THE DEATH OF A DREAM

The subject of dreams and visions remains extremely fascinating. It is through dreams and visions that everything we see finds substance. As such, there is always a life cycle of a dream. Dreams always speak. Dreams are always babies needing to be nurtured.

Dreams have a conception. Every dream longs to be fulfilled. The very reason as to why that dream appears to you and I is that we have been found worthy to gestate it! I write this because very many people, sometimes including myself get so discouraged at the conception of a dream.

They see nothing but impossibilities whenever a dream has found them worthy. In fact to some people the recipe of misery is an overwhelming dream. However, a great visionary realizes one very crucial aspect about dreams and visions. You are not the only activator in the picture. 

There is always the unseen that is behind the concept of the dream. Needless to say, there comes a time where (seemingly) someone’s dream dies. Paradoxically, this ought to be really good news. Why? Because you recognized the dream, and in your hand it (seemingly) died.

If you never recognized the dream, that is if you never conceived it, then you would never recognize its ‘death’. Dreams die because the carrier or ‘gestator’ if you will has come to their wits end. In fact, the dream carrier is so bogged down with their own survival that they have no strength to activate their dreams. All they do is wish, long, desire…and sometimes…pray.

Any dream that has died on you is worth pursuing. It’s worth re-activating. It’s worth taking a second look. Its worth looking at a different dimension for its activation. I dare say that sometimes, all it needs is for the carrier to ‘surrender’. Recognize that it’s not just yourself in the picture as far as that dream is concerned.

Give way to the other plays although invisible in the dream to help you. You might need a little wisdom. You might need a little counsel. You might need your eyes to be opened a little. You might need to see the excitement of someone who hears about your dream, although now considered dead. You might need a little prayer.

Sometimes the death of adream is really the beginning of its unparalleled resurrection and realization.

I have shared this story before, yet I will still share it again here. It is given by Marcial Weider, the CEO of dream university. Let me say this: Do not you ever give up on that dream. Hold fast to it. Do not worry about the copy cats…as long as it means something to your heart…it shall come to pass. The ultimate death of a dream is when you no longer carry it…that’s when it dies never to be resurrected. Here goes Marcia’s signature story:

So the people that inspire me the most are the everyday people. My favorite story - and I guess it’s become the signature story because I tell it so much -but it’s a brief story and I really love this. I was giving a talk in Portland, Oregon and a young man came up to me and he said, “Thank you for your talk today, it really inspired me, I’m a long way from home.” And I looked at him – he was very tall, very unusual, very dark skin, almost blue. And I knew he was from far, far away. He had said “I’m a long way from home.” And I said, “Oh, I travel a lot too.” And he said, “Well, this might be a little different you see this is the first Sunday of my life that I’ve been away from my tribe.” Of course I stopped what I was doing, “Your tribe? Who are you? Where are you from?” And he said, “I’m from Kenya, Africa. I’m part of the Maasai Warrior Tribe.” And I said, “Well, what are you doing in Portland? (laugh)

He said, “When I was very young, very, very young, I became ill and my mother took me to a near-by medical clinic. And from that day forward my dream was to become a doctor, but it was impossible. There was no training, available, and you didn’t leave the tribe,” he said. It just wasn’t done.” He said,

“As I grew up. I shared the dream with everyone and everyone including my own family told me to forget it. They told me it was a fantasy. They’d role their eyes at and told me to go back to work.”

He said, “but I never forgot it, and recently around my 18th birthday, a visitor came from your country an it turned out that he was a writer for the Washington Post. He wrote my story. A few weeks later, a couple in Portland, OR happened to read it. I was invited to apply for undergraduate work. And in a

matter of months I was accepted at the University of Portland.” And I looked at him and said, “It must have been the happiest day of your life.” He said, “No, it was the worst day. It was horrific.” My family didn’t have the resources to send me off to America to follow a dream of becoming a doctor. It

just really was impossible.” And he literally said Jeff, he said, “I did the only thing I knew to do. I prayed for a miracle, and that’s what I got. Four families came forward. Each one made the commitment one year apiece to feed me, to house me, to buy my books, to basically love me and be my family while I was

so far from home.” Well, he’s telling the story, and I am a puddle, as you are right now. We just

turned into puddles, because it’s just unbelievable. And what he said next is what really makes him one of the great visionaries that I ever met. He said, “But it wasn’t until today when I heard you speak so passionately about dreams, that I really got clear about what I need to do. I need to become a doctor, of course, that’s my dream. But then I need to go home. I need to go back to my tribe and be an example that no dream is impossible, and the extraordinary things that can happen when we gather together as a tribe or as a team.”

I just hear that story and I think: No dream is impossible. And I don’t care how big your obstacles are, or how little you have, or what the issues are - if you really are committed to your dream. Then I would say, “Put a stake in the ground. Set an intention. Put yourself in right relationship to it with your integrity, because in my work: intention and integrity together form the core building block for making your dreams come true. So it’s not enough to say you want it, you have to do something about it. And when I watch people do that, miracles do occur.

Yet remember: You are worthy of the dream that you carry, however impossible it seems to you right now.

Have a great week, wont you?

BETWEEN NOW AND END OF THE TUNNEL

Let us talk about waiting. Let us talk about hope. Let us talk about patience. Let us also consider impossibilities. Let us try to analyze the balance between dreams and reality, vision and work. 

The now. The then. As a normal human being...where do we live? In the now or in the then? As a visionary, where do I spend most of my thoughts? Am I always having my heads in the clouds and blind to the present truth?

I think the balance between living in the now and living in the then is what I would like to call 'waiting'. It is true that both sides of the coin are important. For example, nearlly every one alive must think of how they can navigate the now: pay rent, pay school fees, medical bills, water, electricity and other amenities. Those are in the now.

For some people, that is all there is to life. I mean some are so consumed with the hassles of the now that they do not have time to even start thinking of the then. In fact, the thoughts of then are usually shoved aside as 'mere wishful thinking', dreams of utopia. Most of these people find themselves in this category by default...born that way, raised that way or pushed that way by life itself.

Still others have some space enough to think of the then. They have gained an upper hand on the pressure of the now and have the comfort to think of the then. Such people should find this 'upper hand' one of the most valuable assets they have now and use it as a seedtime, and not largely as a moment to celebrate the temporary conquest of pressure.

Then we have another group of people who have oscillated between having an upper hand and literally being chocked by the pressures of the now. They know about the then, they have seen a glimpse of it. They might even have tasted it. They have seen the light at the end of the tunnel.

The big question however is: between now and the end of the tunnel, how do I wait? There are two ways:

• Just waiting: Doing nothing but just waiting. Winding down the clock until you reach the light at the end of the tunnel. The major fueing factor here is hope. In other words, everything between now and the end of the tunnel is not in your hands, but in the hands of hope. Again, some people are in this group by design, others are in it by default.

• Doing what has to be done: These people know that they still have a say between now and the end of the tunnel. You find them doing what has got to be done. They are not afraid of their reputation or looks. They are not afraid of momentarily 'suspending' their vision to do what has to be done in the interim of getting to the end of the tunnel. Their thoughts are at the end of the tunnel, even though they are embroiled in doing whatever necessary for the now.

Friends, waiting is always in one of those two formats. I admire the latter more than the former. Yet in my human nature, I find the former easier to engage than the latter. In forming life signatures, you will notice that a prudent thing to do is to wait well. It is to do what a man has got to do at the present as you look forward for the change in fortunes later on.

There are millions of options to work with in the latter kind of waiting. You want to enumerate them and get down to business. Some business empires have been formed this way.