My response to Paul Potts: Following the dream

PAUL POTTS IS NOT YOUR AVERAGE STAR. HE’S SHY,
HE’S NO FOOTBALL PLAYER OR MEGASTAR MODEL.
BUT HE HAS GOT SOMETHING WE ALL WANT.

Day to day we go about our business and life seems to slip
by quietly. Very quietly. We pay our bills, we feed and
clothe ourselves and our families and we wonder why life
isn’t “perfect”. I’m not saying life is bad. We have a roof
over our heads, we don’t live in a war zone (most of us
anyways) and we have food to eat. But I’m sure many of
you out there are wondering “Is this it?”. We don’t dare
to carry out our dreams. We even fear if we leave our
“responsibilities” that the rest of the world may collapse
around us. We think things like “What about my family?”
or “How will I pay my bills?”.

Granted we have a responsibility to not put ourselves or
others out but I believe we all have the right to pursue
our dreams. Some of us choose to do it. Paul Potts is one
of those people. He chose to overcome a public appearance.
(Which surveys say is more feared than death). Paul has guts.

One of my favorite mentors has a saying “Anything worth
doing is worth doing poorly”. In other words, get out there
and do it. If something needs adjustment, change it but
don’t let “waiting for the right time” be the excuse to at
least try.

HERE’S A QUICK VIDEO ON DOING:

Ok. So what does that entail? Well for a start. Know what
you want. If you aren’t 100%, try something for a little
while until you are convinced it isn’t what you want. At
least then you can cross one thing off the list that you
don’t want to do.

Here’s what I do:

1. Every night, write down ALL the things you want to
get done. Now and in the future.

2. Pick the Top 3 things you want to achieve from that
list.

3. The next morning. Just do them. Nothing else. Just
the Top 3.

Big things can happen when you get the little things out
of the way but you MUST be moving toward your most
important goals. No matter how small that step is you
must do it as soon as possible. All the “less important”
things can wait a little. Goodness knows how long the
important ones have been waiting. At least make a start.

And finally, an excellent piece from Carole Malone from the
Sunday Mirror that I think everyone should read. Here’s a snippet:

And while it’s true not all of us have a God-given talent like Paul’s,
this chubby Colossus has reminded us that not only must we dare
to dream, we have a positive responsibility to do it. He’s an
inspirational reminder that REAL talent isn’t about Size 8 rich birds
with endless legs. It isn’t about monosyllabic footballers who think
driving a Ferrari makes them special. It isn’t about people thrown
into the public eye courtesy of a TV show and who spend their lives
splattered across the pages of Hello! magazine talking drivel.

What’s happened to Paul Potts and all the other acts is not just good
for them, it’s fantastic for all of us. Because they’ve shown that if you
want something enough, if you crave it, if you dream about it -
it CAN happen.

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The original article and video