Inside of us all lives a dream. It might not much more than just a spark but it is there waiting for the opportunity to come alive. Waiting for the opportunity to turn your world upside down. But a dream doesn’t just happen. We need to work hard and make sacrifices in our pursuit, we have to want it, and we have to chase after it. I won’t lie, some days it is hard. Some days you just don’t think you can keep running after the dream. I also won’t lie that the pursuit of my dreams has been the very best years of my life.
Once upon a time, I thought none of my dreams would ever come true. Once I thought that dreams were pure fiction. Stuff to occupy an idle mind. Why bother chasing what could never happen? I had bills to pay after all. Life was a gray monotonous struggle. I was listless, floating along this river of life as it rushed past me. Why bother? Why struggle? Why make extra work for myself? None of those dreams would happen anyways.
This month we have been discussing the tools you will need to be successful on that journey.
I could not have been more wrong. The pursuit of the dream gives us a purpose and meaning for our lives. The chase is a race unlike any other, for it gives back more than we ever put into it. Chasing the impossible means that the dreamer isn’t wasting time looking back at the past or staring down at their feet. The dreamer looks forward, to the future, to their next goal, the next step. To dream is to test one’s self, to know one’s self, and to relentlessly pursue something bigger than that self. The dream is the light behind the eyes, the sparkle of one’s soul. It stirs the soul to action. Creates the spark that ignites our imaginations. Our dreams are us, and we are our dreams, entwined forever in the firey act of becoming.
Often, I have talked about the dream as a journey. This month we have been discussing the tools you will need to be successful on that journey. Set goals that matter to you, goals you can accomplish and measure, goals that are specific and achievable. This is the tool bag every dreamer must use if they are going to chase after their dreams. Sometimes the chase takes years or even a lifetime. Sometimes everything happens so fast we can’t believe it really happened at all. Sometimes after working to the point of giving up, everything falls into place. Sometimes, it all falls apart. To chase our dreams is to go on a journey that cannot be described, you will see beauty in its purest form, and dark valleys of doubt. It is full of the sticky mud of skepticism and mountain peaks of accomplishment. It is worth it though. For in the journey you will find yourself.
This is your year. The year you turn that tiny spark of a dream into a raging fire. The year you chase after your dreams without looking back. Don’t stop looking forward. Don’t give up when the road is hard. Don’t quit when the journey is long. If you aren’t meeting your goals, adjust them. If your dream is too heavy for you, find others who can help carry it. Take one more leap, one more step towards the future you have imagined for yourself. Never give up. Never stop daring. Only you can make your dreams come true. Dream as big as you can dare and go out there and chase them down with all that you’ve got.