You know what’s great about a cat? No matter where it is, it is never lost. And that is something we need to all take a lesson from.

     What do you call a cat that is without a home? It is a stray cat, which simply means it is in a place where it may not stay. However, even stray cats know which direction to go, and it is simpler than one may think. If you were to watch a stray cat days in a days out, it usually goes to the place offering the most shelter, the most food, or the most of both.

Now, how does that relate to you?

     Well, if you have a place with both of those assets, then how can you call yourself “lost”? I have heard it time and time again: “I’m lost” or, “I don’t know what to do or where to go.” But think about it. You are, at present, a stray cat: you are going to go where there is comfort, and where survival is omnipresent. If this means working a dead-end job to pay the bills, at least you have bills to pay; if it means not having money for new clothes, at least you have old clothes.

This Is Your Journey

     Life is not meant to be sat around on. That’s why a stray cat will venture from that safe place to see if there are better locations that offer more protection. As human beings, we need to take those risks. When I realized I had nothing here in Florida, I made arrangements so that in one year, I can move out to Vegas, Nevada (not the Vegas Strip, which is not to be confused with the outskirts closer to the desert, where rent is cheap and offices are plentiful…and better yet: where crime is low).

     There I can facilitate a greater means of growth – just like a stray cat that finds a home on its ventures from one place to another. I lived a vagabond life most of my teenage years, moving from place to place yet somehow never leaving the same street, and each move provided less protection and less room to live in. I refuse to follow in the footsteps of my teenage self, and I refuse to let others do the same. That is why I am writing this for you, so you can remember that the stray cat is not lost.

Where Will You Go?

     Now, my ventures to the west are figuratively-speaking. Your journey may not be a physical move. Maybe you just feel stuck, like you are not accomplishing anything. Your first step is to figure out what you want to accomplish to begin with. Everybody has a dream, and none is too big nor too small. It may feel out-of-reach, or seem “silly” (oh, God, how I’ve heard that a thousand times: “I know, ti sounds silly”) then that makes it worth doing. Often the wildest, silliest dreams are the ones that work.

     It is those who do not work toward those dreams that suffer their entire lives, because they are not even chasing their dream; they are sitting on it. Now, I do know from my clientele basis that often these dreams are out-of-reach, but it is not a permanent condition. It may take you a year; it may take you ten years; it may also never happen. But there are resources for you out there that can make it happen.

Solemn Words

Jim Carrey once delivered the following words in a speech:

     “When I was 25 I wrote a check to myself for 10 million dollars, and postdated it for Thanksgiving, three years after the day I wrote it. It sat in my wallet and it deteriorated, became unreadable, and I thought it would never come. But then three days before Thanksgiving, three years after I wrote that check, I found out I was going to make 10 million dollars on “Dumb & Dumber.” Many of us feel our dreams are out of reach.

     My father could have been a great actor, but he felt like most people: he did not believe hard enough that it was possible to fulfill a dream. So, he rolled over, played it safe, and got a conventional job as an Accountant Then when I was ten years old, he was let go from that “safe job,” and our family had to do everything we needed to do to survive. I learned many great things from my father – one being that you can fail at what you don’t love, so why not fail at what you do love? “All you have to do is ask the universe for it, and it will happen. I’m the proof!”

Take Action

     Dream big, and work hard at building a foundation to develop it, to create it, to envelope it as an encompassing force around your life. Make everything you do, every action and every move you make, as something meant to facilitate the very beginnings of that dream. When I started acting as a Literary Consultant with Circle 5 Publishing, I had no idea what I was doing. But I worked on it, made a few calls, and now I have a growing, albeit, poor and simple clientele base.

     But it worked. And it didn’t work because I tried very hard at it; it did not work because I had a resource or a competitive advantage no one else has. It worked because I was hungry for it, and I knew I could do it. And guess what? I know that over the next year, it will grow. Over the next 5 years, I will be working almost full-time as a Literary Consultant, and all I had to do was remember the cat – no matter where I am, and no matter what it is I am trying to accomplish, I will never be lost.

And remember: just ask the universe for it…