The Secret

Gather round my friends. I want to tell you a secret.

The secret is that life is testing you. Yes, you. You are being tested. Constantly. The universe is sneaky. You are a participant in the peculiar game we call existence. Many of you don't know you're playing. Many of you don't know what it is to win, what it is to lose, or even what tests we face that determine our victory.

You have a dream, a dream of freedom and greatness, a dream which makes you tremble at the very thought of its blinding magnificence. A dream that begins with "if only" or "if things were different I would..." The dream you hold may be so beautiful as to want to risk everything for it. But that's the thing. That's the test. How many of you truly stand up to wage war on apathy and compromise in the charge to realize your highest destiny? How many of you are simply pacified into a sonambolistic fugue, trudging through chore and obligation hoping that if you keep trudging then maybe some day you will get a sliver of enjoyment of out of this thing called life?

This is the test! Life will do everything to try to enslave you with fear, to subjugate your belief in your dreams, callings, and higher purposes, to cripple you with Saturnal pragmatism and enforce a life of obligation and burden instead of love and freedom. Your heart may sing love songs to the visions you behold and you may swoon at the possibility of realizing these visions as your life, but your mind will do everything in its power to trick you into believing that you can't do it. Life will do everything it can to make you believe that you don't have what it takes or that you're not allowed to, or that you don't have time, or money, or opportunity, or talent.

This is the test my friends! This is the test!

The truth is when you raise your valient sword to face the great dragon of doubt and with each action of your determination defeat the beast blow by blow, when you stand upon the carcass of your own inhibitions and self-imposed limitations with your chest held high and the fire of your blood pulsing through your veins, THIS is when you've won the game of life. And the truth, my friends, is that when we live shackled as prisoners to fear, when we live believing that we cannot truly realize our dreams, we are actually enforcing the very fate that we dread to behold. We will see our loves buried, our hearts extinguished, our spirits vanquished. How many of you have been tempted by the snake of life's deceptions? How many of you traded your dreams for the job with the higher pay, which you collapse exhausted from upon your return home, a prisoner to a life you never really wanted to live, even though society would have you believe you really made it?

Do you hear that voice that whispers "what about me..." and "when are you going to come out to play?" The truth is when you listen to those feelings in your chest, which ignite you with warmth and love and passion upon the contemplation of your dreams and visions, and follow that, shining like a sun as you navigate the cold and desolate streets of a world filled with prisoners of their own making, people will feel your radiance reach out and touch them softly and realize the rarity to behold a spirit that was never extinguished!

The fear is to leap from the highest mountain with dreams to fly and to come crashing down in pain and ruin. The truth however is that when you fire the engine of your spirit and find the courage to jump, the universe and all of the beings in it will gasp in awe and joy and do everything in their power to hold and support you! That's how rare it is to see someone so intoxicated by inspiration. Those around them can't help but get a contact high! This is when you've passed the test!

So my friends I urge you, please. If you're afraid to jump, for the love of God jump, please jump. Do it for the precious love you hold in your heart and the excitement and inspiration you carry. Tend these flames until you can start fires in the hearts and minds of every being you touch. It's a cold world out there, and lord knows we need it. This is how you pass the test. This is how you win the game.

Go get 'em.

• Jake Kobrin