Meaning Dreams – What it takes to predict your future.

Preamble

In many scenarios when dreams are mentioned and not properly contextualized, there is a danger of succumbing into an empty exercise of just mentioning or listing anything that comes to ones’ mind. Dreams are important to drive one’s purpose in life. One without any dream is as good as chasing the wind. My major point of focus is on emphasising on meaningful dreams, the ones that have the power to make a difference in one’s life or impact a certain group of people or a household and even a community.

What I am going to dwell on in this piece is the process of coming up with such meaningful dreams, some things to take off, to clear the path for dream effectively, I will also share one of the best formulas I have encountered that seem to be giving me results to date.

The process

Let’s begin by unpacking the process of dreaming real dreams that gives you reason to wake up each day and do the things that you do. I pretty much would be inclined to say that, there is no iron and cast process for dreaming, but rather some good practices one can follow to come up with a proper dream list.

Many have lost the zeal to start dreaming, which is now left to their childhood days, which are buried in the not so near distant past. We may want to position ourselves to start dreaming again. It is never too late to start putting down some real and worth fighting for dreams.

Remove the obvious barriers of time and money

First of all, remove the adult and perceived realities of life. It will be ideal to have a plain drawing board that is free of limitations. Most dreams aren’t exciting even to their owners because they are chocked already during the formation process. Ask yourself some of these questions for example, “ If I had all the time and all the money I needed, what is it that I would want to do, see, have, change, make, share, e.t.c?”

Ideally when you start by eliminating the obvious barriers of time and money, which most adults normally take as a fall back position each and every time they are about to visualise greatness in their lifetime, and nothing materialise thereof. You wouldn’t want to fall victim to this trap too.

Remove fear

One of the key setback when setting dreams if fear which manifest in different forms as one sits down and start writing down their dreams. There is fear of failure; sometimes it’s immediately tied to a past failure. Remember when setting a dream your focus is not in the past but into the future. Let not your past hold you back, if it can make you angry, convert that anger into positive energy to visualise a better tomorrow.

Fear can surround us based on the economic situation, political situation, family situation, the list is endless. The point here, whatever surrounds you, should not determine and shape your dream in a negative way. Your dream should rather shape and change what surrounds you positively. So many great men and women with great profiles today, they have originated from not so much encouraging backgrounds. They could have chosen to be sucked into the status quo, but they refused and rose above their then situations.

Fear of other people’s opinions, is among the other dimensions of fear that can cripple you down. Conformity is such a great source of fear. A sense of belonging and being comfortable associated with mediocrity at the expense of reaching out for our God given talents and an opportunity to make a difference in this life is such demise to our unlimited potential.

Fear of feeling smaller than our dreams. This sometimes naturally forces us to dream smaller not big enough that even ourselves are scared of our own dreams. We need to set dreams that challenge us, those that make us shiver. If we aim for the moon and miss it, we might be lucky to shot some stars. Refuse to be small, think big and redefine your focus in life.

Write everything down

When asking yourself the time and money possibility, make sure you have a pen and paper, I would recommend one that you can keep not one that you will just trash after the exercise. There is power in writing down your ideas, as it’s visual and the mind works better that way. The other reason you are writing down is for you to have somewhere to come back and refresh your memory, which is what we recommend under refresh your dreams as frequently as is possible.

You can begin with a small list but as time goes, you can continue to build on your list further into a typical bucket list, the things you would want to execute before you die for instance. I do prefer dreams that can even live beyond me, like making a dent to the world – Steve Job kind of dreams. The problem is never starting the process of dreaming once you have started, you shall realize it will be part and parcel of you every day.

Deal with your current reality

Accept the reality that you are where you are today because of the decisions you didn’t make and execute yesterday or otherwise did execute. On that basis, what you do today, will eventually determine your fate tomorrow. Let not your current reality be a stumbling block to your future’s reality.

The fact of not having enough time and or money today, should not be your excuse of not dreaming bigger. The first thing to do is recognize the status quo but refuse to be comfortable in it. I have heard people say, “ I have lost all hope in my situation. ” What they are indirectly telling you is that, they have shut down the possibility of seeing beyond what is within the vicinity of their eyes. Find courage to see beyond the physical possibilities for you to accept and position yourself to change your reality.

One powerful recommendation is that if you can’t find anything worth focusing on in your own life, find inspiration in the eyes of those around you. If you are a parent, find inspiration in your children’s eyes. Have faith in their limited potential and make it your mandate to help them reach their potential. Along the way, you might find yourself back in the dreaming game again.

Differentiate a dream from a nightmare

If a dream is just written down and is not backed by an action, it is as good as a nightmare. The reason why most dreams never take off from those pieces of paper, or out of people’s heads is because; there was never make an inch made towards their realization. Many dreams have died at the expense of excuses that could and can be avoided if we are dedicated towards realizing our dreams.

Writing the dreams on paper is one thing, having a clear and well-defined approach on how to progressively build towards achieving those dreams is another thing. The last time I checked, worthwhile dreams are never accomplished in one lap, there are series of activities that have to be completed that will cumulatively add towards the realization of the bigger dream.

Thus, why I want to share the following formula. Doing the usual will not give you any results, hence something has to change somehow.

The formula

My first time to encounter this formula, it all made sense to me and helped explain why many a time we have ghost dreams because they lacked a proper base to support them for their realization.

Dream x Vehicle x Work Ethic = Success

The reason we end up having nightmares, is that dreams alone are just equated to success. That is unimaginable miracle that I wouldn’t be in a position to process for now.

The game changer is adding the two variables of a vehicle and work ethic.

The vehicle component

The vehicle can be anything that you can work at and has potential to yield results in return. A more natural way of looking at a vehicle is identifying your God given talent; you may be an athlete, a carpenter, swimmer, e.t.c. That can be a pretty good point to start from.

A more practical way at looking at the vehicle is looking at an idea or a business concept that you can train, learn and implement guided by mentors and can set some milestones to accomplish, which speaks to one or more your dreams

The work ethic component

Once you have identified your vehicle, you need to add the work ethic component. What work ethic entails, are the small sometimes repeated activities that gradually build towards realization of your set dreams. I consider this as the visible indicator of whether you are in the right path or not as through a work ethic, certain traits of success start to manifest.

Having a solid work ethic is a sure recipe for success provided you are working on a vehicle that will get you to your dreamland.

Refresh your dreams as frequently as is possible

As part of the work ethic, you need to revisit your dreams as often as possible as that will energize you to execute every activity that build towards accomplishing your dreams. Some good dreamers recommend that you revisit your dreams every day when you wake up and every day before sleeping. There is power and magic in doing these simple routines.

You are responsible

You can share your dreams with others especially your mentor if any for accountability purposes. One thing you have to bear in mind is that, you are ultimately responsible for the success and failure of your set dreams. Nobody owes you anything when it comes to the fruition of your set dreams.

You may work with a team, but at the end of the day, it is your sole responsibility to ensure that, your dreams are ticked off.

In conclusion

I hope I have done justice in making you positioned to revisit your dreams and make sure they work. It is my hope too that you will find a vehicle that works for you and you are passionate as well as being responsible to apply the work ethic to ensure you make your dreams a reality.

Should have any nuggets to share on this subject do share them by filling in the comment form.

To success of your dreams!!