First Aid for your Dreams

FIRST AID FOR YOUR DREAMS

Are your dreams critically ill? Are they sleeping? Or have they already died an untimely death inside you?
What would be an untimely death? I believe that your dreams should never, never die until you do and maybe not then. There are actions that we can take right now, while we are here to enable certain dreams we have to live long after us.
We all have dreams from our youth that we may have abandoned along the way. Also dreams that we forge each day. Some are large dreams and some are small. All dreams are important.
I have a friend who seems to have forgotten how to dream. He is sixty years old now and he believes that it is too late for him to achieve any dreams he may have had in the past. Therefore, he not only refuses to dream in the present but he no longer recognizes the dreams of his youth.
In spite of this man’s pessimistic attitude, he is able bodied and intelligent. There is no reason for him not to pursue his dreams except for the limitations that he is placing on himself. His belief system tells him that dreams are for young people and since he is not young, it is too late for him.
Such faulty thinking is not limited to older people. Young people believe they are not talented enough, aggressive enough or smart enough to succeed.
People often feel that following their dreams mean that they must become a starving artist living in a garret in order to succeed. They do not see how they can follow some of their dreams and still make a living. For that reason, they shelve their dreams.
It is not a good idea to abandon basic human needs for food and shelter in order to follow a dream, but it is also not a good idea to set the dream aside, leaving it to decay from lack of nourishment. Everyone should have a healthy list of dreams. Some are small and easy, short term dreams such as going to a special concert or restaurant. Some are larger such as wanting to own a boat or a brand new car, or even to buy a house. Others are larger still involving things such as a desire to become a famous actor/actress, president of the United States or a millionaire.
We can’t work on every dream every day. Sometimes certain dreams have to be put on hold for a while. For example if you dream of becoming a famous skater and you have just broken your ankle, that dream will have to wait. That doesn’t mean, however, that you can’t work on other dreams.
I know a man who loved gymnastics from an early age. He was involved in gymnastics in high school and dreamed of becoming an Olympic gymnast. Then the unthinkable happened. He was seriously injured while performing and became a paraplegic who had to use a wheel chair. Did this man hate gymnastics after that? No, he continued to be a statistician for other gymnasts.
Does the fact that that this man’s greatest dream has crashed and burned mean that he should stop dreaming? No, although he can’t become an Olympic gymnast, he had many other dreams which he can fulfill. He attended college and got a degree in Rehabilitation technology. He works at a state job where he assists other persons with disabilities.
If you have forgotten how to dream maybe you need to start small. Maybe you need to dream of writing that perfect short story rather than dreaming of becoming a best selling novelist. The fact that you focus on the short term goal of writing a perfect story does not mean you can’t continue on to perfect your skills, write a novel and publish it. The short story is just a step on the way to your ultimate dream.
If you have forgotten how to dream, you have forgotten how to hope. Dreams enrich our lives and make the world an exciting and happy place.
A woman I know has recently had problems with her vision and there is some chance that she might eventually become blind. She is currently 39 years old with a potential for many years ahead in which to realize her dreams. However, when I mentioned that I had finally bought some land in the country where I could follow a dream of mine by planting fruit trees, having a recreational place to visit and a get away place to write, she seemed downcast. “I used to dream of doing that,” she said but now I don’t think it will ever happen. Her voice was flat and uninspired as she said this. When I protested that she had a lot of time in which to make it happen she said, “Well if it ever did happen, I wouldn’t be able to enjoy it because I couldn’t see it.” Her vision is currently stable and may never become worse; at this time she can still drive a car, but she has subscribed to the attitude that the worst will happen. Therefore, she refuses to believe or dream about any other outcome.
When I think of her, I remember a client I worked with once. This man was from a rural lifestyle. He had become a truck driver and was involved in an accident that left him totally blind. Since he could no longer drive a truck he was considering another type of job. The most important thing to him was to find something in the agricultural field that he could do. He had grown up in that field and his dreams were tied into the land and what he could do, even as a blind person. We discussed everything from worm farming to planting a greenhouse. He could assist his family who raised blueberries in picking those and he found other things like that to do. For his basic job, he went to work doing assembly in a factory but he retained these interests as a hobby. He found a way to maintain his dream in spite of adversity.
Some people had a lot of dreams and then abandoned them.
Some people never had dreams to start with because they were raised in such arid circumstances that they were led to believe that dreaming of better things was just setting themselves up to be bitterly disappointed.
People give up on dreams because they think they are too old, too young, lacking in talents or skills. Most of these reasons are faulty.
I challenge you to get back in touch with your dreams. Make a list of them , large or small.
When you achieve a dream, don’t stop there. Create another dream to put in it’s place.
Every day is another day to go out and challenge, create, live life.
Don’t let life pass you by. Grab hold of it and enjoy the ride.