ALLOW YOURSELF TO DREAM!

Allow Yourself To Dream. One of the most common issues with the adults I meet is that they don’t usually know what they actually want. They have no clue what they’re passionate about because they no longer take the time to indulge their imagination and dreams. Somewhere along the way, they began to associate dreams and imagination with being childish and to be a grown up meant to just accept what life has handed you, buckle down, suck it up and get through life. Life becomes something they endure instead of something they lap up and enjoy!

Of course, let's face it, life is hard! Anyone who tells you differently is selling something. The truth is, it is hard to dig deep and dream with passion in search of true joy and fulfillment while being dragged down by all the daily demands and social expectations in our lives. I believe most people have had dreams at some point in their lives. Then they either made a conscious decision to give up on them or the stresses of daily living caught them by surprise and killed their dreams. 

In the musical Les Miserables, Fantine sings the famous song “I Dreamed a Dream” and beautifully and painfully captures the emotion of when our dreams die within us because of the pressures and stresses of life. She sings:

I dreamed a dream in time gone by. When hope was high and life worth living.
I dreamed that love would never die. I dreamed that God would be forgiving.
...

She concludes her song with these words:

I had a dream my life would be, so different from this hell I’m living.


So different now from what it seemed. Now life has killed the dream I dreamed. 

I'm willing to bet you can relate to that experience at least once or twice in your life too. Maybe you other sci-fi geeks like me can relate to the scene in the movie The Matrix. Morpheus is the captain of his ship, The Nebuchadnezzar. When the ship is destroyed he quotes King Nebuchadnezzar from Daniel 2. “I have dreamed a dream... And now that dream is gone from me."  

I can certainly relate to this common adult reaction of giving up on our dreams, accepting the status quo, and just existing through life. I had a million and one excuses for not thinking about what I really wanted to do and be in life, what my God-given passions and desires are and so for years I just went through the motions of what was expected of me. I kept thinking that I don’t really know what I want so how can I pursue it, how can I run the race marked out for me like the author of Hebrews challenges me to do? I protested, "I don't know what my race is! I don't have a dream anymore. Life has killed the dream I dreamed." But you know, that's not true at all. That’s simply not true! In reality we all have desires and ambitions, passions and dreams and the only one who can truly kill your dream is you. 

Don’t think for a second that you don’t have any desires, any dreams, any passion to experience joy and growth in your life. Have you heard of a child who couldn’t imagine or didn’t know what she wanted for Christmas? Every minute of every day is Christmas for all of us. All we have to do is know what to ask for. You don't know what you want or how to figure it out? Try this. 


To get going, just start. Start brainstorming. Throw out anything that connects even a little bit and see what sticks. Nothing is too wacky, too extreme, too off limits for this brainstorming time. Not even the sky is the limit. What COULD BE in life? What would you do if you KNEW you could not fail? Allow yourself to explore and change direction if need be. You may not nail it on your first attempt at this. Brainstorm a big list over several days. Then go back and review. Narrow down the list. Then start filling in the details of a couple of top contenders. 

What floats your boat? What turns you on? Sunsets, mountains, dolphins, a beautiful girl, a rainstorm, true love, someone who sacrifices for another. Being a lawyer, being a teacher, being a cop? Singing, dancing, painting, speaking? Caring for others, medicine, mechanics, technology? The list is endless and different things appeal to each of us. 

Really pay attention to, think about the books you choose to read, TV and movies you choose to watch, the music you listen to, the magazines you subscribe to, the websites you visit, your collections, hobbies and anything else that comes to mind.   

I have always had a keen interest in helping others discover their passion in life, seeing the look of exhileration and joy come across someone’s face when they finally have their AHA moment! Long before I became a pastor, or a coach, teacher and speaker, for as long as I can remember, I read everything I could get my hands on about psychology, self-improvement, self-help, leadership, human potential, psychology. 

In retrospect, my passion was always there, early on, and it kept popping up in all the things that interested me and what I was attracted to. Only you know what inspires you, and your dreams can only come from inside of you! Slow down once in awhile, and let your mind go. What is it you really want out of life? Who do you really want to become? What do you want to accomplish? Allow yourself to dream!