As children, we dream easily.
We get caught up in the fantasy of what our lives will be, and it’s only as we grow older that we allow the doubt to creep in. Many of us take another path, afraid that the path of our dreams is simply an illusion. We get our 9 to 5 job, and we structure our lives in the way that society expects us to. We feel as though working all the time demonstrates our work ethic, and we gather material possessions as if the accumulation of our wealth validates the loss of our dreams.
We soothe ourselves with that big house or new car, and we justify the long work hours to show the world that our lives have turned out just fine.
This isn’t a judgment or even a criticism—it’s my story, too.
I folded myself into a life that I thought I was capable of having because I was afraid that the one I wanted was out of my reach. How could I write and travel and have the life I wanted when I didn’t have the means? What if all I could hope for was to accumulate the education necessary to obtain a job that would allow me to climb the ladder of material success? Couldn’t I always dream later?
When everything I had worked for and planned began to fall apart, I found my dreams emerging. I thought that they were gone for good, and it was a surprise to begin to hear the words in my head that would start my first book, which is now in the publication process. My dreams came back to me when I finally let go of the life I was leading that I didn’t want and began reaching for the one I needed. I surrendered to what my intuition had been whispering for years, and I found my dreams waiting there.
In a recent conversation with a friend, the idea of impatience in our dreams presented. I’ve found that I am so determined, direct and decisive that I am impatient to see progress in my dreams. It’s less that I want instant gratification and more that I need reassurance that they are manifesting. I find that I cannot afford to doubt or deviate now that I know what I want and can nearly taste the dream.
Which brought me to the question: is this a flaw, or is it the fuel that drives me forward?
It seems that after years of punching a clock and being content to silence all of my dreams, I am now impatient to see them born. I want to hold my finished book in my hands, and I want to begin work on the next. I want to board the plane that takes me to yet another destination on my list. I want to create the kind of life for myself and my children that reflects my deepest desires and not my deepest fears. While the impatience feels like a flaw at times, it really does seem to serve as a guide in following my dreams.
It keeps me focused on what I want, allowing everything else to fall away as my priorities are streamlined with the vision of the life I want.
This is not to say that I don’t enjoy life’s little detours or that I’m incapable of handling obstacles that present; I simply make sure that I’m making progress, however small, in manifesting my dreams. When we finally realize the importance of our dreams in creating a life we want, we are no longer content to allow life to be something that just happens to us. Instead, we want to be an active part of creating the lives we lead. We become impatient to see those dreams as realities in our lives. While frustrating, it also fuels us to keep those dreams alive and thriving.
When we feel the doubt that could derail our dreams, we can take comfort in these quotes. May they be of benefit.
“You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.” ~ C.S. Lewis
“You see things; and you say, ‘Why?’ But I dream things that never were; and I say, ‘Why not?’”~ George Bernard Shaw
“A dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world.” ~ Oscar Wilde
“I have spread my dreams beneath your feet; Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.” ~ William Butler Yeats
“Whatever you do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius and power and magic in it.” ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
“There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure.” ~ Paulo Coelho
“Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.” ~ Harriet Tubman
“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
“All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.” ~ Walt Disney
“I’m a dreamer. I have to dream and reach for the stars, and if I miss a star then I grab a handful of clouds.” ~ Mike Tyson
“We all have dreams. But in order to make dreams come into reality, it takes an awful lot of determination, dedication, self-discipline, and effort.” ~ Jesse Owens
“I dream of painting and then I paint my dream.” ~ Vincent Van Gogh
“If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.” ~ Henry David Thoreau
“All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds, wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act on their dreams with open eyes, to make them possible.” ~ T. E. Lawrence
“Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly.” ~ Langston Hughes
Author: Crystal Jackson
Image: Instagram @craftjunkiecharm
Editors: Renée Picard & Yoli Ramazzina
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