Harrison Solow, National Post · Sunday, Nov. 14, 2010Everywhere you turn today, our children are urged to "follow your dream." It seems like a harmless, even inspiring bromide to motivate children to achievement.
It isn't.
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Wanting something, they have been told, is the only requirement needed to get it. This is, of course, absolute nonsense.
The simple fact is that people who achieve excellence in their fields didn't just have a dream. They got up at 4:00 a.m. to practice on parallel bars or had to forego other desirable activities and paths in order to get in six hours of violin practice a day, or stayed off the several million absurd writing advice blogs with their overheated little cliques that dispense useless regurgitated maxims and empty praise and decide to actually confront their thoughts on a page. Or they read Beowulf and Dante carefully and deeply when they didn't see any point, since all they were interested in was Sylvia Plath, because someone of more experience and wisdom told them to do so. I don't know whether we're overly lazy, stupid, or childish these days. But the idea of preparing oneself for excellence has somehow disappeared.
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