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Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Dreams Don't Die. They're Forgotten.

When I was in kindergarten, what I wanted to be when I grew up was to be a sumo wrestler.  I watched them fight each other and hit hard and thought it was a cool thing to do and wanted to be a winner like the ones I saw on TV back at home... but as I got older, that dream sort of disappeared.  The thing was, I had more than one dream.  I had a multitude of dreams, and when different dreams got in the way of each other, one won and the other slowly disappeared.  However, after graduating college, I noticed a lot of things happening to those around me.  Dreams were disappearing, but it wasn't because of another stronger dream that appeared... it was due to the fact that people were just forgetting what their dreams were.

Some dream of travelling the world, yet because of a new job they were able to find, put it off til 'later' which never came.  Other people dreamed of going up the ladder of success and eventually getting to a point where they were free to spend time with their family, but became content with their lives the way it was, and didn't really push to do anything more.  The thing is, we live in a world where most of us have become content with living the average life.

So is it wrong to do so?  To be complacent with where we are?

When water is moving in a river, it's crystal clear and beautiful, and as it moves around, it provides the fish with water rich with oxygen and gathering the nutrients from upriver and bringing it down, giving life.  However, when the water stops moving, little by little it becomes stagnant, void of life.  As the mud thickens and the water becomes dirty, the life from the river is forgotten... and I believe we are similar to that.  When we move and grow, we take and give... as we move towards our dreams, we are filled with life and we can truly live, but being complacent with where we are now, and forgetting our dreams, little by little, we stop growing and we stop... living.

Having a dream and working towards it is a wonderful thing.  It's also one of the hardest things to do because life can hit you pretty hard.  Right now, I have a dream to become a world class runner.  It's definitely going to be a hard road, but as long as I keep walking, I'm confident that I'll reach my destination.  In order to achieve that, I need to start winning races and doing well in both 24 hour races and 100 mile races.  Winning can only happen as a result of harsh training, and looking back at what I've been doing, I realize that I would need to add more training in order to make it happen.  Instead of running 120 miles a week, I'm probably going to end up running close to 160 miles a week.  Instead of going to the gym for 2 hours a day, I'm probably going to end up going 4 hours a day.  Having a dream and going towards it is hard.  It's easy to lay back down and be content with where I am right now.  But easier isn't the way to live.  As I want to truly live my life to its fullest, I want to push myself, to challenge myself to reach my potential, and take off my limitations.  In order to live the dream, I need to grow, to move, and ultimately LIVE.

So when you look back at your life, see where you are, and where you originally wanted to go, ask yourself, "Am I living the dream?  Am I moving forward to achieve the dream that I once had?" or maybe you need to ask yourself, "What was my dream?"

When you wake up in the morning, sometimes you can clearly remember the dreams you've had, but as you wake up, you forget that dream you just had... and it's the same with our dreams we've had before.  The moment we dreamed about something happening, it was vivid, it was filled with life, and we were filled with life... but as time went on and we didn't focus or grow towards that dream, we start to forget.

So don't forget your dream.  Remember that moment that you felt so alive.  Remember the excitement that filled you up.  Remember that spark that brought light to your life.

Remember what your dream was...

and run towards it.


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