This post is for dreamers. Dreamers who’ve been awakened to something bigger than themselves. Dreamers who know, even if vaguely, that they just cannot continue to live the way they’ve lived so far. Dreamers who feel in the depths of their soul, that somehow they are called to change the world!
If this is you then, this post is for you.
The Path is hard
When you are a dreamer, you must accept the reality that the path you have to take is NOT set before you. Often you have to cut a path through a jungle of confusion, with voices from your past yelling at you to stop and think what you’re doing, to stop being a dreamer, to get real with life, to grow up. These voices are cynical, shrill, incessant, and ever rational: they yell to you that the fact that there is no path through the jungle before you, is a sign (even from above) that you are not supposed to tempt fate.But dear Dreamer, let me tell you this: every step you take into that jungle, is your choice. You have to decide what you want to live and die for. You have to decide what you are willing to live with: the pain of taking risks, or the pain of living with regret?
Are you waiting for the path to magically open up before you? Are you waiting for the thick jungle to give way benevolently when you step into it? Are you waiting for people to stream to you, constantly reassuring your shaky ego, telling how awesome you are, giving you a pat on the back every step of the way?
Well you will be waiting a long time then.
And by that time, your dream might have died, not because it became any less potent, but because your hope probably got extinguished. The responsibility of picking up the gaunlet as a Dreamer is that you have to learn to be a steward of hope, and faith.
You need Faith
Here’s the reality, you will need faith to move into the impossible. That’s just how it rolls. Now if you are one who’s apt to get their panties in a knot because of the “faith” issue, then here’s news for you. Everyone has faith. Everyone exercises some measure of “faith” every day, even every moment of their lives. Did you stop to think if the chair you are sitting on now could actually do what it’s supposed to do before you sat on it? Do you get in the bus and pay the fare and then hold onto your dear life, hoping against hope that the bus driver, whom you may have never met before, will take you to your destination? Faith is not some complex thing. It is a simple choice, a decision about what you are going to focus on, what you are going to take for granted as the basis of your life. Having faith, contrary to the enlightened rationalist, does not contradict with reason. It empowers reason to go beyond limits of what is already possible.To get from point A to be B in your journey towards your dream, you will have to believe, not just in your dream, or the fact that you actually have a shot at it, but also that you have to trust and need others along the way. If faith, and hope in these areas are lacking, go hang around with people who exude those things. Often, and contrary to pop media lies, people who actually practice a living faith, especially in Someone greater than themselves, have mountains of faith and hope stocked up in them, waiting for others to deposit them into. But of course checking them out, will require courage from you. Our culture has done such an excellent job of ridiculing people with faith (I call this the tyranny of unbelief) that there is a gap of misunderstanding between the faithful and true seekers.
It's about Character
Just like you’re not going to have the whole town cheering for you each step you take towards your dream, rest assured that you are not going to always feel convinced about whether you deserve your dream, or whether you are able to achieve it. You won’t always feel cut out for it or feel like you’ve got what it takes. You won’t feel this, feel that, feel the other thing you should be feeling all the time. Least of all you will not always feel brave, or courageous.When you’re feeling low, the first thing you do is, acknowledge it. Say it out loud. And in saying it out loud, also say “but that is what I feel at the moment”. The last thing you want to do is ignore that the journey is difficult. If you don't, you'll find yourself believing it's you who's difficult, indirectly sabotaging yourself and your dream.
After you acknowledge the difficulty, understand that difficulty is there to chisel character into your DNA, so that through perseverance, hope is developed in you as your DEFAULT response to life. You need hope in order to face the challenges that are going to come your way, even after you hit your mountain top. Understand that this dream has been given to you for a purpose. And one of the growth points required in this journey of making dreams into reality is that you have to grow into the person who is able to carry the full weight of that actualized destiny. You may not always feel brave, but choosing to submit to the growing pains of difficulty means, you are making brave choices, you are acting boldly, even when the feelings are not backing you up.
If getting to the top is all you are dreaming about, then it’s seriously time to consider if this dream is really for you. You may have your dream, but you will not inspire other dreamers. You may have success (in the way you define success) but you will not be able to make others successful. You may have power, but you will have no authority with people. You may have impact, but you probably will have no respect. In short your imprint of influence in the world will be miniscule.
Often a dream is given to transform the dreamer before it transforms the world. Changing the world is something you get a shot at if you can sufficiently demonstrate that you have changed as well.
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| Arthur Shaughnessy |
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