When I was younger I used to cut pictures out of magazines of cars, houses, and other material things and people that influenced me at that time, mostly entertainers and athletes, I would tape them to the walls in my room or paste them on notebooks, folders, the insides of my desk (reveling my age a little here, we had the desk that would open upward) and even in my lockers.

They served as constant reminders of the things I wanted and the type of success I wanted to achieve in life. They helped me to continue to dream big.  But the reality of my surroundings and the individuals I was surrounded by at that time made it difficult to see those dreams becoming reality.

Many of the adults in my life had fallen victim to, “a Dream Deferred”, having dreams of doing and being more and initially, putting them, “on hold” because of their circumstances (having a child at an early age, having to enter the work force to help out at home, etc.) they eventually allowed their circumstance to compile or either became content with what had become their routine and abandoned their dreams, making their routine, their reality.

This, I believe, soured them on the belief that dreams come true and you can do or be whatever you put your mind to. To a certain degree I understood why, but their mind set became contagious and they unknowingly became dream killers. They no longer allowed themselves to dream, or even believe in dreams for that matter, because in their minds, they no longer had time to dream. Their movements and actions indirectly became discouraging, and eventually their words began to also lack encouragement.

Those pictures started to seem more and more like just pictures rather than things I could achieve, but I still kept them, still looked at them every day, to the point that others began to take notice of them and ask questions about them, which would often spark a discussion. This began to re-ignite and re-fuel my desire to continue to dream, and slowly I began to take my dreams out of park and began to drive my dreams.

The book, The Secret talks about the law of attraction and suggest to its readers to prepare a vision board of the things that you want in life, items often associated with success, to more or less keep you focused on fulfilling your dreams, I know that there are many of you reading this that like me cut and pasted pictures as a youth, this was our vision board, but as we got older the realities of others clouded our dreams. It is important that we all continue to dream, and pursue your dreams, to conclusion. Don’t let the fact that no one in your family ever furthered their education, keep you from doing so, don’t let the fact that you had a child at an early age keep you from becoming what you have always dreamed. Let your circumstances be your motivation, activate your dreams, we are all capable of greatness, but we can never fly without spreading our wings.