CLICK SEND

I am an avid email user, particularly for work. There is a "push notification" setting on my phone that I can activate if I would like to get notified of any new messages. For my own personal sanity,I've disabled this feature. The idea is that incoming messages are too important to miss. It is almost equally as important, however, to alert your attention  to your sent mail.  What good is an email that goes without a response? 

 One folder in particular that I fail to check regularly is the drafts folder. Occasionally,  I find an important draft message  that I  somehow forgot to send. This makes me think of   the unsent moments of life- those countless dreams, plans, and goals that stay dormant in our minds, but fail to catapult into action. We essentially become our own individual folders of  potential. We, too, can be a draft. 

Ideas

A draft symbolizes an attempt to start with an intent to finish.  Intent is actually one of my favorite words. It demonstrates purpose and the "why" behind our actions. Intention, however, is not enough to propel us forward. Purpose that isn't actualized is meaningless.

A draft is  fundamentally an idea. By definition, an idea is  a thought or suggestion as to a possible course of action. In other words, our ideas are simply possibilities. It is up to us to bring  them to life.

Ideas Actualized

This reminds me of a TedTalk I watched a few years ago given by an incredible spoken word artist named Suli Breaks. He spoke about how the world doesn't need new leaders, but new ideas. His premise was that leaders die, but ideas live on forever. The leaders that he mentioned in his speech were not expert "brainstormers." They were not satisfied with possibilities.They were men and women of action.Their ideas were actualized and are permanently etched within history.

Potential

I was looking through my Bible App  to find a devotional plan for the week. In scrolling through, I discovered that I had fourteen unfinished plans and two completed plans.The unfinished clearly outweighed the completed.  I put my phone down and instantly began to ponder the incomplete aspects of my life. I thought of my countless journals filled with written goals  that failed to make their way off the paper. I thought of the songs I didn't sing, the words I didn't say, and the moves I didn't make.   It became clear to me that in certain aspects of my life, I cling to "what could be."

"What could be" is nothing other than potential, and potential is nothing other than a possibility. Essentially, we are living pockets of our lives in potential.  This reminds me of a quote by the one and only Steve Maraboli:

"Cemeteries are full of unfulfilled dreams... countless echoes of 'could have' and 'should have'.... countless books unwritten.. countless songs unsung... I want to live my life in such a way that when my body is laid to rest, it will be a well- needed rest from a life well- lived, a song well- sung, a book well- written, opportunities well- explored, and a love well- expressed."

Veni, Vidi, Vici

I am obsessed with the  phrase,Veni, Vidi, Vici.  It is Latin for   I came, I saw, I conquered. Imagine being able to say those words about your life. Instead of speaking about what you should have done, you profess what you had the strength to do.

Dreams will remain drafts until we muster up enough courage to click send.