You can choose a dragon
or you can wait until a dragon chooses you,
but every happy person fights one.
Our dragons give us purpose.
Our dragons give us adventure.
The problem with adventure is that we seldom realize how much fun we’re having until it’s over.
When you’re having an adventure, you wish you were safe at home. But when you’re safe at home you wish you were having an adventure.
Challenge and reward and danger – the possibility of a negative outcome – these are the essential elements of adventure.
The idle rich are bored because pleasure is no substitute for adventure.
St. George must forever kill the dragon and the dragon must forever be killed, because if the dragon were ever finally killed, there would be nothing left but a lonely man looking for something to do.”
– John Steinbeck (1961)
Can you name your dragon, the one you are trying to slay? If you can’t, let me tell you how to find him. Look in the darkness toward your personal north star – your impossible dream – and take a series of steps in that direction.
Keep walking. Keep your eye on that star. Your dragon will soon appear.
Fairy tales are more than true; not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.”
– G.K. Chesterton (1909)
Video games and movies and fiction books are surrogate adventures.
Television shows – including the news – are surrogate adventures.
Extramarital affairs are surrogate adventures.
Gambling – including the stock market – is a surrogate adventure.
Living for real is an actual adventure.
Living for real means choosing to make a difference.
Choosing to do a kindness for a stranger.
Choosing to encourage a friend.
Choosing to right a wrong.
Choosing to apologize.
Run unafraid
toward the dragon
that can never be slain.
Carpe diem.
Roy H. Williams
PS – In addition to the dragon you already face, I’m going to introduce you to a HUGE new dragon in next week’s MMMemo and it’s a business dragon, not a personal one. Then two weeks from now I’ll give you the final installment in the Living for Real series. The title is, What Does Your Ocean Whisper? – RHW
A benefit concert in Nova Scotia! Wizard Academy Vice-Chancellor Daniel Whittington is going to rock Nova Scotia on September 17th in a benefit concert for Chrysalis House, an organization providing shelter, crisis and transitional services to women and children who are at risk of violence and abuse. Wizard of Ads partners Scott Fraser, Jane Fraser and Paul Boomer tell me it’s going to be an AMAZING evening and 100% of the ticket price will go to Chrysalis House. You should attend, if you can.
Do you need to reinvent your business? Join online marketing giant Jeffrey Eisenberg and Wizard of Ads Roy H. Williams Nov. 3-4 in the debut of a brand new, 2-day workshop at Wizard Academy, Repurpose the Proven. The wizard says this workshop is only for people who are highly imaginative, courageous and ambitious. I plan to be there! – Indiana Beagle. Oh, here’s one last thought before you click St. George at the top of the page and we jump into the rabbit hole together… David Herbert (D.H.) Lawrence understood Living for Real. He said, “All that we know is nothing – we are merely crammed waste-paper baskets – unless we are in touch with that which laughs at all our knowing.” I love that.