Live Your Dream

Every man has to live his own life. We cannot live the life of someone else.

We have to choose our own goal post. The goal post is nothing but a dream that we live for. A dream that we can die for. And most important of all, a dream that we have chosen for ourselves. Everyone needs a dream. Without any dream, hope or goal, life becomes meaningless. A dream brings focus to our life. It injects passion into our activities. And if you are willing to give your life for your dream, better be sure that the dream you want to live is your own and not someone elses.

There are many organizations and people in this world who make a living by selling their dreams to others. Most of the corporate commercials, government propaganda, election manifestos, personal development bloggers, NGOs and many other religious, social and anti-social groups sell a dream to the gullible public, to anyone who cares to listen. And the unsuspecting common man becomes a hapless victim of these propaganda by getting carried away by their promise. They buy into those dreams, thinking that they are working towards a worthy goal which was in fact planted into their mind by these propaganda machines. So, in effect, they start running towards a goal post which was planted by someone else. They live the life that others say is the correct life. They buy the stuff that others approve of. They do the things that others tell them to do. Ultimately, they become slaves to some others' dream. The other persons dream becomes their borrowed dream.

And finally, after putting all the effort to materialize someone else’s dreams, when they think that they have reached the destination, the goal post has invariably been changed. They become distraught, disheartened and wrecked from all the fruitless effort. This is because they do not run to their own goal post.

We need to have the courage to dream our own dream and follow them.

But then, the question is how do we identify which dream is ours and which is a borrowed dream and how to find our own dream?

If you already have a dream, but do not know if that is your own dream, please do a thought exercise. Examine your dream. As yourself the following questions

- Why do you have that dream?

- What is the motivation behind it?

- Is the motivation in alignment with your own value system?

- Has the dream stayed with you for long - meaning is it something that you have been dreaming for a long long time?

- Is the dream congruent to your own life and with the life of other people around you, who are important to you?

- Is it going to make you and others around you happy, feel fulfilled and contented?

If the answer to all these is yes, then this is your own dream. So, just go ahead and do it. Live it.

And yes, your dream can also be a shared dream. A dream that may have originated with someone else’s idea, may appeal to you.  But, just ensure that you have internalized it so much that it has become part of you.

If you do not have a dream, the path towards our dream will be shown by none other than your own self. Discover your own passion by delving into your thoughts and actions. Your conscience usually points you to the right direction of your dream. Think about the time in your life that you have been really happy. Think about the actions that make you feel fulfilled and contented in the past.

The following questions can help to point you towards your dreams.

- What are the creative thoughts that you spend most of your time on?

- What are the thoughts that make you happy?

- What does your inner voice say?

And, once you have got a dream, just live it.  Live your dream!