Dreaming prosperity: PYEONGCHANG 2018

Ever wonder: “What’s the difference between me and an Olympic athlete?” Watching 17-year-old snowboarder, Red Gerard, win the first US gold-medal winner of the 2018 Games, I did. It’s actually quite simple: our dreams differ dramatically—and he has a whole lot of focus and drive energizing his dream. We all have dreams. Do you remember your first dream? What did you believe was possible when you were younger, not so tired and less corrupted by cultural expectations? In impossible times such as these, our dreams are even more critical.

PyeongChang, "land of prosperity" in Korean, is located 50 miles south of the Demilitarized Zone—the longest militarized border in the world—that separates North and South Korea. Home to several Buddhist temples, PyeongChang is located in one of the least developed provinces in South Korea: Gangwon, in the Taebaek Mountains region. Honestly, I’d never heard of it before Friday night. Within minutes of tuning into the Opening Ceremony, my heart was in my throat with this introduction:

“Go back in time to an age of miracles.
No matter the country, city or town they came from,
remember this more than anything else:
the dreams all began the same way …
and the stories have all taken them to the same place….
to a country seemingly impossible to transform.
But for these two weeks—maybe, just maybe--
this is the perfect place to get you believing again.
Always start with the dream….
that’s how the best in the world get to be that way.
Everyone who wants to can dream.…
Welcome to 18 days and nights of dreams
that have become some of the best stories you’ll ever hear.…
Believe in what can happen when people
refuse to forget who they once wanted to be….
When people have faith in the idea of what can be.
When people come together for a little bit of hope,
some thrill and a whole lot of fun…
It’s what was written in your soul—so go live it… follow your dreams…
You don’t want to be at the finish line saying,
“I could have done more!” …. Welcome to what dreams look like.”
(excerpted from NBC’s intro to opening of PyeongChang 2018)

Those words, those stories, that call to action, awakened something very precious and pressing inside of me. I dream of a world where we are all our best selves, becoming the beloved community together. In a sense, there’s not much standing between me and the 2,952 athletes competing in the land of prosperity considered a war zone until it was reimagined and built into an Olympic Village.

Instead of sitting there just watching—projecting heroic feats on athletes—what would happen if right now, we each stepped into our own story and activated our own dream? While we cheer on our fellow earthlings, let’s join them. Would you? Revive the biggest wondering your child-self imagined…and begin fertilizing it with focus, desire and drive. Before soon, you’ll be living into the biggest story your soul can imagine. What if all 8,000,000,000 humans on the planet created Olympic-sized stories from their own dreams —what would the world be like then? Let’s find out together.

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