There’s a line I love from Eulogy by Frank Turner. It’s about going after your big dream. The song is only 1:35 but it builds to a great point —
Well I haven’t always been a perfect person
And I haven’t done what Mum and Dad had dreamed
But on the day I die
I’ll say, at least I fucking tried
That’s the only eulogy I need
This line is my new mantra as I move forward in my writing career. It’s easy to be scared, depressed, or even put off by the ‘guardians at the gate’. You can want to stop, to turn back, and you think ‘I just don’t want to waste my time if everyone says ‘It’s impossible; you’re not going to make it.'” Well, welcome to —
The Five Fucking Reasons You’d Better Live Your Dreams
- Death
‘Woah, that’s reason #1?’ I hear you saying. But yes, no matter how young, and how healthy you are, one day you will die. Now, I don’t really go out for writing as a form of immortality, but I believe that on your death-bed you’d better have no regrets, you’d better have given it your all, you’d better be able to say ‘At least I fucking tried’.
- Because You’ll Never Be More Alive
A person pursuing a dream is awake, engaged, loving, and joyous — you’ll never feel more alive. Even the missteps feel like leaps toward your destiny. The goal is to enjoy the journey and not just plan to live ‘when you make it’. If you’re building your dreams, in a very real way you are ‘making it’ as you go along.
- Others Would Give Anything to be Standing Where You Are
In terms of literacy, education, money, safety, family, and health, there are millions if not billions of people who wish they had what you already have right now. So, as you start the journey toward your big dream, see yourself as lucky, blessed, and posed for greatness.
- The World Needs More Awesome
I’m going to be honest here; this is a selfish want. I live in the world (as do some of you) and I need to be blown-away-knocked-out-of-my-socks-mouth-agape-with-awe a little more often than I am. Do you look around at movies and TV, at businesses, at everything, and think — that could be done better? Well, the truth is, you’re right. What we see is the people who tried and were deemed ‘good enough’. Now there’s plenty of room out there for someone awesome to burst onto the scene and break everything up, and set a new high bar for what can be done. You can be that person. But be forewarned, the more awesome and out there your vision, the harder and longer you’ll have to fight before it catches on — but then the world will wonder how they ever did without you.
- You Might Be a Great Success (and every successful person started where you are)
In a world of negativity and ‘reality checks’, it is sometimes forgotten that everyone you love and admire in any given field was once a beginner, unknown, and even discouraged. But their love, their passion, and their inability to stop doing what they were put on Earth to do ultimately lead to their success. And that’s truly a sign of the start of greatness — you’ve been living (or least thinking) about your dream every day for a long time. Now I’m just encouraging you to pull it out from the wings and onto center stage.
Go knock the world off its axis.
Stay Extraordinary 
Such an inspiring post and a fresh perspective. I loved everything about it. “Even the missteps feel like leaps toward your destiny” is my favorite line. Although sometimes, I have to admit, they don’t; and at those moments I’ll just have to remember that at least I’ve written something, “at least I fucking tried.” 😉
Thank you so much for your kind words! They really mean so much. The artist’s path is long, and sometimes hard. But I’m sure you, like I, have had a ton of people tell you they’d ‘like to write’ be it a novel, a screenplay, or a poem. Just having the courage and the passion to put pen to paper is a big accomplishment. Doing what you were put here to do is a wonderful journey to be on — even if none of us know where we’ll end up.
Best of luck to you!