THE DASH

Ahh the dash. This has some different meanings. I'll mention a couple of them here. One meaning is a short quick run, another meaning is what we see on tomb stones between the birth and death dates. The point of this post is mainly the second meaning, a far more significant meaning.

When some think of "the dash" they think about a short run like they did in school for physical education. For me these always filled me with adrenaline because I always wanted to be the fastest, and it was important to me that I did finish first. I didn't want to lose. For others, they just approached it with a feeling of blah. They knew they weren't going to finish in the top half, so they just went through the motions. I never could understand that as a young student. Now in the second half of my life, with some sadness, I have a little better understanding of this philosophy.

This post deals with a different meaning of "the dash". All of us are born and die. There's no way around either, but take a look at any tomb stone. Part of what is recorded there is when their life started and when it ended. Another thing you will notice is something that seems at first rather insignificant, but it is never the less the most significant. This other thing is the little dash between the date of birth and the date of death.

Neither the birth date or the death date mark anything truly significant, but the dash might. At some point in life, everyone is faced with a question regarding their life. That question is something like: "What do I want my life to be about?" Some pursue the answer, some just discard the question because in some cases, life just gets in the way. Regardless, most people ask themselves this question at some point through their dash.

Unfortunately some people live out their dash as quiters. Without doing anything to be responsible for themselves, somehow they find a way to live. They allow others to care for them. They don't see a point in working toward anything perhaps they just don't want to, but more than likely they for some reason don't feel they can be any better or do anything. This is truly sad, but unfortunately our government is giving people more and more impetus to adopt this philosophy.

Some people battle throughout their life just trying to survive. This is a battle that some will find a way to win and some won't. The battle to "survive" is normally seen as a financial matter. Most people seek to find a way to live their life so that they make enough money to simply survive financially. Surviving is better than quitting, but there is something more. Again most people are so caught up with merely surviving, they don't go out and look for anything else.

Other people live their life looking for success. This means different things to different people. For some it means being good at their chosen career. For some it means having certain possesions or living in a certain house or town. Success means different things based on your perspective. The only way to achieve success is to set goals and strive toward these goals. These people have truly accomplished something and should be proud, however they can do more.

The last group of people strive to live a life of significance. This means that they did more than what they had to do in order to merely survive or be successful. They found something greater than themselves or a higher purpose and worked to help others and in the process gave themselves significance. These are the people who are born just like all of us. They also die - just like all of us. The big difference is, what they did during their dash touched many people's lives. These are the people who are remembered by thousands of people after they're gone. Some of the best examples would be Mother Theresa, Gandhi and Jesus. They weren't born into wealth, or "given a break" they just had a purpose which was to lead a life of significance.

From a book titles "Leaders Without Borders" by Doug Dickerson he gives some ways to explore what you can do to discover what your life should be about. He suggests asking yourself some questions. The questions are these: 1 What tugs at your heart? 2 What is your gift? 3 What is your purpose?

The answer to the first question (What tugs at your heart?) gets you started in the right direction. Charles Parkhurst says, "The heart has eyes that the brain knows nothing about." Discovering what tugs at your heart is what calls you toward a calling that's greater than yourself. Most people know what tugs at their heart, but do nothing about it.

The answer to the second question (What is your gift?) propels you in the right direction. Discovering your passion and matching it with your gift is a natural way to excel as a leader. Even though many people know what tugs at their heart and know what their gift is, they do nothing with their gift. They haven't gone anywhere or done anything with the answers to these questions.

The answer to the third question (What is your purpose?) leads you to prepare and decide what are you going to do about it. This questions is seldom asked, and if it is, seldom do people search for an answer so they can truly live out their life as it was meant to be designed.

All of these are great questions to ask, but essentially there is no progress made until and unless there is a dream. Now we've all dreamed, but not the way that's truly important. Passion is the dream that resides within the heart. In the words of Carl Sandburg, "Nothing happens but first a dream." What he's saying is that nothing significant happens unless it starts with a dream. T.E. Lawrence also said, "All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes, to make it possible."

These men he refers to who dream by day and act upon these dreams with open eyes are the people who live lives of true significance. It is important to realize that all of us choose to live our lives in any manner we wish. What our dash means is totally up to us. We actually choose to live our lives as a quitter, a survivor, a success or someone truly significant.

For all who choose to live a life of significance there is help available to you. The key to remember is that we don't have to and even can't do this on our own. There is help available. Nothing will happen unless we start with a dream. What do you really want? Where do you really want to be? Who do you really want to be?

Remember-Nothing happens but first a dream, so dream big dreams and strive to live a life of significance.

What will your dash represent?