Maybe
ninety-nine times out of a hundred, it’s not going to happen. But sometimes, one
hundred knocks on your door and walks into your living room. It sits down and
smiles and asks if you’re ready.

            When
it does, then be ready.

            Work
hard and be willing to learn.

            Be
persistent and force yourself to be patient.

            Don’t
settle. That word is very dangerous. Settling means remaining okay with the
now. Settling means remaining stuck in the now which quickly becomes the then.
Settling means not working hard.

            Dream.
Don’t drive over the edge of the cliff doing so, but dream while you’re driving
down the highway. See the open horizon and keep pressing toward the big, the bright,
the endless blue.

            Write
down and record dreams. Goals. Desires. Foolish things nobody will ever see.
They don’t have to see it. They don’t have to realize that all of those will
probably never happen.

            But
sometimes, they do.

            Occasionally
you can write down a project and give yourself a twenty-five percent chance of
it happening, knowing that’s probably twenty-percent too high. Knowing it’s a
longshot on a page full of maybe’s and could be’s and possibilities.

            Then
you can find yourself reading an email and making a call and being presented
with that very project you dreamt about. You don’t wait and watch in wonder. You
get to work.

            You
find pleasure in somber or silly or scary stories. You weave them together. You
find songs to match their soul. And you continue on.

            Do
you wish to continue this sort of dreaming and desiring? Then turn to page 42.

            Do
you feel content to stay in the now and not persist on? Then don’t turn the
page.

            I’m
turning the pages today. And God willing, I’ll keep them turning.

            And
as always, I’ll be fascinated and surprised at what I’ll find. And willing and
able to fill their margins full.