The Size of Your Dreams by - (best non fiction books to read .TXT) 📖
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“Great. That’s three.”
“In fact,” Christy said, “I am so inspiring, I’m….Who’s inspiring?”
“I don’t know, Gandhi?”
“I’m not going to be Gandhi, give me a break.”
I scanned the room and saw fireworks above the Shakira poster. “How about a shooting star?”
“Good. I’m so inspiring, I’m a Shooting Star.” She made glamorous faces into the mirror—well, as glamorous as a crash test dummy can get.
The light in Christy’s eyes had returned. “Okay. One last statement. I am beautiful.” She studied her stitches in the mirror. “In fact, I’m so beautiful, I look just like the Bride of Frankenstein.”
I grabbed the mirror from her hand and took a hard look at myself. Suddenly, I liked what I saw. “I am wise,” I said, and at the moment, I felt it. “I am so wise, I am a fortune cookie.”
Christy grabbed back the mirror and held it out so that we could both see ourselves in it. “We are friends,” she said. “In fact, we’re such good friends, we’re like…”
“Batman and Rubberwoman.”
The Lawn Ranger
“So, Jarod, how’s your business going?” Mr. Griffin asked.
“I’m doing better and better. But I wouldn’t really call what I have a business yet.” Jarod’s hands turned up. “I’m still just a guy pushing a lawnmower.”
“I see. And what defines a business?”
“Well, take Bill, for example. He’s got a business. His trucks are all the same color, and they’ve got his logo on them. He has proper receipts. He’s got a staff with t-shirts that say Greenscapes Lawncare: We’re Here to Serve. He’s even got a secretary taking all his calls.”
“Without the t-shirts would it still be a business?”
“Sure.”
“What if Bill’s trucks didn’t have his logo?”
“I guess. But—“
“But what?”
“It feels different, what Bill’s got. I don’t think of myself that way.”
“Precisely. Because once you get past all of the t-shirts, logos and other minor details, you’ll find that only one thing separates you from a legitimate business.”
“What’s that?”
“Mindset. Businesses take themselves seriously, and you don’t.”
“I take myself seriously.”
“Do you? Why don’t you try, just for a day, to think of yourself not as a guy who pushes a mower, but as the head of a landscaping business? See how that affects you.”
* * *
Jarod bounced into class the next morning. “What do you all think?” He held up a piece of paper for all to see.
“The Lawn Ranger?” Darnell asked.
“Glad to see you made an Identity Card,” I said. “That’s a great nickname.”
“It’s not a nickname, it’s the new name of my business.”
“Why not Jarod’s Landscaping or something like that?” Darnell asked.
“At first I wanted to call it Jarod’s Lawn Care, but I thought about Bill and how he has this huge staff of guys not named ‘Bill.’ This name allows the business to grow into something bigger than me.”
“Where’d the name come from?” Darnell asked.
“Believe it or not, it’s what my grandfather has called me ever since I started mowing. He’s a Lone Ranger buff. I thought it was catchy.”
“That’s a real shift,” Mr. Griffin said.
“I took our conversation yesterday to heart.”
“So what now?”
“Well,” Jarod pulled out a notecard, “my girlfriend Emily and I made a list last night of all the things that a legit business has that I don’t. You were right that none of them, other than taking myself seriously, is a big deal, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have to get them done. Tops on my list are registering with the state and making a logo. Kelvin, are you up for helping me on the design?”
“Sure,” I said.
“But this time I want to pay you. A proper business compensates people for their services.”
* * *
“Welcome back, Christy,” Mr. Griffin said on Monday morning. Christy hobbled into the room on a pair of crutches. Jarod walked in behind her, carrying her backpack. “How are you feeling?”
“Better the last few days.”
“Wonderful.” Mr. Griffin sat down on the edge of his desk. “Now that we’ve got the full Mastermind Group back together, why don’t you update us on all that’s happened.”
Christy shared about the accident and about how depressed she felt afterward. “Then Kelvin told me that my response would be one of those moments that define the rest of my life, just like you told Darnell after Thanksgiving. He helped me turn things around and create an Identity Card. I don’t want to fall into depression.” Christy swallowed. “I had nothing else to do with my time, so I’ve been spending almost two hours a day in front of the mirror reading my card and thinking of examples to back up each statement. I’m surprised at how much it’s helped.”
“I’m glad to hear it’s working so well for you.” Mr. Griffin stepped up to her desk. “Now please give us a full update on how your other card is going.”
“What other card?”
“Your swimming card, of course.”
“Have you seen me? My swimming season is done.”
“You still have your swimming card?”
Christy tightened her brow. “Yeah. So?”
“Read it.”
Christy pulled out a worn notecard from the bottom of her bag and read:
I intend to captain the girls’ swim team to victory in the State Championships on March 8th. To accomplish this . . .
“Stop,” Mr. Griffin said. “That’s enough.”
Christy sent him a look that said, ‘no kidding,’ and shoved the card back in her bag.
“Wait, Christy. Not yet. You still haven’t updated us on your progress.”
“The progress, Mister Griffin,” she said his name slowly, with mock respect, “is that my swimming season is oooooooover. I couldn’t beat a tortoise in a race. I have failed!” Christy grabbed either end of the notecard and was about to tear it in half.
“That’s strange.” Mr. Griffin stepped to the front of the room and leaned into his chair, “I don’t recall your card mentioning anything at all about swimming. Read it again.”
Christy’s eyes narrowed, but she wasn’t one to refuse a teacher.
I intend to captain the girls’ swim team to victory in the State Championships on March 8th. To accomplish this, I will do the following:
1. Find an amazing coach
2. Inspire the team to fully cooperate with the coach
3. Build up team spirit
4. Recruit school and community support for the team
“Again,” Mr. Griffin said, “I don’t hear a single step that involves swimming. Do you?”
“The swimming part is obvious. You can’t win a championship if you don’t swim.”
“I agree that you can’t win a championship if no one swims. But even before your accident, the two best swimmers on the team were not even planning on racing.”
“Who’s that?”
“Coach Sue and Coach Dana, of course. Not everyone needs to swim for the swim team to be successful.”
“Look, Mr. Griffin, I know what you want me to say, that I’ll push through anyway and captain the team to the championship, even if I can’t race. That sounds good and all, but it’s just not happening. I know our girls. I know who can do what. And without me racing, we’ll still win some meets, but we can’t win it all. It’s hopeless.”
“Hopeless? Remember, that’s what you said a couple of months ago. Yet, a few weeks later you’d discovered your hope.”
“But I’ve already done everything I could think of to help the team win.”
“Did you? That wasn’t my experience.”
Christy’s fist tightened under her desk. “What was your experience?”
“I saw that you worked like hell to get the team to the point where you thought you had a good chance of winning the championship. Once you thought you were good enough, you became content to ride it out.”
Christy’s lips trembled. “What more could I have done?”
“I don’t know,” Mr. Griffin shrugged. “But when was the last time you used your Mastermind Group to brainstorm how you could make your team better?”
Christy’s shoulders dropped, and her voice quieted. “I guess it’s been over a month now.”
“I can’t stress enough, Christy, how important it is to see your goal through to the end. Kelvin was right that your response to this accident could define the rest of your life. But it’s not enough to just get over this, to bring your life back to being almost as good as it was before. Something positive must come out of this accident.”
“What possibly could be positive about this?”
“I don’t know, but remember, life happens for you, not to you. Somewhere inside this accident is embedded one of the greatest lessons of your life. If you let the accident hold you back, if you let it demoralize you, you’ll likely never discover it.”
“So how do I find it?”
“By pushing through to your goal. Besides, keeping your goal might be just the thing you need to accelerate your recovery.”
“How can the goal help with recovery?”
“Strong goals pull. They’ll pull you out of bed in the morning, pull you through bad days, pull you through distraction. It can even pull you through a disaster as long as the goal is bigger than the disaster. But if you decide that the disaster is bigger than your goal, it can lead you to despair.”
Christy turned to us. “Guys, do you agree? Is there anything I can still do to get the team back on track?”
Jarod raised a finger. “It seems to me that the only thing that’s changed is that you’re down one top-notch swimmer. You think any of the younger girls can step up?”
“And replace me? I don’t mean to be arrogant here, but no freakin’ way.”
“Then what about someone not on the team?” I asked. “Didn’t a bunch of girls approach you when that article came out in the local paper?”
“Yeah, four girls asked if they could join, though one of them homeschools, so she’s not even eligible.”
“But you’ve never actually seen any of them swim, right?” I said.
“What are you suggesting? New try-outs? You really think there’s some star swimmer out there who didn’t bother trying out on time?”
“I know it sounds stupid, but what have you got to lose?” I asked.
Christy shrugged. “I guess nothing.”
“Who knows,” I added, “maybe you could convince that homeschool girl to enroll for the semester.”
“Let’s see if she can swim first. You have no idea how many girls who try out can barely do a butterfly. Any other ideas?”
“Diet,” Darnell said.
“Diet?” Christy chuckled. “These girls aren’t exactly fat, Darnell.”
“Diet is about a lot more than just losing weight, you know.”
“I know that,” Christy said, “but when did you learn that?”
“A lot can happen in two weeks. I’ve learned quite a bit since Christmas.”
“So have I,” Christy said. “But finish your thought.”
“Well, with the right diet, I bet a bunch of these girls could start performing better. But I wasn’t thinking about them anyway. I meant for you. I was watching a video the other day about how your diet impacts your recovery time from injury.” “You think a change in what I eat is going to suddenly allow me to come back a month early? Because that’s what I’d need to be
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