This week I finally watched the ‘The Greatest Showman’, a film I have desperately wanted to see from the moment I heard about it. Many of my friends have beaten me to it, and their tales of tears, powerful story lines, amazing performances, emotion and enthral have only made my desire to get lost in the beauty and excitement of another musical which, without doubt was bound to end up on my list of all time favourites, even stronger.

It’s pretty fair to say that Hugh Jackman, Zac Efron, Michelle Williams and co. completely lived up to (and then exceeded by a mile) every expectation I may have had about the film. I sat of the edge of my seat for its entirety, face in hands and with my eyes beaming so brightly that they could have lit up the room. I laughed and cried and loved every single minute of the 106 minutes of movie that I watched in complete awe and intrigue.

The Greatest Showman is my kind of film. It’s got music, passion, love, heartbreak, romance and the circus. I always loved the idea of running away with the circus when I was younger. I saw myself flying through the air on a trapeze, swinging way up high, performing daring stunts and waving to an anticipatory audience, looking up in awe and wonder. Sadly, I never got the chance to live out this particular dream but my love of the circus has stayed with me always. [I like to think that a career teaching gymnastics and watching Pink perform live come a pretty close second to the dizzy heights of being a circus performer anyway].

But it wasn’t the trapeze artists that captured my heart as I watched, it was Hugh Jackman’s character, fearless in the pursuit of his seemingly endless and crazy dreams.

I have found myself thinking back to the film over the last few days as I have played the soundtrack on repeat, very loudly – A Million Dreams, Come Alive, Never Enough, This is Me, Rewrite the Stars to make a few. As I listen and get lost in the words to these powerful, inspiring songs, I consider my own hopes and desires and think that these lyrics could have easily been written about me and my dreams of wonder, excitement and success.

At times it feels like my crazy brain is a factory for dreams, goals and business ideas. Churning them out one after another, each one more far fetched and hair brained than the last, but every one with such great potential (in my head anyway).

My brain never stops! From the minute I wake up until my eyes close at night, it’s there thinking, creating, imagining and dreaming; sometimes so fast and eager that I’m sure you could actually hear the cogs going around if you listened closely. And while some of my ideas and grand plans get cast aside as quickly as they enter my head because the concept is too ‘out there’ even for me, many of them make it at least to paper, and often with an added brainstorm or discussion with a close friend who is happy to humour my moments of madness.

I know most of my ideas will remain just that, but I also know that owning my own gym was once merely an idea and a dream. I look at the book that now sits on lots of little children’s bookshelves, giving pleasure to those that read it and I know that writing and publishing a book was also once just a dream. I also know that I have moved hemispheres twice in 20 years (no mean feat by anyone’s standards) and have been offered jobs that I never thought I stood a chance of ever getting. And it is because of these accomplishments that I won’t let anyone tell me that I can’t do something because it’s crazy, I’m not qualified or otherwise, because I have proved ‘Ican’ so many times before and I know I will again.

Of course there will be ideas and plans that fail or that don’t make it off the ground, and I’m not about to risk it all on some absurd idea for the sake of trying to prove a point. But what I won’t do is give up chasing what others may consider impossible or laced with lunacy, but which to me is so very full of possibility and potential.

I believe in my dreams. I believe I have the power to do amazing things with my life. I believe I have the ability to inspire and motivate others and help them believe in themselves. I believe that if I want something badly enough I can make it happen. I believe there is beauty and magic and wonder in going after all that your heart desires; and I believe in achieving what others deem impossible. I believe in me.

I’ve been back in the UK close to five months now and at times it feels like I’m wandering aimlessly between school drop off and pick up, without any real direction and no plans for the the future. In my more positive moments however, I know that it’s only a matter of time until one of my many British dreams comes true and that great things just around the corner.

So for now, I’m just going to keep on dreaming and coming up with more crazy and wonderful ideas, until one of them Comes Alive!

‘Dare to dream in the daylight not just in the darkness’ 💕