LIFE’S PRESCRIPTION...
DREAM, BELIEVE, & WORK

December 20, 1999 

Dream...and the future takes form 

Believe...and you are halfway there 

Work...and climb to fulfillment 

Author unknown 

As the first leg of The Devotion to Motion World Tour draws to a close and we enter the new millennium, I felt the need to share this short poem with you. It really appears to capture the necessary ingredients for creating whatever it is you choose to manifest in your life. Easier said than done, right? These powerful words were given to me by my first physical therapist shortly after I completed my initial rehabilitation back in 1986 and inspire me more every day. I recall that day when I left rehab to re-enter into society by means of a wheelchair. A whole new world full of physical and mental challenges was waiting for me. New experiences which I would have never anticipated nor predicted evolved almost daily. The poem I just shared with you kept me focused and allowed me to put life into perspective and appreciate the moment even more. That focus was even more clearly defined while recently traveling to South Africa. Pratiksha and I had the opportunity to attend a lecture by one of our heroes, Nelson Mandela. Talk about overcoming obstacles and finding meaning in life! Let’s explore these most inspiring words of dream, believe, and work and see their true application on the life of one of the world’s finest freedom fighters. 

Dream...and the future takes form. Before anything can be created in the physical world, one must first create the idea or concept mentally. Close your eyes. Look at the black canvas that fills your view now. On that black canvas, you have the potential to create any masterpiece that your heart desires. If you can’t walk, you can paint a picture of yourself standing, then walking, and even running if you choose. If you want to be an astronaut, you can blast off to any galaxy you wish while you are dreaming. Do you need money, a partner in life, a new job? Simply close your eyes and begin to bring in all the colors you need, all the sights you need, all the sounds, and all the other details to your work of art. Don’t hesitate because this is your dream, this is your first step to manifesting your goals and aspirations. Your mind will store this picture in its memory so don’t hold out on any details. Once you have created this mental picture and move onto to something else, trust me when I tell you that some force that is greater than anything we could ever imagine is beginning to help us materialize it in the physical world. Don’t go anywhere because your job is not finished just yet!! 

When we talk about dreaming we could easily discuss Martin Luther King’s “I Had A Dream” speech and how he took this vision and turned it into a reality before his untimely death. We could also talk about the great basketball legend, Michael Jordan, who dreamed of playing professional basketball when he was a teenager. Did you know that he did not make the basketball team one year in high school when he was 15 years old. His dream did not die. There are so many other magical stories which expand on the notion that dreams do come true, but I want to again focus on the vision of Nelson Mandela. Here is a man who was imprisoned for 27 years. That’s 10,000 days behind bars. If there is anyone outside of the disabled community who knows what it is like to be handicapped, confined, etc., it’s this man. Did you know that he did not have a bed in his prison cell for the first 14 years of his imprisonment and when he slept his head would hit one wall while his feet would hit another wall. Despite the harsh environment that he had to endure, his dream to end apartheid and free his people from unjust rule became stronger with each passing day in prison. Considering that he was not stimulated by any of his five senses while imprisoned, he opened up a world of unlimited opportunities on the inside, in his heart and in his mind. 

Believe...and you are halfway there. Out of the three ingredients needed for life’s prescription, I would venture to say that “believing” is the most difficult. Why? When you believe in someone or something, you are totally detaching from your five senses. The power of belief can not be found by taste, touch, eyesight, hearing, or even smelling. Even the gift of intuition, which is being considered as a possible sixth sense, can not tap into the mystical and mysterious realm of belief. In order to arrive at the destination of belief, you must be willing to “let go” and trust that some force, which many observe as God, is guiding us in the right direction. It’s almost like an airplane pilot flicking the switch to autopilot and letting go of the controls. Hmmm. Let me repeat that last sentence because the words are so profound outside their original intent. “Letting go of control” is the direct path to believing, plain and simple. Believing is formulating your intention, which is created in the first step we discussed that focuses on dreaming, and launching it out into the field of infinite possibilities. Deepak Chopra likes to describe this process by having one picture throwing a small pebble into a large pond and watching the effect the small pebble has on the entire pond. Your intention or belief, no matter how small and insignificant you may believe it to be, lands in this pond. It will have more of a chance of surviving and materializing if your belief in it is clear and strong. Every cell in your body must focus on your plans developing just as you laid them out. Any negative feedback to your creation is only created in your mind and is the result of fear. Once you are aware of this fear, acknowledge it, understand its purpose, and send it on its way because it no longer serves you. 

Nelson Mandela is the master of belief. Let me once again remind you that this gentleman was imprisoned for 10,000 straight days. He missed out on the joys of watching his children grow up. He could not physically touch his wife, not even her hand, for the first 21 years of his imprisonment. He could only determine what day it was by observing the sunrise and sunset. The only news he received about the outside world was usually negative. His wife was thrown into prison because of him. Given all these circumstances and hundreds more, how could anyone manage to maintain any type of sanity. Belief. From the moment he committed to fighting for the rights of his people, Nelson Mandela vowed never to relinquish his pursuit of freedom no what matter obstacle was thrown into the picture. His dreams of a free South Africa coupled with his indestructible belief in his mission could not be touched nor eliminated by any human being. His belief was and continues to be so contagious that even the prison guards praised him. Almost like a person who has had his or her eyesight taken away, or an individual who can no longer hear, or a person who is told he or she will never walk again, he was given a choice. Either he could have given up and said that the road is too difficult and he can’t do it or he could choose to commit to moving forward and find that light at the end of the tunnel. It was his choice. He opted for the latter, of course, and thankfully so, for all of us. You see, everything in life is a choice, even whether or not we choose to live. For some, this power of choosing is abused. For others, like Nelson Mandela, the ability to choose is complemented by the gift of belief and then anything is possible...even freedom!! 

Work...and climb to fulfillment! The combination of dreaming and believing can be so profound only if you choose to act on it. You can dream of making a million dollars and have the utmost belief that it will happen, but unless you go out and work on completing your task, your intention is just a tiny grain of sand on an endless beach. How are you going to turn your dream into a reality? What steps are you going to take to fulfill your destiny? You have probably heard the line, “If you snooze, you lose!” Well folks, it’s true. How many times in your life have you had a great idea, but did nothing about it. You just sat back and watched someone else with more drive and determination run away with your idea and sail down the road of success. Once again, fear enters the picture and many times prevents us from venturing forward with a specific task. “What if I fail?” is usually a common excuse for someone who has not plunged forward with a great idea. Sometimes the idea of succeeding scares us even more than failing. Think about all the times in your life that you have failed. Unless you knew what failure was all about, you would have no clue as to what the experience of succeeding felt like. If you have ever had physical therapy, your therapist has probably told you that repetition builds endurance. This means that you have to continue to move forward and that you will experience successes and failures. But as time goes on, you will be rewarded for your efforts and begin to notice that your successes will far outweigh your failures. 

Before Nelson Mandela was imprisoned, he literally abandoned his family and his career to help his people. This sacrifice still, to this day, leaves him with an emptiness on the inside. But he recognizes, as do his family and friends, that if he had not taken the torch that represented freedom for all, then apartheid would still be flourishing and creating even more injustice in the world. Nelson Mandela worked tirelessly on getting his message out to the public any way he could while he was imprisoned. Even while he was in prison, he did not allow any more injustice to be done to him or his fellow inmates. Once he was released from prison, he did not ring the victory bell because he knew that his struggle was not over. He knew that much more work had to be completed before peace and solitude could embrace all of South Africa. Today, Nelson Mandela, even in retirement at the age of 81, travels around the world, seeking to make peace and open up the doors to freedom. He has said countless times that “there is no easy walk to freedom,” but as he has demonstrated so perfectly, the combination of dreaming, believing, and working will eventually guide you to your destiny. 

Thanks for listening! 

Scott 

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