Do You Believe?

“Believing the opportunity is possible – that’s the most intimidating thing in the whole world.”
- Anthony DiMaio



Here’s the fun part of being an adult: You can do whatever you want.

Here’s the catch: You have to imagine it, first. Dream it. And believe it.

The challenge? Tell your pesky internal mother/parent/voice that orders you around, insisting you can’t do it, reminding you to get a real job: Stop. And let your imagination take things over.

There’s that (adult-sounding) inner voice again: Dreams won’t get you anywhere! You can’t eat your dreams! No one will pay you for your dreams! Get realistic and do something practical! Dreamer!

Know what? Dreams make life happen. Dreams are all there is.

If you want to get technical, actually, all there is is what we want to measure. That’s the only thing that manifests itself in front of us. No, I’m not getting woo-woo on you; it’s the latest physics theory that really smart people with lots of letters after their names and the ability to do the math are beginning to think is Reality: What we’ve thought to measure so far.

But we’re Re-versioning right now. We’ll measure later. For now, let’s use our imaginations, set up our dreams, and believe we can do it. Maybe not tomorrow, or next Tuesday, but as a client of mine used to say: There are no unrealistic goals, only unrealistic deadlines.


I’m in Utah this week for the Junior Olympics – technically, the Junior Nationals – in cross-country skiing. My stepson Luke and a slew of his buddies are on our region’s team. They’re competing with the best youth in the country. They’re wowing their parents’ socks off, even if sometimes they themselves are disappointed with how far they’ve come since last year. With how each race goes.

Among them is George.

George looks like any high school junior. Growing. Funny; silly sometimes. Laughs a lot. Goofs around. Last Junior Olympics, as a freshman, he was on the Wyoming ski team, but finished way back from the front of the pack: in the 20s, the 30s, the 40s. Along with a lot of other skiers.

Something else happened last year. George looked around. He saw what the front runners had that he didn’t have: stamina and strength. (He didn’t notice they were long and lean – unlike George, who’s built like a bull terrier.) He imagined what it must have been like to stand on the winner’s podium with the fastest racers: the best in the country. The best of the best. He dreamed that dream until he could taste it.

And then George set a goal. One he believed he would reach: The best.

Ever since that last Junior Olympics, George has worked like a beast: Skiing. Learning technique. Lifting weights. Tracking progress. Cross-training, all summer long, when the thought of snow in Wyoming was as remote as good sushi. Always with the dream in mind, always with the goal, always believing he could do it, that he deserved to be there, that he could be the best of the best. And with a lot of fun, too, by the way. All the way up through fall and winter and the school’s cross-country ski season and a mess of races throughout Wyoming. Which George, incidentally, rarely won. Oh he did well, you betcha – but he wasn’t always on the podium.

Fast-forward to March, 2007: Soldier Hollow, Utah. Hundreds of the best skiers in the country. Some have Real Olympic Coaches. Some are in high schools that focus exclusively on cross-country skiing, year-round. Some ski in Europe internationally, fer hevvins sake! Most are simply the best their state has to offer. Each of these skiers already is the best of the best in the U.S.: every last one of them. This is Real Competition.

But Innocent George still has his dream. And he believes in it. Believes that a high school junior from Podunk, Wyoming, formerly in the Back Pack of every national race, can suddenly stand on the podium – especially a kid built small and muscular and tough when everyone knows most front runners in cross-country skiing are long and lean. Poor George. We hoped he would break into the top 10. We hoped he wouldn’t be disappointed.

The races begin. During Monday’s 1K sprints, George skis to the front of the pack and never looks back. In every heat. He skies for the gold. He gets it. The dream comes true for the 1K sprints.

Wednesday: the 5K race: George paces himself, lets a few other guys figure they are faster than that damned sprinter from Wyoming, then on the last big hill, George does what he does best: muscles by them up the hill, tucks like a peanut on skis for the downhill, screams to the front of the pack – and achieves a second gold medal.

What an innocent!

Friday’s another race. Saturday’s a fourth. I won’t predict any of those results, because I’ve been a sports competitor, and here’s the truth: every competition is its own reality. Anything can happen. There are no sure things. It ain’t over ‘til the fat lady sings.



I will predict one thing, though: You can’t make anything happen, until you imagine it. Dream it. Taste it. Believe it. Want it like you want nothing else. And do what it takes to make it come true.

We’re Re-imagining, still exploring, so we may not have our dreams set in gold yet, like George did. We have more than the year George had, though, if we need it. And we are adults: we can do whatever we want. Whatever we can imagine.

Whatever we can believe.



Here’s the downside of being an adult: we’ve dreamed dreams, we’ve hit some rough spots, we’ve felt some failures. We “know,” unlike innocents like George, that you can’t always get what you dream. Yeah. Like we “know” that the Real World is made of real stuff we just haven’t measured yet.

Guess what? Every race is its own reality. Every attempt is its own reality. Failing once doesn’t predict failure always. Or ever again. Failure is only experience to apply to the next race.

Here’s what will stop you way before you get out of the gate, though: a dream, a goal, a finish line you don’t believe you can reach. I’ll guarantee you: you’ll be right. So I dare you, me, us: let’s not only explore. Let’s Dream. Imagine.

Let’s believe. In ourselves. Now.

Just like George.


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In 2007, George Cartwright of Lander, Wyoming, a member of Wyoming’s High Plains cross-country ski team, won three gold medals in the J2 division (high school freshmen and sophomores) in the 1.3K sprints, the 5K skate ski race and the 5K classic ski race at the 2007 Junior Olympics in Soldier Hollow, Utah. In 2007, he is the best of the best from across the United States in these three events.