‘What makes Clint East­wood, a middle-aged actor

who has played with a chimp, think he could

have a future in pol­i­tics?’ – Ronald Rea­gan

Every­body should have a dream. What’s yours?

In the past when the going got tough, I dreamt an idyl­lic exis­tence of being an author, writ­ing books to help peo­ple, trav­el­ling the world, and look­ing out of my study win­dow at a rose gar­den while I courted the muse with my lap­top. Well, guess what?

The scale of the dream does not mat­ter but you have to want it. Organ­is­ing a vil­lage fête or boot sale; get­ting mar­ried; row­ing up the Ama­zon. Hitler pol­ished off a whole box of choco­lates and then invaded Rus­sia (wish he’d stuck to the paint­ing). There are dream­ers who only dream, then there are the Dreamweavers who dom­i­nate their dream, refine, inter­ro­gate, nur­ture and nour­ish it, shep­herd it onward to its rest­less, uncon­tain­able fulfilment.

Take care what you dream for, you may get it.

Dreamweavers can­not help but try to turn their dreams into real­ity. Writ­ers can­not help writ­ing. Artists can­not help cre­at­ing. Nurses can­not help serv­ing. Politi­cians can­not help blow­ing hot air. We’re too busy, so there’s no depres­sion if the dream inspires us. We have a goal — our engine, that thing that dri­ves us — our pas­sion, moti­va­tion, the drop-down, drag-out desire to move from where we are now to where we want to be in the future.

• Do you have a dream you have a chance of fulfilling?
• What’s stop­ping you?
• Is that really the reason?
• Are you fright­ened of failing?
• Are you inspired?

A reminder

As already cov­ered, what every­one ulti­mately strives for is a state. An emo­tion. Desir­ing phys­i­cal pos­ses­sions is all very well but it’s what these pos­ses­sions do for us that’s the salient fac­tor. Dreams are states wherein the out­come can already be observed, if not par­tially experienced.

• What state are you yearn­ing for?
• Peace? Excite­ment? Sta­bil­ity? Pride? Revenge? Frustration?
• Are you mate­ri­ally driven?
• What do you expect your dreams to do for you?

Under­stand­ing the state you’re striv­ing for is the lynch-pin. Dreams are goals. In dar­ing a dream, you are sell­ing your­self on a course of action, a future wherein the dream is real­ity and the state fully poten­tised. Is the state you are seek­ing a noble one, or will it pro­duce noce­bic emo­tions such as anger, hate and frustration?

It’s worth doing the fol­low­ing exer­cise to find out what your dreams are and what states you expect from them.

• I dream of a louder exhaust on my car than all the other kids on the block. Pride. Revenge.
• I dream of mar­ry­ing Jen­nifer Con­nelly. Pride — It’s what JC can do for you. You don’t even know her
• I dream of becom­ing rich. Pride. Sloth. Revenge. Sta­bil­ity. Peace
• I dream of win­ning the Lon­don Marathon. Achieve­ment. Pride. Excite­ment. Contentment
• I dream of vis­it­ing Egypt. Excite­ment. Won­der. Hap­pi­ness. Fulfilment
• I dream of hav­ing three kids, a whip­pet, an Aston Mar­tin, Eminem rap­ping at my wed­ding, a hot-tub in the back yard, yadda, yadda, yadda –
• See? Dreams sell states you might want to invest in
• The software/emotional state the dream ful­fils is what you’re ulti­mately seeking
• Whole­some states are more ful­fill­ing than tor­rid ones
• Set aside time each day to cast your mind to roamin’
• Ask your­self: What do I really want?
• Then ask your­self: Why do I want it?

Only you –

…know what moti­vates you. As a dreamweaver you can add pur­pose and con­text to your life. No goals equals no con­text to your exis­tence, which can pro­voke the help­less, ‘What’s the point of it all?’ Dreamweavers never fall vic­tim. You dared the dream. The dream gives you plea­sure. The project is respon­si­ble and wor­thy. It sparked you up in the first place, remember?

What have I learned?

• I must not fear to dream, it is only dreaming
• Dreams I enjoy bring me pleasure
• I will dwell on the dreams I am pas­sion­ate about
• I can choose what I want out of life from my desires (the scale does not matter)
• What tal­ents do I have which I really enjoy using?
• What really moti­vates me?
• Am I rest­less to achieve what moti­vates me?
• Will my desires and goals bring mean­ing to my life?

Excerpted from Sim­ple Changes by Phillip Day

Copy­right © Phillip Day 2008