Dream Bigger

Albeit a bit premature, I was giving a brief eulogy of Casey Kasem to someone this morning, pointing out two of his career highlights that made an indelible mark on me. One, he was the voice of Shaggy in all of the old Scooby Doo cartoons. I'll forever see his face and hear Shaggy saying, "Like, groovy, Scooby Doo. Sandwiches!" 

But then there's another quote of his, firmly implanted in my memory from years of listening to pre-XM and -Sirius radio. Remember him saying at the end of the American Top Forty Countdown, "Keep your feet on the ground but keep reaching for the stars?"

As I shared these two memories of Casey, it occurred to me that I have been heeding only part of his advice. My feet are firmly planted on the ground. But in the act of staying steady on terra firma, have I inadvertently stopped reaching for the stars?

Jim Carrey's commencement address made its way around social media outlets earlier this week. Click here to see the whole address. Here's a snippet that I found particularly profound:

"My father could have been a great comedian, but he didn't believe that that was possible for him, and so he made a conservative choice. Instead, he got a safe job as an accountant, and when I was 12 years old, he was let go from that safe job and our family had to do everything we could to survive.  I learned many great lessons from my father, not the least of which is 'you can fail at what you don't want, so why not take a chance at doing what you love?'"

I know. Pretty profound coming from this guy: