Dream, Believe, Evolve

Make your dreams bigger than your fears

My son Isaac was born with a condition called Spondylo-epiphyseal dysplasia. A bit of a tongue twister for what, in essence, is a type of short stature. His adult height is 140cm or 4ft 6inches.

Isaac's always had great friends and his height difference wasn't a social issue until he was around 6 years old and decided he wanted to play soccer.

We enrolled him in a local club and I'll never forget the first night of training, taking him out in his baggy shorts and his guernsey that looked more like a dress on him than a top, watching him line up for the first drill and seeing the other kids in the team stare, point and laugh, wondering how he was going to play.

While I felt like a bull in front of a red rag, wanting to step forward and give those boys a piece of my mind, Isaac wasn't letting it get to him. He simply joined the line, answered the questions about why he was so short and got into the training.

That night was the start of a six year journey turning up to soccer games, having the opposition players stare, laugh and point while Isaac would take it all in, then step onto the field and give the game his best shot.

What the opposition players didn't know is that Isaac had a dream. He was going to be a European soccer star. It was all planned out in his imagination. First he would go to England to train, and from there he would be scouted by a European soccer club and end up playing in the Serie A - the Italian soccer league.

In his dream he saw himself running out in the number 23 jersey - the number of his favourite professional player at the time - scoring goals and performing the odd scissor kick - scissoring his legs in the air as he did a backflip and kicked the ball into the goals. The crowd would go wild!

His dream was big. It was bigger than the taunts, the stares and the looks of curiousity. It was bigger than the fear of not being included.

His dream was more than a hopeful vision - it was who he believed he was - a soccer star in the making. And the journey of a soccer star is not to stand on the side-lines - it's to get onto the field and play the game.

When you allow yourself to dream, and connect to that dream so strongly you believe you already are that person, action not only becomes possible - it becomes inevitable.

Isaac kept believing until, around the age of 12, he had a hip operation, the field doubled in size as he progressed out of juniors and into seniors, and he knew he wasn't going to keep up. His legs were too short and the competition was too fast.

So he reinvented himself. He allowed a new dream to emerge - to become Australia's Smallest Body Builder. He dedicated himself 100% to that dream and it made him just as motivated and just as happy as the first.

As one path closed he stepped onto another. He didn't stop dreaming - he just kept evolving.

On the journey to finding your voice, it's likely you'll face hard things too. There will be times you'll need to stare down your fears, courageously step forward to say what needs to be said, to ask for what you want or to put yourself forward for that new opportunity.

It's at these times that having a vision about who you are becoming, and listening to the voice inside you that believes this is possible for you, is useful.

Connect, believe and allow yourself to evolve. Imagine you're already there and action not only becomes possible, it becomes inevitable.

As Glennon Doyle, author of Untamed, says:

"I see your pain and it's big. I also see your courage and it's bigger. You can do hard things."

Keep dreaming, keep believing and keep allowing yourself to evolve.