Motivational Wall Art: Never Give Up On Your Dreams

Never Give Up On Your Dreams

Tim Walker was able to lead a life that many aspiring young animators dream of. He worked on famous cartoons such as Samurai Jack, The Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries, Static Shock, and other American cartoon television shows for more than 50 years. He started out in the early 70s animating shows such as Fat Albert and Bugs Bunny and moved on to becoming the animation director for TV movies such as The Jetsons Meet the Flintstones and nine episodes of the television show Dexter’s Laboratory. Yet, despite his career success, he has had many struggles over the years. From challenges with alcohol to his career as an artist being physically inhibited by the development of lateral Parkinson’s disease in 2008, Tim has had to fight and stay focused on what matters most in life to keep going.

Many people around the world face struggles like Tim’s challenges with Parkinson’s disease, and with this comes choices. Do you keep working hard to achieve your dream or do you choose to settle into the unfortunate situation you have? Adaptation to life’s challenges is crucial, but so is never giving up on the dreams of your youth. For Tim, it’s all about drawing and creating art that means something. Even when he lost the ability to effectively draw with his right hand, he committed himself to teaching himself how to draw all over again with his left hand. You can see examples of Tim’s left-handed work on the gallery and shopping pages of the Timmy Toons Art website.

Why to Never Give up on Your Dreams

#1: Learn from your failures.

One of the main reasons people over-compromise and fail to even seriously pursue their dreams is the inability to keep going after hardships hit. Instead of taking failures and challenges as purely obstacles, consider how they also are learning experiences for you. The fear of failure can be stilting, but ultimately we will fail dozens of times with any serious endeavor we pursue, unless we are just incredibly lucky. The ones who ultimately succeed are those with the tenacity and focus to keep on going, even after serious setbacks.

#2: Be a beacon of light in the dark.

You’re not just aiming to become a professional cartoon animator or to write a book for yourself. The force of will and vision that you muster can also be a light in the dark unexpectedly for people around you, even to strangers. It’s easy to forget that we aren’t in it alone, even when it feels like it. When you meet someone who is passionate and motivated, it brightens up your day. Being better isn’t simply about achieving your goal, but living in such a way that you can be proud and have a positive influence on others, even if it’s just your ability to keep humor and joy alive in your heart even after tragedy occurs.

#3: Prove them wrong.

On the other side of things, when pursuing your dreams, we all have met people who try and deflate or distract our focus. Reasonable arguments are more than welcome, but sometimes there’s a dimension of despair that can be contagious if you’re not careful. Many successful artists don’t succeed because they love what they do, but, when the going gets tough, one unambiguously motivating driver for success is to prove the people who don’t believe you could succeed in your goal wrong.

#4: Understand that your own deeper purpose is not fixed.

When you set yourself a goal, it is good to stick to it. However, it’s reasonable to expect that in the pursuit of your goal you will discover ways of specifying it more clearly, modifying it, improving it, and so on. For example, as a child you may have dreamed of singing. As you grow older you may start to ask other questions beyond “what?”, such as “why?” and “how?”, leading to you realizing that what you are interested in is actually something related but not yourself actually singing, such as sound design or audiology even.

#5: The journey comes first.

Never let your vision of your life get in the way of actually living your life. Letting fantasies rule your spirit can make your experience of existence intensely abstract, which, though not necessarily a problem, can be somewhat detrimental depending on particular circumstances and goals. In pursuit of your goals, many great friendships, joys, and life lessons are to be had. For example, going to college simply for the end of getting a certificate to use for applying for a job is a quantification of an experience that is valuable even more in the qualitative experience and lessons one actually learns over those formative years in that environment.

Success May Be Just Around the Corner

Who knows! You may be closer to achieving your life goals than you think. Giving up now could be the end, when, if only you knew that you were only just a phone call away from reaching your dreams.

As an artist, Tim Walker has lived a full and focused life. The creation of art is something that brings him enormous satisfaction and that he will never give up on, no matter how difficult his Parkinson’s makes the activity. That degree of tenacity combined with joy is something that you can see echoing throughout all of Tim’s art. If you would like to support Tim’s passion or have some motivational wall art prints for your house or office, visit the Shop page to find pieces currently available for purchase!

Learn More About Tim