Name your B.A.D.
I know, it does not sound very optimistic does it? Or like it will have a good relationship to leadership or personal development? Well, it does. Let me tell you a story...
Not too long ago I read that if people are not laughing at your dreams. you are not dreaming big enough.
At first I brushed this off - it sounds sort of ridiculous, right? No one wants to be laughed at or dream in a way that seems so farfetched it is impossible. Yet, the line stayed with me. I pondered over it and let it wash over my mind like waves on a beach. Repetitive, simple, yet just as a water can erode rock, the thought took on more meaning.
How do you become innovative? A thought leader? No one gains that status on a global, national or even regional stage immediately. You gain it in your day-to-day life first. You dream bigger than those around you, aim higher and keep stepping forward one step at a time. Those are the moments that define you and how big that dream is. The moment when the people around you laugh.
So often we take that laughter as a personal insult. We are being ridiculous, our ideas are silly and carry little or no value. And it is in that moment that we make a decision, consciously or perhaps unconsciously, on whether or not we give stock to those laughs. Do we allow those laughs to turn us away from the dream and back to the "reasonable" or do we see the potential and think of the number of people that laughed at Thomas Edison, Marie Curie or Steve Jobs?
I can honestly say I have let laughter stop me in the past. Make me question myself, what I am doing, my intelligence, my self-worth. I have heard the comments of "silly little girl" running in the background of my mind, whispering that those laughing are right.
But, no more.
I was talking about some new ideas I wanted to pursue recently and there were those who supported me, encouraged me and said 'go for it.' And then there were those who laughed...Guess which voices were louder?
The laughs.
At first I started down the old path of thoughts - wondering if I am being ridiculous? Am I making bad choices? Then the waves came. Washing in and out, slowly eroding those thoughts. Reminding me that the laughter is the sword that cuts the crowd. The blade that separates the innovators, the dreamers, the transformers, the leaders.
Name your B. A. D.
What is it? Your BIG AUDACIOUS DREAM. When you say your ideas, your next steps, and you hear the laughter, smile back. For you know the secret to success. You are no longer afraid to dream.