Follow Your Dreams

​So tell me: What did you dream about last night?
 
Did you dream? I’m sure you did; we all dream.
 
However, most of us don’t remember our dreams.
 
Forgetting last night’s dream is truly a forgettable event.
 
However, forgetting your Life’s Dream?
 
Well, that’s another story altogether.
 
So in an effort to rekindle your dreamy thoughts, in today’s Dare I offer two short poems to reawaken, revitalize, and restore your superior sense of what can be.
 
Yes: If you can dream it, the possibilities are there to achieve it.
 
But like the daylight, day jobs, and daily drama that follow each night’s sleep, our dreams are often replaced by the hustle and bustle of the “real world.”
 
Today’s post is a reMINDer that your Life’s Dream is as much a part of the “real world” as is your car, your home, this blog, and anything else that works its way into that mind of yours. In fact, I would argue that YOUR Life’s Dream is actually a bigger part of YOUR reality than all the other stuff combined.
 
Combined?
 
Yes.
 
And here’s why:
 
Your Life’s Dream is a thought, an idea, and a creation that has been established by the creator that is you. All of that other stuff is the result of other people’s Life Dreams. And for “them,” and their respective Life’s Dream… life has become a dream come true. 
 
We are all “living the dream.”
 
The only question is, “Whose dream is it?”
 
This amazing thing called the television (and every single program that is televised) is the result of someone’s dream. Your cell phone originated in someone’s head sometime ago. Your lunch, your dinner, and the little snacks in between… all the result of someone’s dream.
 
Whose dream? Yours.
 
Yes… despite the fact that all those things were created by other people, the one fact that trumps all of them is the fact that all those things are connected to only one person: you.
 
You own the dream that has come to be your life.
 
Love the dream? Keep dreamin’, my friend.
 
Don’t like the dream? Change the script.
 
How?
 
Simply acquire the faith, fearlessness, and fundamental belief that your (newest) dream can come to fruition. If you can realistically do this, it can… and it will.
 
This faith of which I speak is a very simple task. But “simple” and “easy” are vastly different descriptors. After all, it’s rarely easy to stare failure in the face, learn from it, and then move on. And yet, Thomas Edison “succeeded” hundreds of times before succeeding with his invention called the commercial light bulb. Regarding failure, Edison is quoted as saying:
 
"After we had conducted thousands of experiments on a certain project without solving the problem, one of my associates, after we had conducted the crowning experiment and it had proved a failure, expressed discouragement and disgust over our having failed to find out anything. I cheerily assured him that we had learned something. For we had learned for a certainty that the thing couldn't be done that way, and that we would have to try some other way." 
 
Edison’s dream came true, but not without significant faith, work, and faith in his work.
 
In one of my all-time favorite speeches, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., proclaimed, “With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.” 
 
Dr. King’s dream is an ideal just shy of perfection. And though perfection is something that can never be fully realized, Dr. King’s dream has certainly brought us much closer to forming a “more perfect union,” as our nation’s forefathers had originally intended.
 
And then there’s this thing called fearlessness…
 
Ah, to be fearless.
 
Me? After being bitten by a couple of dogs (and having the scars to prove it), and seeing a few people attacked by a “friendly” dog or two, I tend to be somewhat apprehensive and anxious around dogs.
 
Am I fearful of dogs? Well… not FULL of fear, no.
 
But I have my firm reservations.
 
So what does one do to overcome fear?
 
The popular answer to this question is “get more courage.”
 
However, courage is not the answer to combating fear.
 
The answer may surprise you.
 
The answer is simple.
 
The answer might not be easy…
 
But it’s already in you.
 
The answer is to “increase your faith.”
 
If and when you increase your faith, fear becomes an unrelated aspect of your dreams. And when fear is decoupled from your dream, there is more room, more time, and more energy to invest in transforming your dreams to goals… and then those goals into plans… and then those plans into actions…
 
And then those actions into “a dream come true.”
 
But it all starts with your dream… and your fundamental belief that YOUR dream can come to fruition. And if it can, it will…. But not without you waking up from the daily drudgery of living someone else’s dream.
 
One last point on fear:
  - It is created AND destroyed in the same place: your mind.
 
Need a tad bit more encouragement for those days that seem more nightmarish than visionary? Here are two AWEsome poems that, when fully understood, embraced, and ensconced within the creator that is you… will ignite your dream machine and launch a renewed vigor toward YOUR life’s dream. The poems speak for themselves, but I will add one small comment:
 
It’s all about YOU.
 
But tell me:
 
What’s your role in your soul, your goal, and for whom the bell tolls?
 
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
 
POEM #1: "The Winds of Fate" Ella Wheeler Wilcox
 
One ship drives east and another drives west
With the selfsame winds that blow.
 
'Tis the set of the sails,
And Not the gales,
That tell us the way to go.
 
Like the winds of the sea are the ways of fate;
As we voyage along through life,
 
'Tis the set of a soul
That decides its goal,
And not the calm or the strife.
 
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
 
POEM #2: “Follow Your Dreams” by Bruce Wilmer.
 
If while pursuing distant dreams,
Your bright hopes turn to gray.
 
Don't wait for reassuring words
Or hands to lead the way.
 
For seldom will you find a soul
With dreams the same as yours.
 
Not often will another help you
Pass through untried doors.
 
If inner forces urge you
To take a course unknown,
 
Be ready to go all the way...
Yes, all the way alone.
 
That's not to say you shouldn't
Draw lessons from the best;
 
Just don't depend on lauding words
To spur you on your quest.
 
Find confidence within your heart,
And let it be your guide.
 
Strive ever harder toward your dreams,
And they won't be denied.
 
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
 
Indeed…
 
It’s all about YOU. 
 
But tell me:
 
What’s your role in your soul, your goal, and for whom the bell tolls?
 
Today, I dare you: Follow Your Dreams
 
============================
Accept. Adapt. Achieve! ®
============================
 
About the Author:
 
John H. Clark III is an optimistic realist who loves writing about life’s big and little truisms.
 
As the author of four books, John offers a refreshingly unique point of view that can help bring perspective to seemingly overwhelming situations. John’s message resonates with an enlightening, invigorating, and empowering blend of ideals that enrich, uplift, and “authorize” the individual to set and achieve goals far beyond current mindsets.
 
(*Organizations include your work, family, and friends... all living, breathing networks)
 
For additional information, please contact John