Teenagers have a very different view on life to adults. Adults

seem to want to stop you having fun. They are very quick to

tell you that you can’t do this or you can’t do that and that

you can’t be what you dream to be when you grow up and leave

school.

Adults are partly right. They know that there is a cost to

living. They know that you have to find money to pay for food,

clothing and accommodation. And they ‘think’ they know that the

chances of you becoming famous, for example, are slim.

What do you want to do when you are older? Many teenagers tell

me that they want to be an actress, a doctor, a lawyer, a

motocross champion, a professional football player, a pop star,

a computer programmer, a pilot, a soldier, a racing driver or an

astronomer. Someone even told me they wanted to become a

magician.

Not many people tell me that they want to work in a hotel, work

in an office, pick fruit or vegetables, cook food, repair cars,

maintain roads or perform one of the hundreds of jobs that the

majority of people do each and every day to keep a roof over

their heads.

So what happened to all of those ‘everyday’ people, did they

have the same dreams as you?

Yes, most people dream of great things when they are a teenager

but very few go on to achieve them. What can you learn from them

that will stop the same thing happening to you?

The first thing that you need to appreciate is that success

does NOT just happen to you. There is a lot of hard work and

effort that goes in to every success story. You will not just

stumble across success, or become a pop star, simply because

you want to be one.

Speak to any successful person and they will all tell you the

same thing – you need to have goals. You need to know exactly

what you want, not just some vague notion about the ‘lifestyle’

that accompanies this dream. You need a main goal and also lots

of smaller goals – things that you have to achieve on the way

to achieving the big one.

You need to discover what skills or knowledge that you need to

be able to do the thing that you want to do. You need to find

out if there is a qualification that you need to have to gain

you entry into that profession.

If you want to be a singer it takes more than the ability to

sing. You are competing against thousands of other singers,

many of which have been singing from an early age and take

lessons with professional voice coaches several times per week.

They practice seven nights per week and already perform in front

of small audiences and enter talent contests as often as they

can. Are you doing this?

If you want to be a motocross champion it takes more than the

ability to ride a bike. You are competing against thousands of

other amateurs like yourself who have been riding motocross

bikes from the age of four and have been competing almost every

weekend for years. They really know how to ride a bike. They

have put in the time to develop and hone their skills and their

parents are fully behind them buying them the best equipment and

travelling to new meetings to put them up against faster riders.

These people are very fast. Have you put the same time in at the

same level?

I am not trying to put you off. I want you to wake up to the

fact that if you are not already practicing and competing at

the peak level of your dream activity then you need to start

damn quick or accept that someone else is going to live your

dream and not you.

What you need to do to become the person in your dream is to

work out the difference between your life now and what it is

you need to be the person in your dreams.

You need to work out what skills you need and how you are going

to achieve them. You need to work out what knowledge you need

and where you are going to get it. You need to work out where

you are going to find the time to do this and how it is going

to be paid for. You need to ask yourself if you are prepared to

put in the hard work and long hours that are required to get you

to where you want to be.

Many of the best actors and actresses in the country went to a

highly competitive stage school to learn their craft. Students

of these schools have to work long hours and extremely hard

just to survive, never mind stand out as a future star. But

stage school doesn’t even begin there. Entry to the best

academies is competitive and you need to prove to them that you

have ‘what it takes’ just to get in. You need to have been

performing in plays and stage shows prior to applying. You need

to show that you have a track record of excellence in acting.

Can you prove this?

On your way to your dream position you need to LEARN all of the

things that will be necessary when you are in that position.

You need to work backwards from your dream and calculate all

the steps required to get to where you want to be. A lawyer,

for example, needs a law degree. Depending where you intend to

study places can be very competitive so you need to have good

school or college grades prior to getting in to university.

Don’t think that you can just turn on your school work in the

last couple of years prior to university – you need to work

hard at school in all your subjects, in all your year groups,

to achieve the required grades.

So, if you still want to live your dream and you are prepared

to put in all the hard work and effort to get you to where you

want to be then I wish you good luck.

But consider one thing, if you are not going to put in all of

this hard work or you mistakenly still think that it is still

just going to happen to you, what are you going to end up doing

to provide you with the money you need to live? Probably the

same thing as most people in their routine jobs.

Start to enjoy learning. Learn the things that you are

interested in. Find out how to improve your learning to make it

more useful to you. Become an expert in whatever field you want

to excel in. Set yourself some goals and start today.

Oh yes, and the person that told me that they wanted to become

a magician has now been making a good living that way for over

10 years. He has performed on more than one occasion to Prince

Charles, the future King of England. He has also performed for

a host of other celebrities and even topped the bill on New

Year’s Eve at the ‘6 star’ BURJ AL ARAB hotel in Dubai.