A few years ago, my wife, @JennyAcuff, hurt her finger. With a power tool. That’s just how we do things.

It was a bad day at the Acuff house.

During months of rehab, her doctor gave her a fairly serious warning.

He told her, “If you don’t do the exercises and the work, your finger will become functionally amputated.”

Functionally amputated means that it would still be there. She would not have physically lost it to the accident. It would not be cut off, but functionally it would be as if it was amputated. A lack of use would create the same consequence as amputation.

That’s a pretty scary thought, but what’s scarier is how many people have dreams that have been functionally amputated.

The halls of our buildings are lined with the functionally amputated.

The musician who no longer sings.

The writer who never wrote.

The blogger who never blogs.

A pile of talents gone unused grows every time someone believes that work must be miserable and that we should live for the weekend.

Don’t let your dream become functionally amputated.

Do the work.

Do the exercises.

Fight dream atrophy every day you are gifted with breath.

It’s not too late.