In a scene from an intriguing book recommended by one of our staff members, a mentor uses chess to explain potential. “Even a pawn can become a Queen.”
I was taught this fact in a short-lived membership in my high school’s chess club. Not for a lack of interest, mind you, but rather patience and talent.
David H. had me on the ropes even though I’d taken his Queen. A few moves later, he’d turned a Pawn I had ignored into a Queen by reaching the opposite side. He then promptly demolished me and any positive thoughts I possessed of my ability.
The experience came back to me as I read the scene. It was cemented by the quote the author used from Thoreau’s Walden:
“If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.”
This quote begs some thinking.
What are your dreams?
Only you can know these and they can certainly change. When I was in high school, my dreams included playing collegiate golf, becoming a country doctor, and having a girlfriend. (Hard work and some luck helped me fulfill the first, college chemistry ‘talked’ me out of the 2nd and the third? Well… we’ll give that a B- that trended to an A+ when I finally met Kate.)
My dreams have now changed as I have. I’m sure yours will change as well. Whatever they are, the more clearly you see them, the more likely you can make them reality.
What does ‘advancing confidently’ mean?
You’ve been around confident people. Do they get everything right all the time? Heck no!
But they move and think and act with purpose, believing that they’ll be able to figure out how to solve the problem, overcome the obstacle and advance their ideas.
How do you ‘live a life’ you’ve imagined?
As Roy Bennett has written, ‘The surest way to make your dreams come true is to live them.’ So, how do you do that? One little step at a time.
Want to be a surgeon? Start reading books or doing research as they do. Want to a great pianist? The person who starts lessons is immeasurably further ahead than the one who keeps dreaming and does nothing.
Explore, act, practice… these are all action verbs. First, you’ve got to set the dream up in your head and then start moving to live that dream out! The person who works confidently in the direction of her dreams by living out the life it requires honestly and humbly? They’ve got the best shot at making it all happen.
A pawn (meaning, someone without a lot of power/fame/attention/money at this point) can progress across the board and become a queen. There are pitfalls and traps, things that will steal our attention and cause a change in plans. That’s life.
But it’s those who confidently and competently move across the board, despite the setbacks, who’ll get to the life of their dreams.
Keep moving, my friends. You’ll get there!
