The Influence of Unicorns

There’s something out there, unseen, magical, pure, and powerful. If you could find it, you’d triumph in life. It could be the legendary unicorn, your destiny, the recognition of your greatness and genius.

Or it could be evidence that you’ve badly misunderstand the universe.

There is a considerable difference between dreaming and wishing. Dreaming is a way of imagining the future. Dreams can come to you unbidden. You can also daydream, directing your imagination towards success or a wonderful outcome of your hopes and dreams. You can daydream your way around pitfalls and fears. Dream and take action. That’s a path to success and getting what you want and need.

A wish is not active. A wish is the essence of passiveness. You may wish for many things. You can hope for many things that just won’t happen on their own. A powerful movie producer may see you walking down the street and decide to make you a star. A publisher might read your blog and offer you a book deal. The CIA Director may call you in to save the world.

But probably not. Unicorns, you see, simply don’t exist. Don’t let them influence your thinking.

You may feel that you deserve that terrific job, starring role, the recognition of your greatness, but no one is going to hand it to you. You have to ask for it. You have to work for it, earn it. You may have to recruit all of your friends and family and everyone you know to get you in front of the right person. Your simple virtues won’t lead them to you to lay their head in your lap and surrender.

That, as pleasant as it may seem, it not going to happen.

You will need to make things happen. No mythical creature will gallop out of the mists and offer you up wished-for delights. It will do you no good to complain that the universe is unfair, that you haven’t received your due, that someday, somehow, they’ll all recognize your greatness and inner beauty. If your thinking is influenced by unicorns such as these wishes and hopes then your lot in life will be one of disappointment. Sorry, princess.

Yes, there is magic and wonder in the world. But magicians of all kinds work incredibly hard to make it look magical and easy. Some do achieve success that’s unwarranted. The wrong people are hired, promoted, and rewarded. Bad ideas get attention. Untalented but pretty people end up on magazine covers and with recording contracts. Crime pays.

You and I will have to work for what we want. And when you do achieve your dream, your success will be sweeter, all because you earned it, not because it fell into your lap.

Blame Elijah May & Michael Schechter for the title of this post. You can blame me for everything else.