Done over easy.
That’s how I like my dreams early in the morning, with a side of home fries, and a hot coffee; two creams, no sugar. Done. One syllable. One single point of focus. Completion and a conclusion.
When it comes to work we are funny people. If we are salaries or work by the hour, we have no difficulty in accomplishing and finishing the tasks that are assigned to us. We bring the work home, we stress over, and we would never think of not getting it done. The result of not finishing would mean the end of our employment at some point, and that is something that scares us deeply. But when it comes to our dreams and the things we care deeply about, we are the opposite. We simply don’t finish. We don’t get our work done. We are either afraid or distracted and probably both.
Done is not easy. Our work is never easy, the physical and emotional labour is never easy and we have problems getting out of our heads and not being self critical enough to file as work as complete.
But everything that surrounds us screams of being done. Night overpowers the day, and the day overpowers the night. Time comes and time goes. Kids grow, the world changes, and eventually all good things come to an end. Life is done.
For over forty five years of my life I had rejected myself, and I’m forty six. For forty five years I would talk myself out of doing something or not finishing something because I was afraid of how stupid it would be but more importantly how stupid I would look. I wouldn’t try things, was afraid to look foolish, but my hunger to be someone great never went away. I finally learned that in order to be great you don’t have to do great things, you just have to have the courage to finish.
There is magic in being done. Something can happen. Someone else can come along and do something with it. They can accept it or reject it. Like it, hate it, or be indifferent about it. But no matter how it makes them feel, it gives you something tangible to reflect on. It gives you a chance to fix what needs fixing because it’s quite not there, or it gives you the opportunity to start something new and make things bette.
I hope you join me in never rejecting yourself again. Grow thick emotional skin and let people tell you know what they think. Let them reject you or your work. Give them that opportunity. Afford them that chance. Save yourself the painful agony of living a life in a meaningless hamster wheel, running so fast, getting nowhere, and imaging all the places you will likely never get to.
Done over easy, thats how you should order your dreams early in the morning too. The coffee and the home fries are optional.
Cover photo generously provided by photographer Thought Catalog via unsplash.com
