What are you dreaming of? Where do your dreams come from? Are they based on a materialistic need: a bigger home or a better car, or do you want a new person in your life to share your daily life? Do you dream of pampering yourself on a holiday trip or exceeding yourself in some mental or physical challenge? Do you allow yourself to dream? Do you find yourself putting all your dreams into unattainable dreams that are not worth spending time on? If you dream big, will you be constantly disappointed? Would it be better to throw away all your silly dreams and focus on enjoying what you have right now? Isn't that enough?
I have decided to take actions on implementing my dreams because dreams that we dare not realize will only remain dreams, unattainable naps. The list of my dreams is long and every time I reach one of them, I have already had time to continue the list with several more. Thus, the horizon of achieving goals stays far away and even more is fleeing farther and farther away. Elizabeth Gilbert says success requires three things: talent, diligence, and happiness, and only one of them can be influenced by ourselves. By success, I mean the success of making a dream come true. I can't be blamed for laziness. It remains to be seen whether the other two areas will achieve my future projects.
I have found that the process itself is more important than what follows from it. The very fact that I’ve dared to do something I haven’t done before and pursue another little piece of my dream mountain, is really empowering. How my thoughts are received elsewhere is not in my hands. Elisabeth Gilbert states in his book Think big: Dare to live creatively that it is the job of the creative artist to make the output him/herself. The reaction it produces does not belong to the author. My creative work wants to be done and it wants to be done through me. I rely on that idea.
One can never know, where any route in our lives is going. A great plan does not bring the desired result, but leads to something completely new, unpredictable. The most important thing is to stay moving, let life take over, learn new things and make dreams come true. One can never know which one is the one that carries far. Looking back, you may be able to see that the headwind in certain projects helped turn the bow of the ship in just to the right direction.
A friend of mine asked me when I would be happy. When have I reached my goal? I was a little confused to think about it. In fact, I’m happy right now, but I wouldn’t be happy staying at my place. Kirsti Paakkanen, a long time leader of the Finnish company Marimekko, had said in the bank's loan negotiations: "I have dreams, not goals." What a great utterance, though perhaps not the best possible for that situation. Dreams keep you alive, fuel your engine and keep your mood high. And as you pursue them, you can enjoy a wonderful, flow-driven journey.
Tiina
