Prisoner of Shadows
Do you have plans and dreams “but now is not a good time” to get started on them? Are your hands and feet bound by memories of yesterday and fears of tomorrow? Have you been living as a prisoner of shadows?
NEWS FLASH: There never will be a good time.
Procrastination is the passive assassin of opportunity.
A few years ago Pennie and I sat with David and Terri Graves and Teresa Pollard at a table on the left side of the dining room at the Village Inn in Tulsa and sang Happy Birthday to our friend David Hartman. It was his twenty-fifth. I distinctly remember thinking, “In four more years I'll be twenty-five and people will take me seriously then. People think of you as grown up when you're twenty-five.”
A few months ago I sat surrounded by friends I had only just met in a town I was about to leave as they sang Happy Birthday to me. Then we finished packing the boxes and they helped me load the Ryder truck and I paid them and they were gone. I was thirty.
A few days ago Pennie threw a spectacular party for my fortieth birthday. The Woodster was there and John Riley poured the wine for several dozen guests and I blushed when the Princess showed a tender video that she had made for me.
This morning I turned forty-six and I'm sitting here thinking of you and of the life that lies ahead of you if only you have the courage to live it. No, things won't turn out quite as well as you had hoped. But neither will they turn out as badly as you had feared.
“But why think about that when all the golden land's ahead of you and all kinds of unforeseen events wait lurking to surprise you and make you glad you're alive to see?” – Jack Kerouac
“Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal.” – Henry Ford
“Those of us who refuse to risk and grow get swallowed up by life.” – Patty Hansen
“In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing. The worst thing you can do is nothing.” – Theodore Roosevelt
“What I am is good enough if I would only be it openly.” – Carl Rogers
Do you have dreams? Take the advice of the great Anthony Marc White: “Pull the trigger and ride the bullet.” Far more dangerous than taking that chance is not taking it.
“The big question is whether you are going to be able to say a hearty yes to your adventure.” – Joseph Campbell
Roy H. Williams
PS – If a successful advertising and marketing plan is all that separates you from your dreams, don't miss the Wizard's 3-day Secret Formulas Advertising Workshop April 21-23. For more information visit wizardacademy.org or contact Corrine Taylor at (800) 425-4769. (Email is Corrine@wizardacademy.org)
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