DEFINE YOUR LIFE DREAMS

DEFINE YOUR LIFE DREAMS

H. James Williams

Dreams generally are a series of thoughts and images occurring in a person’s mind while either asleep or conscious. Dreams are also visions, ideas or objective goals to strive toward. Dreams can inspire you to discover your passions and purposes for living. In the latter sense, it is important to define your objective dreams in keeping with your passions and abilities to pursue them.  

You did not create yourself and most likely that which created you created you with talents and abilities to be used for worthwhile endeavors in life. Having the freedom to discover the purposes for your existence and what to do with your talents is for some individuals perhaps the most inquisitive mystery and question of their lifetimes.

Life Dreams and Purpose 

Why have a life purpose or pursue a life dream? Life dreams are important for self-esteem and for the continued procreation of human life.  Worthwhile life dreams with good intentions give us reason and a sense of heartfelt purpose for living. Life dreams allow us to serve others with dignity.

Everyone has within them a dream or potential for accomplishment in life.  We each have talents and gifts unique only to us. Life purpose and the accomplishment of life goals give freedom and birth life into inherent dreams and possibilities harboring future promise.

Children and Life Dreams

Every child’s dream is of value to him or her. To destroy a child’s innocent dreams is to stifle his or her imagination for accomplishing constructive possibilities in life. Intentionally destroying a child’s hopes and dreams can leave a child without a sense of purpose in the world and potentially sets the child on a path of internalized self-destruction. Dreams accompanied with nurturing guidance and loving support mature with age and promote childhood dreams to mature into adult dreams of actual probability. Even failed efforts at a promising dream are stepping stones to new horizons for dreams of possibility having greater clarity and vision.

 

The Brain and Inherent Dreams 

Everything that we witness outside of nature’s natural surroundings and raw existence is a product or creation of an idea; someone’s dream materialized into earthly existence.

As humans, we were created with a brain. The brain is capable of reasoning, imagination, vision and creativity. The remainder of our faculties, our emotions and our interactions with others serve to produce services and products for humankind; and to manage the planet and our surroundings. In other words, what the brain is capable of conceiving coupled with action, belief, desire, unity and determination can transcend trees into homes, plants into combinations of food, sand into glass, stones into jewelry, metal into machines, electricity into technology, education of a child into the destiny of an adult and a gathering of people into a movement.  Belief and conviction in a dream conjured in the brain is the starting point for turning dreams into reality.

The brain is also capable of hallucinations and nightmares. Drugs, chemicals and wrongful influence can cause imbalances within the brain that alter a person’s sense of reality. It is here that one must be careful about deciphering what is indeed a dream born for human purpose versus toying with the machinations and apparitions of mental fantasy and perception.

Life Dreams vs. Fantasy

Dreams must not be confused with flights of fantasy. An embedded dream for manifestation into reality is a strong desire or goal to be accomplished in life. A fantasy is an improbable or unrealistic desire or goal imagined in response to a psychological need.  We fantasize about objects we wish for or desire for the moment but make no effort to acquire with honest labor, effort and deliberate good intentions. We fantasize about objects that surrender instant gratification. Fantasies like dreams sometimes do come true but are more often fraught with unfortunate life consequences.

It is hard to imagine (but easy to fantasize about) a person attempting to fly an airliner if one has never before been in an airplane, has never seen a cockpit, has never studied the science of aviation, is afraid of heights and suddenly becomes faced with flying an airliner at 30,000 feet. The point here is that an inherent dream to be realized generally requires potential, knowledge, skills, abilities, passion, determination, values, planning and a process for it to unfold into reality. 

Fantasies are imagined out of longing and unrealistic needs. Dreams with purpose are created out of confidence for their contribution to some end. Know yourself, your values, your beliefs, your character, your inherent talents, your sense of determination, your passion and you will better be able to define for yourself life’s purposes for you. If there is a purpose you wish to make for yourself in life, or the awakening of a seemingly new dream within you, ensure that it is not a mere fantasy.

Life Dreams and Challenges 

In the words of the late philosopher Henry David Thoreau (1817 - 1862), “If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put foundations under them.” A dream is a castle in the air and becomes nothing more than a fantasy if a foundation or structure for its existence is not constructed with sound planning and architecture. Dreams consist of a vision (proof of concept), brought into existence by creation (planning) and action (process) for final production (reality). The greater the dream the more likely there will be challenges and obstacles to overcome during the process from its conception to its reality. 

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. dreamed of overcoming a mountain of human suffering and despair. The Wright brothers dreamed of taking flight in the air. Henry Ford dreamed of mass production of the automobile at cheaper cost. Alexander Bell dreamed of transmitting sound through space and time and Thomas Edison dreamed of developing an incandescent lamp of light. Each of these men through repeated efforts organized support around the conviction of their dreams which ultimately benefited mankind.

If you do not presently have the skills and abilities for your dream’s accomplishment, you must set about with passion and determination to acquire the knowledge and resources you need to overcome challenges. Your dream, with faith in your creator, conviction and stamina for its accomplishment, has few rivals who can thwart its manifestation into reality when it is meant to serve a good purpose.

Life Dreams are Unlimited 

You are not limited to defining one dream, or one life purpose, for yourself. A dream, or life purpose, defined today can ultimately serve to define future dreams and life purposes for tomorrow. Dreams do have infinite possibilities. You only need to be certain you are serving an inherent dream, or dreams, with sincerity and clarity and are not longing for a fantasy to serve you instead.

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