One of the most practical things you can ever do is dream. I’m constantly puzzled by the fact that people can take a month or even a year planning a holiday, but they don’t even take one day to plan a life. The most important thing you can do when planning your life is to dream.
Explore the world of possibilities and see which one really speaks to you, that’s the first thing. The second is to be persistent. This is a quality you may not believe you have, but persistence is something that you will eventually discover you do have because, surely to goodness, when you are inspired by a dream and you follow it, you are also going to fail many times along the way!
From an early age, my great dream was to write a book. I tried so hard and devoted every spare minute I had from the age of 20 until 40 to this, but I consistently failed, failed and failed again! I used to have this enormous filing cabinet full of books I had started and never finished...And so for 20 years I had tried and failed, and then, as I was approaching my 40th birthday, I happened by pure chance to be reading George Bernard Shaw’s preface to Plays, Pleasant and Unpleasant, in which he says, “If you are going to write a book, write it by the time you’re 40.” I remember thinking, “He’s talking to me and he’s not even alive!” It was for me one of those life-changing moments. I realised that I had to do it now or never, and it was at the age of 40 that I completed my first book. I have written pretty much a book every year since, and that is really down to sheer persistence.
If you have a dream and you are persistent, you have the ability to do great things, and you will.
The first discipline I would commend to any young person is to establish habits that break the universal tendency to procrastinate. That’s number one.
Number two is to keep reading and to keep stretching yourself. If you are intensely dedicated to one discipline, make sure you read other disciplines and expose yourself to perspectives different from your own. If you want to be creative, you have to think outside of your speciality. Many of history’s greatest creative thinkers are people that have done just that.
And number three, make sure that your personal life is full of joy and thanksgiving. It’s a great privilege to be able to find what you really enjoy working at, but it’s a life necessity to find joy and happiness at home. For me personally, this means a happy marriage and a happy family, and to take the Sabbath off to express a sense of gratitude for all the wonderful things we have been blessed with in our lives.
And finally, just know that some little seed of greatness exists in all of us, and it does not necessarily have to be greatness in the eyes of the world. Sometimes one single act of kindness can redeem a life. Sometimes a single smile can rescue a person from loneliness and despair. You never know what the consequences of your next act may be, but people never forget a good or kind or encouraging word or deed. That greatness is there for each of us, and all we have to do is have the courage to respond and let it express itself in a way that only we can do, and that’s true for every single one of us.
This extract is from a chapter by Lord Rabbi Sacks in a new book entitled A Few Wise Words which is due to be published on 16th November by Amersham Publishing. Its publishers and editor have expressed how deeply saddened they are about the passing of Rabbi Sacks, an incredibly special and truly great man, whom they feel very privileged to have met and interviewed for the book.
