Dreams

Dreams. From the time that we are small children, we have dreams and aspirations of what we want to be when we grow up. Some of us wanted to be an astronaut, a teacher, a nurse, a doctor, a lawyer, a writer, a cop, a soldier…well, you get the picture. We all aspire to be something when we grow up, but, somehow, for a majority of us, we fall short of achieving that dream.

As we grow into young adults, the dreams that we had as children seem to fall to the wayside, and the dreams of our parents somehow become our dreams. I’m not quite sure we realize just when it is that their dreams become ours. As we grow old, we tend to forget what it was that we dreamed of in the first place. We are taught to believe that our dreams will never come to fruition and that we need to be realistic as to what we are capable of. We are taught that we are failures and anything that we try on our own volition will be a failure—which only proves the point. We are somehow taught to believe that the dreams we have for ourselves, are just that—and that they are unreasonable, and we will never be successful.

But what is success? Is it a measure that society has placed on our monetary worth? Or is it a measure of our happiness? I tend to believe that what society believes is moot, and that happiness should be the measure of our success. For years, we may live someone else's dream because we fear the failure of living our own. Sometimes, we may have even forgotten the dreams that we had until the right person comes into our lives.

I’ve seen parents who are so convinced that they know what is right for their child that they push the child away because of having different dreams, parents who would rather disown their children because they don’t agree with their choices, and parents who refuse to pay for college because their child would rather be a teacher than a doctor. We get so caught up in the prestige that a title can bring us or our family that we fail to realize the prestige that happiness can bring us.

It seems the devil sends his minions to do his bidding, and he seems to have control of us most of our lives. We live in failure, live in unhappiness, live in solitude, and live in a fantasy. We find ourselves so unhappy that we pretend that life is good and try to appear happy when we are around others in the hopes that they won’t pick up on the unhappiness that stirs our soul.

But then, the unexpected happens. God sends someone to remind us of the dream we once had, someone who recognizes the God given talent that we have, someone who takes time out of their busy life to help us recognize our talent, someone who helps us nurture that talent, and helps us believe in ourselves. Once these things occur, we can once again attempt to achieve that dream that we had when we were children.

I’m not going to say it’s easy. I’m not going to say that there aren’t doubts that will creep into your mind. I have doubts all the time about whether I will ever acquire my dream of being a successful writer. But when I have those doubts, it seems God places the right person in my path to remind me that I can do it. That right person may come in the guise of a loved one, a friend, a pastor, a teacher, or a professor. It doesn’t matter who that right person is, it’s whoever God sends at that moment to help you believe in yourself.

I wonder sometimes, how many of us are living a life of convenience, a life that we felt forced into because our parents wouldn’t support us because it wasn’t their dream for us? How many of us caved and believed that our aspirations are worthless and that we will never amount to anything? That we can never be good enough? And how many are actually living their dream?

There aren’t many things in life that we get the chance to do over. But when it comes to our dreams or our destiny, God makes all things possible. Sometimes, we fail to see the path He has laid before us. He gives us a chance to be happy and to realize the things in life that everyone said we could never achieve—our dreams. Most times, the only thing truly stopping us once we realize our dreams is fear. It’s one thing to have a dream and totally different to realize you may never acquire it. For some, that is enough to prevent them from ever trying. But how can you ever have the possibility of succeeding if you never risk failure?

I surmise that there are many of us living a life that we somehow believe is our own. If you find yourself going through the motions when it concerns your job, regardless of the amount of money you make, maybe it’s time to reassess what your dreams in life really were/are. Once you truly realize your dream and decide to pursue it, there is no amount of failure that can prevent you from achieving it. And when you fall on rough times and doubt yourself, just look to God and He’ll always be there, waiting for you to call His name. God Bless!
 “There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure.”   
                           The Alchemist 
                         by Paulo Coelho