Do you have a dream? Dare to dream

What makes the difference between great people and ordinary ones? What will make an individual settle for a lifetime of not achieving any great feat, not impacting a generation, not affecting people around them and not changing status quo? A dream or the lack of it.

I struggled growing up, thinking about why some people remain in the same position, with little or no improvement for most of their lives. Research has shown that people settle for average or less than average lives because they either do not have dreams or do not have the will power to pursue their dreams. Research has also shown that many people choose not to dream because of their past experiences. They probably have seen a few people that had dreams and never achieved those dreams, growing up. It might also be that they themselves have had some hopes that have been dashed.

The world has been shaped by people that have dared to dream. They see a clear picture of “their” ideal situation, and funny enough, ‘their ideals’ have become ‘everyone’s ideals’. Their dreams drive them, it burns inside of them on their sleeping beds and is there with them in their waking hours. Their dreams guide their every step, defines their lifestyles and informs their life decisions.

So, what is a dream after all? There are probably a million and one definitions of a dream. They however all have some major themes – a clear picture and an inspiration.  A dream for the purpose of this article, is simply an idea or a clear picture in the mind of an individual of what he wants to become or what he sees happening in the future.

Everyone ought to have a dream. Every one ought to have a clear picture of the future in their minds. Dreams propel us forward. They give us energy. They make us enthusiastic. There is nothing you cannot dream about. Once the human mind can conceive it, it is achievable. One man once had a dream of landing on the moon so why can’t you dream of anything?

You might think to yourself, I don’t have a dream and I’m fifty years old. Am I a failure? No. It’s never too late to start dreaming.

So, what do you need to do?

1.    Dream: It’s that simple. Paint a picture in your mind of the future you desire. What do you think is worth dedicating a lifetime to achieve? What ideal in the world do you think you can inspire or affect?

2.    Identify your dream: Chances are that you already have a dream but have not identified it or have not penciled it down. What’s that passion that makes you jump out of your skin with excitement and makes you feel fulfilled when you are doing it? What is that giant goal for your life that you strive for? Paint the picture. Write it down. Your dreams need to be bigger than you are so you can grow into them. If they are not, then they are not dreams.

3.    Protect your dream: Joseph had a dream and his dream made enemies for him (even in his own house hold). You have to be careful who you share your dream with. You have to prayerfully share it with only people that will help you achieve it. The greatest enemy of your dream is the Devil. Once he discovers your dream, he sends people and experiences your way to deflate or puncture your dream, or even steal it away from you altogether. Dreams are like balloons that will lift you to the sky. Reality also has a way of poking at each individual’s dream, constantly reducing its size or even deflating it. The world is filled with dream crushers and idea killers. Pray about your dream and constantly ask for God’s help. Protect your dream, Like a mother protects her unborn child

4.    Pursue your dream: Some dreams come true and some don’t. But that’s the thing about dreams. If you don’t go after your dream, you cannot do great things. Dreams don’t just happen because you have them. They require a great deal of meticulous planning and hard work. They require sleepless nights and 25 hour days. Sometimes, they take an entire lifetime to achieve.

5.    Stay with it: We have all experienced the pain of disappointment while chasing our dreams and some of us have even had shattered dreams. These experiences can leave us overwhelmed and make us try to protect ourselves from further disappointment by not dreaming. When something goes wrong with our dream, we say, “I’ll never do that again”. What a mistake! Especially when it comes to our dreams. Failure is the price we must pay to achieve success. So when you have a dream and in the course of pursuing it, you encounter disappointments, look at them as the price you must pay to achieve that dream. Stick to your dream and stay with it.

A recent Toyota advert about the space shuttle says: let’s wake up our dreams, let’s not let anything hold us back. Not even 292,000 pounds. Let’s go places…….

Your dreams can come true. It has happened for so many people, so why not to you? Dare to dream and when you do, give it your best shot.

Ingredients required making your dreams come true

1.      Imagination: Imagination is the soil that brings a dream to life.

2.      Clarity: be clear in your mind of what you hope to achieve.

3.    Confidence: It takes confidence to pursue a dream. Confidence often separates the people who dream and pursue those dreams from those who don’t.

4.     Tenacity: stay with your dream. When you fall, pick yourself up, dust yourself off and keep on trying.