country would be so much easier if we could just fly from one place to the next in our own vehicles, or better yet- teleportation. Beam me up, Scotty!

All joking aside, in order to see real change in your reality you have to know what you’re going after. You have to have a vision. Otherwise, you end up drifting from one year to the next.

One of the questions in the Adultitis intake is as follows:

This is what I think about following dreams…

A. I do have dreams, but I try to keep them realistic.
B. My dreams are so big, I think most people think I’m mental.
C. Three words: Get. A. Job. People should spend more time with their feet on the ground than heads in the clouds.
D. I don’t really have time for my dreams.

What would your answer be? I know most kids would answer letter B. If you don’t believe me, just look at their Christmas lists. It’s time to start spending time visioning your dreams coming true. Engage the senses… and most importantly- have fun with it!

So, let me get you started. The date is April 21, 2018. Will you be flying to the nearest ice cream shop to eat frozen dots of wonderfulness?

Share with us in the comments of the Escape Plan Blog what you’ll be doing ten years from today.

Here’s a great itty bitty post from Adultitis Antidote winner Rocks in My Dryer:

We were on our way home from an especially well-played soccer match. My son Joseph settled happily back in the seat and sighed.

“Mom,” he said. “I feel, deep in my heart, that I’m about to be famous.”

“Really? I asked. “What do you mean?”

“Well,” he said, “You know how I’m not famous now?” I thought for a minute, trying to remember if I’d seen his picture on the cover of People magazine. Nope.

“Yes, I know.”

“Well,” he continued, “I just feel, in my heart, like I’m about to be.”

He contentedly sighed again, and he gazed out his window.

How easily I forget the wonder of having the mystery and possibility of an entire life stretching out in front of you.

It’s good to be six.

Don’t forget that even if you’re sixty-six, there are still a LOT of mysteries and possibilities in front of you. If you’re still breathing, God still has plans for you. After all, Colonel Sanders didn’t become really famous until he was in his sixties.

Dream big. Live life to the last drop.

I love my job. As I write this, I am several thousand feet in the air, sitting in first class on a jet, coming home from some speaking programs in New York. I’m in first class because Kim and I did so much traveling last year, we got bumped up to the next level of our airline’s rewards program, so every once in a while, our tickets get upgraded and we get to fly “in style.”

Here’s the part I love. Not to be stereotypical, but most of the people sitting around me are the, um, “stuffy” types. The business suits checking their Blackberrys and poring over last quarter’s numbers. It’s hard to say, but they don’t seem particularly happy. Meanwhile, I pull out my Powerbook to do a little work of my own. In the middle of updating the online archive of Kim & Jason comic strips, I can’t help but smile. I wonder what other people would be thinking if they took a glance at my computer screen, populated by a continuous rotation of silly drawings of cartoon characters.

This is my work. Sometimes I have to pinch myself at the ridiculousness of it all.

It’s nice to have these moments of Zen, because it helps keep me sane when the frustrating aspects of my job test my patience. Being on the road is tiring. Air travel can eat you alive if you let it. (I’ve yet to figure out how standing, sitting, and waiting can be so tiring.) Impossibly early mornings, delayed flights, and stupid people can make me wonder what the heck I’m doing with my life.

But the good moments help me remember why I wouldn’t trade any of it for the world.

Mine is a career that even I couldn’t imagine back when I was in high school and college. Somehow, I have a job that brings together every single one of my talents into one unified whole, even though individually, they don’t seem particularly related. But here’s the kicker: none of it would be real if not for the willingness to dream big and take a leap.

During last night’s program, we were talking about dreaming big. I discussed the sad reality that often includes countless well-intentioned parents and teachers discouraging the dreams of a young person, simply because they perceive the dream to be “too difficult,” “impossible,” or “unrealistic.” What a shame. I shared a quote by John Andrew Holmes, who said, “Never tell a young person that something cannot be done. God may have been waiting centuries for somebody ignorant enough of the impossible to do that thing.”

After the presentation, a woman came up to me, wanting to share a story. She told me about her son, who had been diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder. School was a challenge. He was a bright boy, but every single report card and parent-teacher conference included the same refrain: “Tim is falling behind. He is simply unable to focus.”

The mother boasted proudly, “Want to guess what he’s doing now? He’s a successful photographer in New York City.”

Pretty good for someone who had trouble focusing.

When I was washing cars and running errands for a car dealership as a teenager, it was sometimes hard to imagine that I’d ever be flying first class on an airplane, manipulating cartoons on a cool laptop. But those long, sweaty days — when the clock seemed to only tick backwards — strengthened my resolve to make a living doing what I loved. I didn’t know exactly what that would look like, but I used my ample supply of time to dream up the possibilities.

Now mind you, my parents were a bit freaked out when I proclaimed that I wanted to be an artist. They had only heard of the “starving” kind. But they reached out to my high school art teacher and invited her over for dinner. They asked lots of questions.

“Is he any good?”

“What are his options?”

“What schools would you recommend?”

My art teacher eased their fears (thanks Mrs. Garrett!) and helped guide us on a wise path suited to my personality and ambitions. It has been a bumpy road, but my parents have always supported and believed in me. Sometimes, amidst the long sleepless nights and tearful laments of doubt and sacrifice, their steadfast belief in me has been my single reason for not throwing in the towel.

Sometimes dreams seem improbable, even impossible. The best ones always are. Our role as adults is to encourage our young dreamers. Rather than poking holes in their aspirations, we should offer our experience to point them in the direction that will help them find the tools they need to make their dreams come true.

In the meantime, we need to allow some of that youthful ambition to rub off on us. Big dreams are not just for the young, but they are exclusive to the young at heart.

Be bold.

Dream big.

You never know how high into the clouds they will take you.

Few people in history have exhibited the intense and authentic childlike qualities of Martin Luther King, Jr. Knowing the weight of his message and adversity he met on his journey of justice, he should’ve had a major case of  Adultitis. I do not believe that he did, however. Here’s why…

• He dreamed BIG. REALLY big!
• He was curious (and brave) enough ask some of the hardest questions ever asked. Why? Why not? What if?
• He was honest, speaking the truth that was in his heart, even when others weren’t open to what he had to say.
• Few men have walked this earth with more passion than Martin Luther King, Jr.
• Last, but not least, his childlike faith and courage lead him to a position of leadership that ultimately cost him his life.

Here’s a short clip of his last speech, a day before his assassination. Most notable to me is his childlike faith. He’s not in denial about the difficult times ahead, yet he is not worried. He has no fear, for he knows what’s truly important.

Is there anything more childlike than that?

There aren’t many things that bring me back to childhood faster than listening to the theme songs of the favorite shows of my youth. I’m often disappointed by actually watching them (was the animation really that crappy?) but the song itself conjures up all the old feelings of excitement and adventure. This one might be my favorite:

I also have a special place in my heart for themes from A-Team, Mighty Mouse, Spiderman, and GI Joe. All of these songs (and many, many more) can be found at TelevisionTunes.com (hat tip to Shirley for pointing this site out.)

As I strolled down memory lane, I was struck by how much those songs influenced me as a kid. They’re all very heroic in nature, championing truth, justice, good over evil, and the plight of the underdog. My make-believe time was often spent with a cape tied around my neck as I sped off to save the day, or with a machine gun in hand on my way to infiltrate the bad guy’s hideout. Listening to the songs actually stirs up a desire that drives me to this day — a desire to make a big difference in the world. Somehow, even though I was a shy, skinny, middle class kid from Peru, Illinois, those songs made me believe that I could. They helped me believe that it WAS possible to make a difference.

And in my own little way, I believe that I am.

Thanks, Underdog.

What about you? How did music from your childhood influence you as a person?

Technorati Tags: music, cartoon songs, tv show themes, Underdog, A-Team, Mighty Mouse, G.I. Joe

In the newly released Bee Movie (produced by, written by, and starring Jerry Seinfeld), the main character, Barry B. Benson, is applauded for having the perfect report card — all B’s. Kim and I had a chance to see this film over the weekend, and I have to give it all A’s.

What made it most refreshing was the influence of Seinfeld. The king of observational comedy, Jerry’s fingerprints were all over the movie. I expected a lot of bad puns (there were only a few) but time and time again, I was delighted by all of the witty, smart, and thoughtful observations about what life might look like from the perspective of a bee. Somehow it managed to be funny while making perfect sense at the same time. For instance, ever think about how important anger management is to a bee when you consider that the decision to sting is often fatal? Or have you ever wondered what a bee would think about those ubiquitous bear-shaped containers we use to sell honey? It’s insulting, to say the least.

Although his classic TV series often contained an overarching sense of cynicism, this movie almost exclusively displays Seinfeld’s witty charm, naive curiosity, and childlike optimism. The story is just fun, the characters are interesting (if Chris Rock had been in more of it, he’d have stole the show), and the visuals are as stunning as they are whimsically fantastic. I am not a big fan of animation trying to achieve total realism, and Bee Movie does a good job of creating a believable world mixed with cartoony caricature that makes these sorts of movies fun.

I also appreciated that the movie didn’t take itself too seriously, opting for more of a fairly tale styled plot rather than trying to bend over backwards explaining how any of this could really happen in real life. It also offered up an example of how all of nature works together, without being overly preachy (something that I’m getting quite weary of these days.)

You’d probably have to watch the movie three times to get all of the little side jokes. Tie in some themes about dreaming big, delighting in the little things, and asking “why?” and you’ve got a bona fide Adultitis Antitode of a film for the whole family. It’s packed with laughs and a lot of moments that will have you smiling as you think, “Hmm…I never thought of that before.”

Technorati Tags: Bee Movie, Jerry Seinfeld, Dreamworks, animation, movie review

We were recently interviewed by Angee Robertson on Marcia Wieder’s Dream Talk program. Marcia is known as “America’s Dream Coach,” and has appeared on the Oprah Winfrey show. This hour-long teleconference was recorded live and was only made available to members of Marcia’s Dream Circle. Until now.

Listen to the candid interview about how you might be sabotaging your success and how to keep Adultitis from interfering with your dreams. We had a great time, and even had a chance to field some questions from callers.