Live Your Dreams and Quit Dreaming of Living
Anyone who has every read any of my work knows that I believe in dreams. I’m not talking about little ho-hum dreams but rather the HOLY SMOKE dreams or the YOU GOTTA BE KIDDING ME dreams or the WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN SMOKING dreams!
Now when we talk about dreams there are several ways we can go: we can be talking about the dreams that occur at nighttime while we sleep or we can be talking about the dreams we all have during our waking hours while we are working or going for a walk or whatever else we fill out day with.
For this article I will be discussing the daytime dreams, the wishful thinking dreams, the wishin’ and a prayin’ dreams that we all entertain during our lifetime.
I was inspired while in college by the words of Robert Kennedy, who borrowed from George Bernard Shaw, when he said: “Some men see things as they are and ask why. Others dream things that never were and ask why not.” So today I was sitting here watching it rain and I was thinking about that division between people; why do some people just dream big but do nothing while others act on those big dreams? What are the obstacles that prevent some people from not only not acting on a huge dream but in fact never even entertaining the possibility of that dream coming true?
COMPLACENCY
It takes work to make a big dream come true! It does not happen randomly and we can’t just snap our fingers and have it happen. If the dream is big enough it requires that we actually get off of our duffs and make it happen. So what’s the problem?
Remember, this is just my opinion, but I think there are a great many people who are just too complacent. The status quo is comfortable for them. They get up in the morning, go to work, come home at night, maybe run some errands, have a meal, watch some boob-tube and then go to bed. This pattern is repeated day in and day out with very little interruption as the weeks turn into months and then years and before you know it complacency has led the way to decades gone by and the chance of ever realizing that dream are gone.
I have seen relatives trapped in this complacent dead zone. I readily admit that I have fallen victim to it over the years. In my quiet moments I would dream the dream and then hardly notice that the years had gone by and the dream was on its last breath. It is hard to leave that comfort level; it is, in fact, almost like a drug-induced stupor, and the longer it continues the harder it is to break the pattern.
http://billybuc.hubpages.com/hub/Childhood-Dreams-Where-Have-They-Gone
FEAR
Yes, I said fear! Never underestimate the power of fear in preventing us from going after a dream. These are uncertain times we are in and the last thing many want to do is rock the boat and leave the safety of their cocoon. What if we fail? How will we ever live that down? What will our friends and family say when we fall flat on our face in failure? What will we think of ourselves when we fail? What happens if we blow money in chasing our dream? How will we ever recover financially?
Give me ten minutes and I can give you fifty reasons to be afraid and if I can think of them so can anyone and that means they are well on their way to paralysis and of course paralysis leads to non-action and the dream dies. Think about the dreams you have had, the wonderful goals you set when you were younger but haven’t quite gotten around to yet. What has prevented you? I’m willing to bet that during the quiet moments when it is just you and your thoughts that you will have to admit that you have been partially hindered by fear of failure.
I can speak from experience when I say that recognizing fear is the first step to overcoming it. An honest admission of fear has to happen in order to move beyond it.
http://billybuc.hubpages.com/hub/Social-Issues-Fear-and-Ignorance
LACK OF COMMITMENT
What is your big dream? What are your goals? What is the purpose in life that you have fallen short of to this date?
I wanted to be a teacher when I first went to college but my father advised that I take Business courses so that I could get ahead in the world. Three years later and with degrees in Marketing and Economics well within my grasp, I made up my mind to go an extra year and also get my teaching degree. Life had other plans for me, however, and my father died before my senior year. I was needed at home after I graduated and was not able to get that Education degree. Did my dream die?
http://billybuc.hubpages.com/hub/Some-Characteristics-of-a-Good-Teacher
I never lost track of that dream. I slowly saved money while taking care of my mother and five years later when she re-married I returned to college for that degree. In other words I made a commitment to make my dream a reality; it took five years to make it happen but I never lost sight of it and I continually worked towards it until it did happen.
Big dreams….big goals….big purposes….make a commitment. They do not happen unless sacrifices are made. Unfortunately sacrifice means facing fears and leaving the Comfort Zone and both of those are the natural enemies of commitment.
I HAVE A DREAM
I have written before about my new dream, my new purpose and goal. Bev and I want to buy a farm and make it an alternative education center. This is a lovely dream for sure but it is a huge dream of gigantic proportions because I am sixty-three and Bev is, well, slightly younger than me. We are talking about completely altering our lives at late middle-age and starting all over again. We are staring at a bleak economy and declaring that we don’t care, that our dream is more important and worth the risk.
We have heard those who would say that it is too risky, too silly, too foolhardy, that we should be happy with what we have and not take the risk and do you know what we say to that? Baloney! Bugger off! Either support us or get the hell out of our way because this is what we plan on doing. Period!
http://billybuc.hubpages.com/hub/My-Dream-The-Self-Sustaining-Educational-Eco-Farm
FINAL THOUGHTS
Listen! I make no judgment about people who are happy with their life as it is. There are some people who have always dreamed of having two kids, living in suburbia and making a comfortable life for the family and I say fantastic! If that is what you want then I wish you peace and happiness the rest of your life.
I am addressing the hundreds of thousands out there who trudge through life wanting more but not making the effort to achieve more. It is as though they think that one morning they will wake up and their goal will have been achieved simply by wishing it. I wish it happened that way but sadly it does not, and so the weeks become months, the months become years and the dream wilts and dies.
May I ask you one question? WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?
If fear is stopping you then defeat it! If complacency is stopping you then get off your butt and do it! If commitment is stopping you then what IS important enough to you to commit on? Some out there will say it’s not that easy, that there are obstacles and a thousand different reasons why you can’t follow a big dream and I say best of luck to you for the rest of your life. I, for one, would rather sit down to a nice salmon steak instead of grilled minnow.
2012 Bill Holland (aka billybuc)
A great hub about this subject can be seen at:
http://unknownspy.hubpages.com/hub/Dare-To-Dream-anyway-its-Tax-Free
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