“GO CONFIDENTLY IN THE DIRECTION OF YOUR DREAMS. Live the life you’ve always imagined.” These inspiring words were written by Henry David Thoreau.

Perhaps the truth of Thoreau’s words are obvious to you and you are living them. Congratulations, I salute you. If, however, you are like me, a somewhat flawed mortal, then living those words can be challenging.

We all have dreams, but “reality” gets in the way.  In the first place, we may never even start in the direction of our dreams because of fear.  Fear of rejection, of failure.  This fear is one that a filmmaker lives with on a daily basis.  The rejection part I’m used to.  I have received hundreds, perhaps thousands of rejections.  I can barely remember the first ones, which hurt so much, and caused me to doubt myself so greatly.  Now, they have almost no impact.  Why?  Because I believe in myself and my work. 

Assuming you do start in the direction of your dreams, the next problem is that things don’t go the way you imagined.  In fact, you can count on them NOT going the way you imagined.  The direction of your dreams is really stepping into the unknown.  It is easy to freak out with the unknown.  “The mind is a devilish sort of thing,” says Walter Huston in Treasure of the Sierra Madre, and it is prone to imagine the worst.  What’s the antidote?  Stay present.

Expect the unexpected.  Welcome it.  Life is a gamer, a prankster if you will, always throwing you curves, testing your mettle.  We can either wilt in the face of this or say “Game on, mother____er!”  What have you got to lose?  The worst that can happen is you end up where you started, wiser for the experience.  And what about the best?  Well, maybe the life you’ve always imagined….

Now let’s assume you’ve gone in the direction of your dreams, dealt with all the things that didn’t go as expected (try not to say “things that went wrong”), and actually ended up with a movie, and a pretty damn good one at that.  You rang!  You’re home free, right?  Uh, guess again.

The next major fear is fear of failure.  A movie is made to be received – I said that yesterday.  But what if no one, or very few people receive it?  What if it makes little or no money?  Under such circumstances it would be easy to feel one has failed – to make negative judgments about oneself and the whole enterprise.

This is a tough one, guys.  It goes back to believing in yourself and the value of your experience.  It’s about the journey being the destination.  It’s about not seeing things only, or primarily, in terms of monetary outcome or external validation.  It’s not about winning or losing, being a champ or a chump (or even a chimp!).

Ultimately, going in the direction of our dreams takes us where we need to go, even if it looks nothing like what we imagined.  Going in the direction of our dreams is its own reward.  You ARE living the life you imagined when you step in that direction.  Confidence comes with experience, and the knowledge that there is no other way to be yourself, to be truly alive.  As Chris Karas says in The Prankster, “at the end of our days, we may ask ourselves, did I follow my dream, was I truly myself?”

I’ll make a deal with you.  At the end of our days, and one day, perhaps even today, may be your last, know that you’ve followed your dreams.  And embrace all that comes to you.  Marcus Aurelius said, “Accept whatever comes to you, woven in the pattern of your destiny, for what could more aptly fit your needs?”  It worked for him, it can work for you.  Enjoy the adventure!