Choose to Chase Your Dreams

CHOOSE to chase your dreams.  Really.

My grandmother was a collector of quotes and verses.  She cut clippings from the newspaper, from magazines, and from pretty calendars.  If she ran across one that was particularly meaningful to her, she made sure she shared it with us…many times…whether we wanted to hear it or not.  It had somehow stopped her in her tracks, pricked her heart, or rattled her soul, and we were going to experience that, too.  Quips and passages were otherwise kept taped to the inside of cabinet doors or on mirrors, complete with words underlined and arrows pointing to impactful words.

Now here’s me…a collector of memes. I have entire Pinterest boards dedicated to quotations and sayings that speak to me on some meaningful level, and I, too, screech to a halt when one crosses my path that rattles my soul.

This is one.

Every morning you have two choices:  continue to sleep with your dreams, or wake up and chase them.

Boom.  Soul rattled.  And whether you want to hear it or not, in my grandmother’s insistent fashion, let me share it with you.

Every morning you have two choices.  Each day, we have the opportunity to start fresh.  While we may open our eyes and see the usual tasks, obligations, and challenges staring back at us, we can CHOOSE how we handle life.  There are options, possibilities, and opportunities.  We get to decide.

Continue to sleep with your dreams.  Envisioning the seemingly impossible, picturing the magical, and visualizing the potential feels good.  It gives us hope.  We look forward from the comfort of our beds.  Our eyes close, and we are secure and in love with the ideals and illusions swirling in our minds.  We can stay comfortable in our own imaginations. 

Wake up and chase them.  Waking up and chasing anything takes effort.  Chasing our dreams requires vulnerability.  We must put fear aside.  Barriers must be broken and obstacles side-stepped.  We must work, take risks, and perhaps fail.

At the risk of hounding you with a quote from my virtual cabinet door, I really believe that the CHOICE to go after your dreams is real, and I wanted to remind you.  It is my prayer for you, friends and fellow dance professionals, that in 2022, I hope you wake up each day grateful that you have a CHOICE in how you handle life and go after our own dreams.  I hope you close your eyes in peace, in comfort, and in contentment every night, allowing yourself to put aside the day’s stresses and events long enough for imagining potential, conceiving new ideas, and believing in magic YOU are capable of creating.  I hope you can let go, dare to move forward without fear, and boldly take steps towards your dreams.

Put this quote in your cabinet door, on your mirror, or link it on Pinterest.  This new year, let’s design the lives we want, live our lives deliberately, and make the choices that will help us realize our dreams.

Amanda Herring LOVES her job!  Owner of Center Stage Dance in Hernando, MS, she is passionate about sharing the love of dance while inspiring and encouraging everyone who walks through her door.  She loves BIG and has a heart for new dancers joining a class for the first time.  She takes pride in offering stellar service to dance families and specializes in efficiency, organization, fair policies, and strong communication.  Her shows are HUGE with plenty of lights, effects, and stagecraft.  Amanda wants her students to feel like they are a part of something big, and it is always her goal to bring more to class and to the stage than her audience is expecting.