The Million Dollar Question

If you had a million dollars, what would you do? A seemingly simple question, evoking a certain feeling of far-off dreams stored deep inside of the person being asked. A twinkle fills the eye. All of life's boredom disappears for a brief moment. Then it all returns. Haze. Boredom. Mundane. Life.

I have thought a lot about that question lately, not because I wish that I had a million dollars, but more in line with the question of what is it that motivates me to accomplish the dreams in my heart?

We often ask that question of one another in an attempt to learn more. But is it really a good question to ask? Does it really get us closer to knowing a person? Does it get the person closer to the dreams that they think of for a brief second? Or does it further the frustration of the life they haven't lived?

These are questions that I have been wrestling with in the past month as I pursue the twinkle in my eye. The dream in my heart. The stories that I long to tell.

The most important thing that I have learned, is that it hasn't taken a million dollars to get me to do the things that I want to do. It has been honesty. Being honest with others, myself, and a realization that I'm not too far away from doing what it is I really want to be doing. I was just afraid of fully committing because of fear.

Money can never make you unafraid of the things that scare you. In some ways, it makes you even more afraid. Paranoia. Fear. Trembling.

And learning to do what you want to do, in the face of fear, makes you come alive.

That is inspiring, and forever changes the million dollar question to: "What would you like to do, in the face of fear and yourself, that would make you come alive? Regardless of the cost?"