Picture It Real.
How good is your imagination? As someone who got busted time and time again as a young child for daydreaming, I have to confess that my imagination is pretty powerful.
That’s a great thing for applying intention into the future, as it allows me to see incredible possibilities, and to explore and experience a sense of gratitude for the things that could be in the now that is next.
But there’s a dark side to allowing your imagination free reign over your soul.
Take this weekend for example. As we drove around the place where we would love to buy land and build our dream house, my imagination was in overdrive. I could picture the house, and feel the interior as we walked through the door.
The warm lighting, maybe at Christmas, with a wreath on the door, the smell of Christmas dinner cooking. Family, friends and fun, all wrapped up in a perfect singular vision, and all of which seemed amazing.
But in all of my imaginings, there’s always one thing missing.
Maybe it’s still the child in me that loves to dream, or maybe it’s a way to deny some of the harsher realities of life, but whenever my mind goes freely in the future, creating desires and possibilities, I never remember to keep it truly real. Instead, I only see the best of what could be, and forget to factor in the truth of our existence.
That “with every wish, there comes a curse”.
Because real life is never that ideal, that easy, or that textbook perfect. Real life is messy, with broken dreams, broken hearts and the ever present possibilities of failure and loss.
It’s never fun to imagine those things, but keeping your dreams centered in reality can help you avoid getting to where you want to be, and finding yourself unfulfilled or disappointed with what you find when you get there.
As I once told a friend “make reality your dream”.
Because anytime you drift off into the land of fantasy, you’re missing a chance to appreciate reality as it here and now. It’s taken me a long time, but I’ve finally come to realize that in fantasy, or dreaming, we take with us not only our desires, but also our difficulties. Insecurities and fears can be dragged into that which we imagine, feeding our terrors and worries.
That’s the flip-side of ‘dreaming it real’ – reality is often quite different than our hopes and our fears.
And while we can and should dream about what could be, we also need to keep firmly rooted in the good things that are now, and working on the things that bring us sadness and pain.
For as much as dreaming is good for the soul, if your dreaming is nothing more than a way to escape a difficult now, then we run the risk of becoming addicted to the good feelings of the future that may never come to pass.
And that way, well that way leads to disappointment and sadness if we don’t do the things that we need to do now.
Today I implore you to dream, but make sure it’s rooted in reality, and backed up by a lot of hard work. Have dreams that take into account the truth of the real world, and a knowledge of yourself and all the strengths and weaknesses that you carry into the dream world that you create.
The power of dreams to move you is incredible, so make sure you’re dreaming in a way that moves you and excites you.
But keep it real, so you won’t be disappointed when you get there.
— Dr. Alan Barnes
@maddrbmusings