“The surest way to make your dreams come true is to live them.” ― Roy T. Bennett.
How many of us have sat in the classroom looking out the window at the clouds drifting by – daydreaming of what might be. As children many of us had high hopes and dreams of conquering the world, being leaders, of becoming someone important, of experiencing exciting adventures, or to be rich and famous. We believed we’d be the biggest and best, and in our innocence, we never doubted we’d make our dreams come true.
But then, what happened? Life – and society - worked its dark magic to suppress our aspirations. How often did we hear “Don’t waste your time dreaming, such ideas are not practical; you’re being naïve and foolish, it takes money to do such things? And, you need luck to get ahead in this world. Or, it’s who you know that’s important to your success. Then there is the `you are too young, or too old.'
Life does have its challenges and not many of us avoid the odd disappointment or two along the way. Sometimes it takes us the better part of our lifetime to fulfil our dreams. We can become unhappy, depressed, and often ill, when, as the years move on we realise we haven’t accomplished what we thought we could all those years ago. We might be trapped in a job or a profession we know is not us, being held back by a fear of taking the risk to change it.
We all have dreams of some kind at one time or another. However, if we fail to manifest those dreams, or we fall short of reaching the heights we envisioned, we can start to have doubts about our purpose in life. At times like this we can feel we are on a treadmill going nowhere fast.
Sometimes we abandon our dreams because others don’t see or believe in our vision. We can question our own wisdom and long held desires, to then bury our dreams without ever trying. But, other people don’t have to see your vision, you create it for yourself. You might be called crazy or unrealistic but if you believe in your dream you must press on despite the negativity and derision.
Disappointment is a part of life - disappointments are often opportunities to reassess and redefine our goals and dreams. We may be required to work harder, or differently, doing whatever it takes to fulfil those earlier dreams. There are many ways to start on your forward path such as taking a class, attending seminars or going back to school and retraining. You will never know what you can achieve unless you try.
Finally, it’s important to not lose sight of those earlier dreams many of which were your intuition telling you what you were meant to be or do. If you keep the dream ever in your consciousness, while keeping the vision ever in the forefront of your mind, looking for ways to recapture that earlier ambition you will achieve much more that you realise.
Believe me, many of my own dreams were cut short when I was a young child but I never let go of them. It took many decades for them to take shape but I never doubted I’d somehow, sometime, achieve them. It took courage and a strong self-belief but I have achieved more that anyone would have thought possible. As the years roll on you may feel your own dream has passed you by. I encourage you to never give in to self-doubt. Your dreams, like mine, may take decades to fulfil but I urge you to never give up when it seems impossible. After all, we owe it to ourselves don’t we to keep the dreams alive and strive to make them reality.