"It was all a dream, but it was a dream I couldn't get enough of. I've held on to the dream every day of my life ever since and done everything I could to make it come true."
"Do not confuse dreams with wishes. There is a difference. Dreams are where you visualize yourself being successful at whats important to you to accomplish. And dreams build convictions. Because you work hard to pay the price to make sure that they come true. Wishes are hoping that good things will happen to you. With wishes, there is no fire in your gut, pushing you to the limit to overcome every obstacle to reach your heart's desire. My desire to pursue my dreams has always been greater than my fear of not accomplishing them."
-Dolly Parton in Dream More
Dreams. I once knew someone who's business quote was "Dream...then turn it into a reality." I've always had dreams. If there is one thing I can give myself credit, it's that I have always put effort into making my dreams come true. My dreams have what always kept me going, and my dreams have also kept me alive. Those who know me best know how literal that is.
I think like so many other people, I wanted to BE somebody. I grew up appreciating and studying history of all kinds. I also grew up watching some of the greatest pioneers of our country. I not only watched them and enjoyed their work, but I was strongly attracted to their work ethic and philosophies. I would actually study them. As I have said in previous blogs, I love watching a master at work, of any kind. I very much wanted to be a master in my own field, and I always took that responsibility and title very seriously.
I was eight turning nine. The first decision I ever made for myself was to start martial arts training. I did a lot of things like baseball, soccer, basketball, all things I was terrible at. I was an awkward kid, lanky, uncoordinated, and did not think very much of myself. Then one day I did a Buddy Day at a martial arts school, which then enrolled me into four weeks of summer camp. Martial arts and I fell in love at first sight.
I am so lucky and blessed to have found and known at a young age that THIS is what I was supposed to be doing with my life. I just knew. Sound crazy? Good! If it doesn't then it takes away from how very real that moment was when I made this choice. Like I said, this is what I was supposed to do on this earth. It wasn't like it was just something I always liked and turned into a passion. From the moment I entered my first dojang and through a kick. This was the tool God would use for me to do whatever it is I was created for.
When I was nine years old, I KNEW I was going to do two things one day. 1) I WILL become a martial arts master. 2) I WILL have my own school one day. All the other kids my age wanted to be Pokemon masters. I was strange from the get-go. As a kid, into a teenager, into a young adult, I still do the serious planning and organizing of my dreams, short term goals list, long term goals list, deadlines, specifics to how to get there, asking the right questions; I have done this all my life.
"It took me a while to realize that the more you learn, the easier it is to learn."
"I know that a good part of my work ethic comes from my desire to give the best that I can at all times. I never have considered myself a perfectionist, but I do think of myself as a 'professionalist.'"
"Happiness is your commitment to appreciating all that is good in life, big and small."
-Dolly Parton
I recently read a book by Dolly Parton. Ironically, a week before I read the book, I watched a Barbara Walters interview with Dolly Parton. She always knew she wanted to be a "star" and loved her fairy tales. Everything she did was to live in her real life fairy tale, she told Walters. It didn't matter what it took. What I loved about her book is that she put into words a lot of things I, myself, would feel in my heart.
Dolly is a beautiful person, a phenomenal philanthropist, a contributor in an array of ways to humanity, and truly is a class act star. Reading her book got me to really reflect on my own goals and dreams, some of which I have had all my life, some I did achieve, and some I am in constant movement to achieve. But one thing that came to mind was when I was nine years old telling myself that I WILL do those two things, becoming a master and owning my own school.
June 5, 2010, I cannot begin to tell you the tremendous and surreal feeling when I opened the doors to Trento's Martial Arts and Fitness Center. I always wanted a place where I could train and teach. I wanted it to be a place where people would be inspired to become the best they can be and transform themselves, and a place where they felt comfortable to being themselves. Over the years I have added and changed so many things, I cannot believe how far the center has come with what I have there now.
June 23, 2012, I'll never forget all of the work and high standards and expectations I held for myself to receiving the title of "master." People I have worked with whom I respected and put on pedestals for their teaching abilities and what they have offered me as a person, I wanted to have the best aspects of these people within me, and would not have been satisfied unless the time, work, and service was put into it. I remember the tears welling up in my eyes when Master Balon wrapped my 4th Dan Black Belt around my waste. Any true Black Belt knows its never about that cotton thing around your waist but what it represents.
Since then, I've made newer goals and created new dreams. Some I would have never thought I would ever want to accomplish. Some I don't think I would ever have had the nerve to pursue. And it's all exciting to me. However, the last year or so, I have been very distracted. I have been very discouraged, and I feel as if I in a way fell off the bandwagon for my own self. Many people will say comforting things and steer me in the right direction, but I know my own standards and anything less than that will not be acceptable in the Trento-verse.
"The few people in this world who care more change the world and the people around them. Those who don't give a rat's behind have to have someone to care for them."
-Dolly Parton
Reading Dolly's book was very inspiring to me. I understood her language very well, I identified with her views very strongly. I also related to much of the experience she was sharing, and I found her story most fascinating. She reminded me to dream big and to keep dreaming. It was nice to be reminded, as I reflect, of my own dreams, and re-establishing what my dreams are. I love planning and figuring out how to get there, and of course asking the big questions to how I can get there and what my options are.
She reminded me to always learning. I am ALWAYS in a constant state of learning. I seek out the greatest mentors to work with and am ALWAYS reading. I read every day. Some of my closest friends know I am always up for a good positive story, a biography or autobiography of some of the greats, or even a textbook (currently reading a high school psychology textbook--I know, I know). But she also reiterated that it is the ones who care the most who make the greatest difference in the world. And I must say all the mentors I have and had cared very deeply for what they do and I believe that's what makes them the best at what they do as well.
And I do care very much for what I do. I hope people see that when I am "on". I've been more "on" these days than I've been in a long while. I feel energy flowing better than it has been. And when energy flows right, and the Qi is clear, good things come into your life. Dolly also encourages us to BE more. As I have said so many times before, as long as we are alive, we are always in a state of becoming. We are on a road where we don't know where we are going until we get there, and sometimes we don't know where to go once we get there.
"Being more is all about following the Golden Rule and bringing into your life a commitment to be fair, generous and compassionate to everybody. And i do mean everybody! So if I have but one hope for you-- always remember you cannot be more than a real somebody!"
-Dolly Parton
(BOWS)
Yours in service,
MASTER A TRENTO
Really good!!
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