Childhood dreams can be powerful motivators that inspire us to achieve great things. However, as we grow older and face various challenges, we may lose sight of those dreams and feel discouraged.
It is important to remember that our childhood emotions and aspirations are a valuable part of who we are and can serve as a source of inspiration and motivation.
By remaining persistent in pursuing our childhood dreams, we can tap into our inner creativity, passion, and a sense of purpose.
One such example is Josh Gabbatiss, who dreamt of writing an animal encyclopedia in his childhood and finished writing it after almost 22 long years.
Growing up in West Oxfordshire, United Kingdom and at just 9 years old, Josh Gabbatiss was gripped by a passion for creating an encyclopedia of every living creature. He began the project with information on fish, amphibians, reptiles, and birds.
21 years later, at the age of 30, he has finally achieved his goal. He has handwritten an encyclopedia of every living creature. The final animal he included in the encyclopedia was the chimpanzee.
Currently a climate journalist in South London, Josh first started writing his now-famous 'Josh's Book of Animals' in 2001, spending years drawing and writing the entire 118-page book with painstaking attention to detail.
Starting at the age of nine, Josh Gabbatiss worked consistently on his book about animals through his teenage years.
However, life got in the way, and he became distracted during the latter part of his teenage years, making his work more sporadic. He went to university, but the desire to finish the book remained, and he is proud of some of the later drawings. He only showed the book to his parents and a few partners.
However, after sharing it on Twitter, it has been viewed by thousands of people in less than a week.
Josh believes that the book has touched people as he said to the British daily Guardian, "Because I think a lot of people are remembering their obsessions from when they were children – projects they were working on and maybe never finished. Or they're talking about the stuff that their children are obsessed with now, which I think is really cute, how their child is really into dinosaurs or something like that."
Josh becomes a prime example of what a person can accomplish when he holds on to his childhood passion. In a recent Twitter post, Josh reflected on the significance of his lifelong project, saying, "Childhood emotions should not be taken lightly...as I experienced at the age of nine with this subject, I am still experiencing it."
