The other day I was getting Frankie ready for a bath. As I was getting everything ready I asked Frankie to put some clothes away in her room, she trotted off enthusiastically on her assignment relishing the great responsibility placed upon her shoulders. After a few minutes had passed I realized two things, Firstly, Frankie had not returned from her simple expedition, and secondly it was so quiet I could have heard an ant fart. Every parent knows when it comes to children that silence and absence can potentially spell disaster. As I investigated Frankie's strange disappearance I discovered that she had come mightily close to 'mission accomplished', before becoming slightly distracted by (in her own opinion) the world's best hair ties!!!!
Have you ever had a goal or dream before becoming distracted? Perhaps you wanted to pursue a career path but something came up. Have you dreamt of being free of debt for a long time with no evidence of things improving? Are you always wishing that you did more for other people but never seem to find the time? My dream is to help people see and find God by living a life that attracts people to God rather than repel them. Be it through generosity of time or money, or befriending the unfriendly or some other crazy idea I haven't come up with yet. Do you have a dream? How big is it? Do you believe you will ever reach it?
Why Do we need a dream?Dreams are beautiful! A dream is a possibility, and a possibility is a hint from God that we must try to pursue. Not having a dream is like being a jellyfish, floating around aimlessly and going 'where the tide takes us', it may sound cool but in the end it just ends up washed up on a beach being poked with a stick by a four year old boy. The great thing about a dream is the journey, achieving a dream is about more than what you accomplish, it's about who you become in the process. If you don't know what your dream is try this; think about what you are good at and what you are passionate about, then write down a dream so big that it makes you hungry to go for it. Hunger is important when you are going for something, hunger is like fuel in the tank of a car, the less hunger, the more likelihood of a breakdown on the way to the destination. A dream is a combination of what you are passionate about and what you are talented at. Combine love and skill and you're going to get a masterpiece!
What do we do when the dream seems far away?
Keep going! If you know that you are running after the right dream don't stop. Sometimes when we are on a journey it is easy to become exhausted, sometimes it's even easier to turn around and go back to the start. Starting something is easy, finishing requires a lot more work. When we are feeling discouraged or weary when going for a dream, we need to find something inside of us that picks us back up and moves us forward again.You may succeed if someone else believes in you, but you will never succeed if you don't believe in yourself.
The following story teaches us the importance of moving no matter how slow a dream may be in arriving.
'In winter a snail started climbing an apple tree. On his way up, a worm poked his head out of the tree stump and said,' you're wasting your time going up there mate, there's nothing to eat up there.' The snail replied,' I know there's nothing there now, but by the time I get there, there will be!' The best thing to do when the dream is taking its time to arrive is keep focused on it. The saying 'keep your eyes on the prize' is used a lot by athletes because it motivates them through the mundane days of training when victory still seems so far off. So before we give up on a dream it is worth remembering that quitting says more about who we are than where we are in the pursuit of our dream.
How Do I get closer to a dream?
If you are anything like me you may find sometimes the scale of a task is so huge, that it becomes intimidating even just trying to figure out where to begin. I learnt a great lesson on the first day of my electrical apprenticeship which serves to this day as a great key to obtaining a dream. As I walked through the factory past huge pieces of electrical equipment, I became overwhelmed by the hundreds of wires hanging out of pieces of equipment that people were constructing. I thought to myself, 'how do they know where to start wiring one of these things?' A tradesman who picked up on the 'I'm way out of my depth' look on my face advised me to, 'pick an area and focus on it until you have finished it, then move on to the next part.' I believe that the greatest enemy to starting to go for a dream can be not knowing where to start. This is usually created when we look at the big picture rather than the steps it takes to actually get there. Another of my dreams is to write books, when I did research into the process of publishing a book, I became overwhelmed by how unqualified and inexperienced I was in comparison to the internet community. Rather than let it put me off following that dream I decided to start developing that area of my passion by starting this blog. Don't let discouragement stop you from doing something. The timing for our dreams are never perfect, so we might as well start now. If we don't, then next year we will be a year older and not a step closer. All dreams are out of our comfort zone, Leaving that zone is the price we must pay to achieve them.
Taking the first step
I once heard a preacher talk about momentum. He spoke about how a freight train may be slow in gaining speed, but once it starts to gain more and more momentum it becomes very difficult to stop it. Don't visualize yourself pulling out of the station, picture yourself zooming down that track at full speed on the way to the destination. Change is not created by what happened yesterday or what 'might' happen tomorrow, it is created now by how you walk away from this blog-floating like a jellyfish or racing down the track like a freight train.
I really recommend a book on the subject of dreams that inspired me for this blog called 'Put your dream to the test' by John C Maxwell. Check it out or let me know if you have read it!
