We all have dreams, hopes and desires. Some of us even have the resolve and the sheer force of will to make them happen singlehandedly. Others utilize keen communication skills and networking to build an alliance of confidants and business partners to get us where we need to go. Some of us are late bloomers, having far too many dreams to chase down and absolutely no feasible plan to accomplish any of them, until BOOM, a plan arrives and magically all of the goals get prioritized and attainable. An unfortunate and sizable group of us will never attempt to fulfill our dreams, believing them to be too far out of reach, or worse than that, plainly not believing in ourselves to be able to accomplish them. Regardless of which type of dreamer you are, you got there via inspiration. From Merriam-Webster:
Inspiration is the good stuff, the awesome sauce, the perfect 10 of creativity. What’s amazing about inspiration is that it comes to everybody in different ways. Some folks get inspired by the world around them – they see other people interacting, machinery working, the splendiferousness of nature and in those moments they conceive of the basic constructs that become their dreams. Truthfully, there are any number of ways that someone might find inspiration, and in that moment concoct a scheme which gives them wings towards flights of fancy and glorious purpose, and that’s a beautiful thing.
For me, entertainment has always brought about the most inspiration in me. An errant lyric from a song that I just heard, a perfectly filmed scene in a film I just watched, an idea that was brought forth through imagery in a painting, a silly conspiracy theory proposed in an alien manifesto documentary, all of these things and more bring out the creative in me. From the first time I heard King Missile, I knew that I wanted to mess around with the themes of post modernism and humor, and thusly Bob and his absurd ways were born way back in 1993. I love the concept of time travel, from the glorious cheesiness of Trancers, to the ridiculously time altering Back to the Future trilogy, to the more recent comedy About Time, I knew I wanted to tell my own yarn about time – something different, where somebody wasn’t going back to change an event in time, merely to observe for historical posterity and in doing so discover that one could not change time even if they wanted to, and just like that the Cataloguers of Time were invented. Essentially, I like to perform thought experiments, kind of like Einstein, but instead of trying to figure out the meaning of life, the universe and everything, I’m trying to create new ways to tell a story. I go out of my way to try and think of exciting and different ways to play with familiar concepts, and that’s what fuels my dream to create new stories, characters and ultimately fictional universes. Thusly, I absorb entertainment content to spark the creative centers of my brain, and in doing so work towards my dreams. Also, from Merriam-Webster:
I, seemingly, have wanted very much to do a whole lot of things – just ask my parents: I’ve wanted to be an animator, a filmmaker, a game designer, own my own niche retail shop, and even an FBI agent (don’t ask… teenage me loved the X-Files and the movie Thunderheart a lot, perhaps way too much) My ultimate goal nowadays, or dream as it were, is to become a successful writer of books and scripts. It wasn’t until I watched the film Chef last year, that I decided to stop hiding behind excuses and failures, and accept that I’m not ever going to accomplish anything unless I start small and build myself up to where I want to be. I’m utilizing this absurdly titled blog to help focus my brain on the task at hand – writing. A writer writes, always, except that’s it hard to find the time. Now that I have the blog, I’ve written multiple short stories, a memoirs entry, started a web comic, and even started work towards finishing a novel that I started writing 2 years ago. The good news: it’s working! Writing daily and weekly has produced in me some very good habits. You see, I fall under the late bloomer category, and now it all makes sense. I have obtainable goals along with the focus and the will to see them through. As I take each step towards my dream, I feel a certainty growing within me that wasn’t there a few months ago, or any other time in my life. The most difficult step you take is the first, and it took me years to force myself to take it. Now that I’ve taken it, I feel like sprinting towards toe finish line. It feel amazing to be putting so much effort back into what I love, some of which you can see here in my blog, and other stuff that you’ll have to wait to read at a later time. Either way, I now have the confidence to tell you that you will most certainly see more of my work, should you choose to, because more of it will continue to be available. It’s a good feeling, and it’s only get better.
If you haven’t done so yet, find a way to follow your dreams. Do more with your life. It’s easy to sit around and do nothing all day, I used to spend my years just spinning my wheels, but it never satisifies. You want to be fulfilled? Surround yourself with the things that inspire you, and then work diligently towards making your dreams your reality. There’s more to life than clocking in at your job and pumping for the man, you just gotta put in the time and effort to claim it. I can only imagine what it will feel like to claim it, because I’m not there yet, but each day I’m getting closer, and that puts a tremendous smile on my face. When I finally get there, I’ll be sure to tell you all about it.
