I read something by a J.M.Power this morning I really like. “The best way to make your dreams come true is to wake up.”
I am very big on doing which starts with a dream.  I reckon it is like a surfer that waits for the right wave.  Several may pass a surfer by before they decide the next one is the right one to catch.
I would be kidding myself if I imagined that the surfer never makes a mistake.  They do.  I do.  The surfer can catch the wrong wave.  Or the right one and make a mess of catching it.  I can do the same with any undertaking.
But there is one thing for sure.  The more I practice the better I get.  In life the ability to do is never innate.  I can be talented or gifted but the best that can do for me is to make learning easier.  It does not make learning inevitable.
Learning is built on the dream of success.  The dream of success is only an illusion until I make it a reality.  Also the dream of success will only ever show me how things could be and never the frustration and sometimes pain in achieving.  But the goal is always worth pursuing despite the cost.
To me it is like finding a gold field containing richest beyond my wildest imagination and buying that field no matter the cost – as the cost will only ever be less than what I know the field to be worth.
Dreams worth pursuing are the same to me.  They are often something others do not understand and sometimes think to be a waste of time.  Yet for me they are something that makes me like a dog with a bone.  Something worth being single minded in obtaining and keeping.
As Duane Michals says, “what I cannot see is infinitely more important than what I can see.”  I see things better than they are and will work to make it so.  We are not there – yet.

I deliberately had Sunday completely off.  I determined to do no work around the yard (being retired I can do it other times).
The reason I do that is I adhere to the view that I do well to have one day a week off for rest and recuperation.  I remember Wayne Bennett ringing Ricky Stuart to tell him he needed balance and that there was more to life than football.  Ricky seemed obsessed at that point, and he seems better there days.  I really wish him well.
I did work 24/7 for a while but discovered days 6 and 7 were really as productive as two half days and I would be completely exhausted.  So I was better off working 6 days and resting one.
I went to a doctor and asked what days he has off.  He said none.  And he was crook.  I felt he was a good advertisement for the need for a day off.  To me a willing spirit does not mean a right spirit.  I am most impressed with a willingness to learn and do rather than just a willingness to “do” despite what is proven to be best practice.
Anyway having said that I think maybe the pendulum swung too much in the opposite direction for me.   I had Monday off too.  I did not anticipate that.  I did spread a few stones on a walking track but decided that was enough and spent the rest of the day imitating a sloth.   Oh I did find the story about Cichlids in Lake Malawi Africa interesting (I used to keep Cichlids) and a few other tv shows  I got engrossed in.
But on the whole, I did not do much (I think it may be time to play the age card too).  Today will be a different story though.  We need to go to “Containers for Cash” and I have people visiting this evening.  Ok I have enjoyed a couple of days off.  Back into it! 

I have enough trouble figuring myself out.  What chance has anyone got really?  When someone else has a go at me I am likely to get my back up and insist I am way better than the other makes out.  Yet when it comes to self-talk I am likely to say “I am no good” or “I can’t do it.”
To me a realistic self-assessment does not mean putting myself down or denying what I may in reality be good at.  It seems there can be a false humility as work.
To me a realistic self-assessment involves recognising both my strengths and weaknesses.  It is not overstating either what I am good at or what needs work.  In fact just as an aside I often think it is my strengths that can cause me the most trouble.  I know I need help when it comes to weaknesses, but it is so tempting to say “I’ve got this” when it comes to strengths.  It seems to me it is often that sense of self sufficiency that can send me up the garden path.
I am so familiar with the old “garbage in, garbage out” scenario.  I so agree with that but within confines.  Ok it may be healthier for myself and others to have good stuff in, but honestly if it is only true in a confined, walled world then to me what’s the diff? It is good to be nice but when it is of no eternal consequence it has no long-term value.  Someone who was nice to another 5,000 years ago would have felt good at the time but feeling good would have only been for that time.
A realistic self-assessment is a good thing to me, but any good I want to have eternal consequences.  To me this 70 years or so is just the beginning.