It’s Thursday and our week has two days left in it. I have loved the response to this week’s theme of RockStar Dreams, which has focused on helping people move from the ordinary lives they have to getting a dream that motivates them. And it’s the belief in what they see that turns the dream to RockStar status.
I mentioned earlier that I first came up with the theme for this week while watching a Super Bowl commercial for KIA that featured Motley Cruë. It used a song that I enjoyed from the past and brought it back to life long after it had left the top 100 chart. It seems that many commercials feature retro songs and other ideas from the past these days.
Today I had many ideas I wanted to use for this post, and so many examples I wanted to share so let me see how many I can get in. To start, I want to use the story of the movie, Brave Heart, another ‘90s movie that taught me about living a dream, and having a dream with purpose. Then yesterday was the introduction of the new iPad. This is the first product launch that Apple has made since Steve Jobs’ death. It shows that building a big dream can last long after you have left this planet.
The idea for today is to build a dream that will last; having a dream with purpose that outlives our time; creating a dream that changes our world and the world around us. Think of the movie, Brave Heart. William Wallace’s dream was to bring freedom to his country. But that dream was not achieved until well after his death.
Steve Jobs led Apple to the top of its industry. But his dreams will be taken to new levels without him by the company he created. Take a look at those legendary ideas, and companies that still live long after their founder has passed: Walt Disney, Thomas Edison, Dave Thomas, Ray Kroc, Milton Hershey, Henry Ford. This list could go on and on. These are just some of them and they’re just in America. There are similar situations around the world – so many that I could not include all the names in this post. The ideas these people started have gone on, in some cases, for several generations.
One of the books that I recommend to almost every client I work with is, The Game of Life and How to Play It. That book was written in 1925 – almost 90 years ago. It is still relevant to personal growth long after its author has gone. It’s a great book that gets people dreaming big dreams. This world needs some more dreams that will help us reach far past what we do and take on a new life after we are gone. Let’s show a few examples out of bigger-than-life dreams.
It’s 2012 and we have some new people running for president this year. The job of president will last only four years but the impact of the job they do in those four years will last 10 to 20 years into the future. Yes, it’s a big dream to become president, and it’s a dream that reaches far past the time you’re actually in the job. The job in itself must be taken on without selfish ambition because your choices impact more people then you will ever meet.
If you want a big dream like that, then you must think past yourself. While this one post may not be the thing that helps you think of that one dream that will live past you, we hope it will be a starting place and you will start now to find a dream that will live past you and how those dreams could play out. What will happen if you are not here to finish that dream in the next 10 years?
I want to finish up today with one great thought: “what if you’re not here anymore.” In 2001 at the Daytona 500, it was a great moment as we watched the last few laps of that race. Then there was the tragedy for the top two finishers as they watched their owner, the legendary car racer, Dale Earnhardt, crash to his death. But the Childress racing team had another driver in the car with a new paint scheme and new number the following week.
Richard Childress and Dale Earnhardt had both planned that if either of them passed, the next week the other one had to go back to the track and race. They had planned that together and had picked which driver would race in their place if needed. That was how Dale Earnhardt’s legend lives on. The dream of the owner-driver team was planned in advance so the team would live past any one of its members. I hope your dream lives on past you.
I’m Tim Gillette, the Rocker Life Coach. It’s time for you to live your dream, to love what you do and those you share life with. Build a dream that lives past you to be the RockStar in your world.
