Kicking off this series Things You Don’t Have Time NOT to Do, the first thing you don’t have time not to do is dream, and dream big.
Dreams are powerful things
Without a dream, people wander around aimlessly. With a dream, people have direction and focus.
Without a dream, people settle for routine, the comfortable, the boring. With a dream, people pursue embark on an exciting adventure.
Without a dream, people succumb to self-defeating behavior and addictions. With a dream, people have reason to overcome obstacles.
Without a dream, life can seem pointless. With a dream, life has purpose and meaning.
Every person has a dream
I believe every person has a dream somewhere inside of them. Every person has an in-born desire to do something bigger than themselves, something they are uniquely gifted and passionate about doing.
Unfortunately, most people take their dream to their grave and both they and the world are worse off because of it.
Don’t have time to dream?
Yes you do! Every day you don’t pursue your dream, it eats away at your soul. You become more restless and frustrated. You do things to sooth the heartache that comes with not living your dream. You do things to give you the adrenalin rush or sense of satisfaction that would come from pursuing your dream. If you’re not pursuing your dream, you’re doing things to burn the time and energy that would go towards it.
Dream and you will find you have energy that wasn’t there before. You’ll find you have the strength and perseverance to do more than you thought possible. You’ll gain clarity as to what tasks are really important. Some things that consume your time and seem important now, when compared to your dream will suddenly seem unimportant or even feel like impediments you want to do away with. In other words…
You don’t have time NOT to dream!
What is your dream?
If you’re not sure, ask yourself…
- What about this world gets you really upset? What do you wish was different?
- What have you always been good at?
- What makes you feel most alive?
- If money was no object and you could do anything in the world, what would it be?
If your answer seems too big, you feel unworthy of such a dream, or you know there’s no way you could accomplish it… good. Nobody accomplishes their dream on their own. Nobody accomplishes their goal as the same person they were when they too that first step. Dreams stretch us. They force us to grow. They connect us with other dreamers.
Discussion
- Can you speak to the power and impact having a dream has had on your life?
- What is your dream and what are you doing now to pursue it?
- If nothing, what’s holding you back?
Things You Don’t Have Time NOT to Do –> 2) Take Responsibilty
What a great reminder! I am a dreamer … I think I have always been that way. Sometimes I have so many dreams that it’s hard to focus on which one dream I want to work towards! I love the questions that you ask … they help narrow dreams into DREAM. And perhaps all my dreams roll into one big dream …
Thanks for this challenge – in 2011 I will: 1) identify my dream and 2) take intentional steps towards pursuing it.
Awesome! I hope you’ll come back and tell us what your dream is when you’ve identified it.
You bet! I’m working on a series right now answering the questions you ask in this post … I’ll make sure to link back here!
Alright … here it is: I want to become a I want to be a professional blogger, freelance writer, and eventually write a book. I also want to be a Mom.
For more – see my conclusion post: http://www.soulmunchies.com/2011/01/too-busy-not-to-dream-conclusion/
Paul – thank you for sparking this…I’m so thankful to have found your blog!
Awesome dream, Crystal! Go for it!
Hi, Crystal.
Have you heard of the free video series available on thepassiontest.com? I’ve been watching them myself recently, and they’re supposed to be quite resourceful for helping you to identify your key passions. I hope this helps you on your journey to discovering your Dream. (:
Am a dreamer,spend real good time to dream,never takes no for an answer while pursuing my dreams.am commenting just to agree with you in inspiring some one most especially this new year. I have made plan to teach this topic at morrow Bible study. Cheers.
This is a series of writing prompts that looks amazing and provocative. I’ll leave you a trackback as I respond to the posts on my blog. Thanks for the inspiration!
Awesome! It’s good to hear from you again Erica. I look forward to seeing what you write.
Paul, great post! I’m looking forward to the next ones in the series…
About me, when I have a dream that it is worth pursuing (I mean, that is in sync with God’s will) I usually spend time planning about it. How can I get there? What do I need to do, who do I need to talk to, where can I get more information about it? And praying about it too, of course. I’ve noticed that if the dream is not in sync with God’s will and you pray about it, eventually you will lose interest. If it is, you will feel more and more into it.
For example, I’ve always dreamed of being a writer. I love to read, and I write a lot of technical material for my job, but I wanted to write religious materials. So, after analyzing and studying and, of course, dreaming, I decided to start a blog and see how it goes.
For me, the key is to turn dreams into action, do something about it.
Cris, that’s great that you’re a dreamer, and you follow that with prayer, planning and action. Those are really important steps which I’ll get to them later in this series.
Wow. Just wow. This shook me to my core.
I have never been good at this stuff. Even that personality test I had to take in grad school (you know, the one that gives you the 4 letters that are suppose to tell you who you are) didn’t mean as much as those 4 questions you asked. I have never been able to just instantly answer a series of questions about my dreams, instantly, like I just did.
And here it is: I want to be married and adopt children. I dream about it. I pray for it. I cry over it. I lay awake in my bed at night planning it. I want to bring atleast 1 but maybe more, children into their “forever family” with me.
I have wanted to be a mother forever (literally) but oddly enough never had a urge that said “it has to be biological” even as a little girl. I never cared. I have a bad kidney and I always thought this maybe this was God ways of softening the blow if I was ever told I shouldn’t carry children. Then, when I was college I got turned on to adoption and it never left me. Coincidence? I think not.
I am 28 and just wondering and waiting. It would one thing if my dream was to travel to Africa and be a missionary, you don’t really need a partner for that, but I don’t want to have a family without a husband, I just don’t think its right. I want to give my children the best and I don’t think a family without a daddy is that. So, like I said, Im waiting for a man to come into my life who is as crazy about family and adoption as I am, or who could learn to be.
This was REALLY long, I apologize, but that’s my dream.
That’s a great dream, Grace! Thanks for sharing it here. I encourage you to continue to be patient (as you have been). God will will make it possible when the timing is right.
I have a big dream. It is called a School Of The Prophets. It is nearing 20 years old and got embedded in my consciousness when my children bought into it and came back to ask what I was doing about it. While many baby steps have been taken – including getting 501c(3) status – the dream has still not launched. It now requires taking even bigger risks. It also needs better definition because when others say school of the prophets, or even “prophets” this dream does not mean the same thing. These blogs (I’ve read the second already) are very timely for me. Now to the work.