In my lifetime, I've had a couple of recurring nightmares. One of them, ending with probably the most haunting image I can imagine.
The dream begins with me standing on a train platform. I'm filled with all of the excitement and anticipation of a new adventure. I have my bags packed and I'm ready to go. I've made all the appropriate arrangements, checked with everyone I need to check with, I have all my travel documents in order and neatly tucked away. I have my ticket in my pocket.
I look at the other travelers on the platform and just know that my trip, my adventure, will be much better than anyone else's there. And then…I hear the train whistle.
I see the train coming! Here it is! My adventure is about to begin. As the train gets closer my heart rate begins to climb as the anticipation builds. I do a quick check to make sure I'm ready. I gather my things and make sure my ticket is ready to hand off to the conductor. All the months and years of preparation is now worth it, I'm going launch out on the adventure of a lifetime and this train is going to take me there.
Then I notice something is wrong. Wait. The train is coming but it's coming in on the next track over. It's coming in on the wrong track! Or…maybe I'm on the wrong platform! But now the train is here and loading. I can't get to the other platform in time. I watch the train slowly pull out of the station full of new passengers off on adventures of their own. I'm left standing on an empty platform realizing that my train has just pulled out and I've missed it. And with the train goes all my hopes and dreams of adventure.
Now (without delving too deeply into my dark Irish psyche) I think I know what this dream means to me. But what do you think it means to you? Have you ever felt like great opportunities were passing you by? Have you dreamed big only to feel that the stuff you were waiting for never arrives or it arrives but you don't recognize it when it comes and now it's gone. To me, there's almost nothing more haunting than that train…the one I've been anticipating, pulling out of the station and I've missed it.
I've thought a lot about this dream lately. If you are someone with a message (a business owner or marketer, a salesman, a teacher, a pastor, a missionary, a storyteller) and you want your message to spread–these are some of the most exciting times imaginable.
Before, if you had a book you wanted published or a song you wanted recorded or a message of any kind that you wanted to get "out there" you had to beg and plead the gatekeepers like publishers and store owners to help you. You needed expertise. You needed shelf space . You needed airtime. But, like with so many other things, the Internet has changed everything.
Now you can take your art directly to the people. Forget the publishers. Publish it yourself. Forget finding shelf space. Create your own virtual store online. The Internet has provided ways for you to directly impact and influence others-and much of it is free. You can spread your story. You. All by yourself.
And by using online sites like Typepad or WordPress, Facebook, You Tube, Twitter, Flickr and many, many others, you can get your message out there while providing powerful tools for your tribe to help you spread the story.
Don't let this train pass you by. Like Esther…you were born for such a time as this. Now is the time, today is the day to start telling your stories. Get on board!
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