Week five – Defining moments

Have you ever caught yourself in a moment where you thought, “this is it”? This is what we call “Defining Moments” in our life.

 

O2 Arena Young Voices Concert, spot my daughter out there!

This week the inspiration for my blog comes from one of those moments, a defining moment in my life. And it is important to talk about this in week five as many of us will find ourselves this year facing these moments, many times, changing the course of our lives.

I guess these moments can be describer in many way as the “aha” moments, and they may come to us in different ways. What it is important is to know when you have that moment, as it will play a vital role in whom we are and what course our lives will take.  But let me give you a couple of examples of what I mean.

This week I had the privilege of attending a concert at the O2 Arena in London. I have never been to this venue and it was an exiting moment for my family and I to see the monumental dome build back in 2000 to commemorate the millennium. But there was something special about this concert and a visit to this arena, which made it even more special for us. My young daughter was taking part in this year’s Young Voices concert, which has been running for 8 year, and choirs of schools around the country participate. Amongst the seven thousand school kids was my daughter, singing her heart out with her school. So this was a very exiting and proud moment for any of the seven thousand parents attending this concert. We sat on one side of the stadium and the kids on the other, and to be honest we spent the first 30 minutes trying to workout where our kids where.  Across this gigantic arena all we could see was tiny specs, all dressed in white T-shirt, singing along and making lots of very exiting noises. Some parents even had binoculars, which we shared amongst us, desperately trying to spot our very own stars! After awhile we all gave up and sat back to enjoy the concert, with the occasional glance and wave in the hope we may still be spotted by our child.

And as I sat and reflected on what was happening around me, I realised this was one of those moments, the defining moments I’ve been telling you about. And this was a defining moment for many people that night. One of them was my daughter who was out there signing at the O2 Arena in London for the first time in her life, and it dawned on me how important this was for her. She loves signing and wants to make a career out of it, and this was the moment that gave her that taste of what its like to be out there in a venue, singing her heart out. I know that she was out there amongst seven thousand other kids, but for her this was her moment, the moment she had been waiting for several weeks. A defining moment in her life that will stay with her forever and shape her future.

Another person to have a defining moment was my son who sat next to me looking at the massive arena and soaking the atmosphere of this event.  His dream is to become a basketball player and he sat there looking around and said to me “dad wouldn’t it be cool if this was a basketball arena and I was playing here?” I guess the electrifying atmosphere of the place and all those thousands of people gave him that feel of what it would be like to be playing in a massive venue. Again a moment for him where his most inner desires to be successful in what he enjoys where ignited by the moment, a defining moment in his life.

And this magical place, I am sure, sparked the most inner being desires in every person who was there. For both of my children it was defining their desires to achieve something they are both passionate about.

This got me thinking of my own desires to write and become a full time writer and as I listen to the music I looked around me imagining what it would be like to have one of my plays staged or one of my musicals produced. But more importantly it was a defining moment in my life, to know that my own child was out there singing and my son was imagining being a basketball player, it showed me how powerful and influential a moment like that can be and I will always treasure this, I know it will help them both achieve their dreams. After all remember, our dreams are our realities of tomorrow, we just need to make them so.

Sharing this experience with some friends also sparked a conversation about what our defining moments in life were and to hear their stories really brought home how true this is. Whether it is that moment when you leave home and start your own life, wake up one day to realise this is not where you want to be, or find yourself singing at the O2 Arena with seven thousand other kids, these moments help us to be who we are and why we are here.

I encourage you all to think back at those defining moments in your life, may be the day you met your soul partner and fell in love, or the day you took that train to University and never turned back, and even that moment when you know you have made a wrong decision and you may regret it for the rest of your life, those moments makes us who we are.

And the great thing about defining moments is that they just keep on coming, they never stop until the day we die. So grab those moments and treasure them forever.