Dreams to die for

If you can dream it, you can do it!

I love this quote by Walt Disney and I want to tell you why. Because to me it means what it says. I have never doubted, that what I dream I can do and achieve in reality. How about you?

Actually, there is only one thing I thought I couldn’t do in reality. As a child, I dreamt that I could fly. Not in a plane or parachute, but just by myself. Standing on a hill, opening my arms and there I go. Steering with my legs and arms flying across the countryside, curving between trees and electricity cables like on a Formula One course and then landing by pure willpower. I was not only flying just out of fun. I flew so naturally and looked around if I could help or rescue people. I can tell you as a kid I had amazing nights!

Nowadays you can really fly by just opening your arms. In a wingsuit (called wingsuit base jumping) you jump from a mountain and fly for fun. The first part of a children?s dream has materialized. Amazing. It is made possible.

No, don’t get me wrong I am not the developer of the wingsuit and not in the business of base jumping. It was Franz Reichelt in 1912 who followed his dream and jumped of the Eiffel Tower in Paris dressed in his self-made parachute suit and died. Rex Finney dreamed of flying by himself too and in 1930 he managed using a wingsuit to fly and manoeuvre for some time horizontally and did not die.

Dreams to die for. Yours don’t have to be.

How can unfulfilled dreams wear you down?

“Follow your dream” is probably the most commonly expressed concept ever created.
It encourages us not to stay content in our ‘safe’ existence, what is safe anyway, but to make a leap, to follow our passion that would drive us forward if we gave it the chance.

The literature is full of success stories of people who left high-paying jobs to teach yoga on Ibiza, deep-sea fishing in the Caribbean or to run a Bed & Breakfast in Spain. People, who gave up what, on paper, seemed to be perfect lives, to go do something that they had never dared think of before. And might be poorer now, but happier. Or have more financial success then they’ve expected.

What does it do to you when the dream you have for years has not materializing yet? If you don’t manage to get one inch closer of doing it?
When the dream turns into a burden?

You stop believing in achieving and feel frustrated. Why do others manage but not me? It has impact on your self-confidence, work and family. Should you give up? NO!

Over the years my ‘dreaming it into reality’ power received several reality bumps. Has that stopped me from dreaming and doing it? NO.

When I finished my ‘Hauptschule’ (German secondary school at the lowest of three levels) at 16, I trained as a horticultural farmhand. Yet I had the dream that I once would go to study at university. After many years of work and further training I realised my dream 14 years later entering the MSc study of International Agriculture at the University Hall Larenstein Netherlands and at University of Reading, UK.

Helping or rescuing people was the other important part of my dream. As a child, I wanted to help people in difficult situations. As I grow older the dream changed into wanting to support people internality to learn how to help themselves. Empowerment. That’s why I became a horticultural farm manager and trainer first, and an international business coach for natural leadership later.

I believe that dreams grow with you and you grow with your dreams.

And here lies the secret.
A dream is a series of thoughts, images, emotions and sensations occurring in a person’s mind during the REM sleep. A fantasy about something greatly desired.

The thoughts, images, emotions and sensations evolve with you when you get older, you gain more knowledge and you see more possibilities. You are not any more as single minded as a child. Your world has grown bigger. Therefore, you have more choice and often more stress to make a decision.

Not long ago I had a conversation with a successful business woman about her dream. She was based in a huge city and for a long time she dreamed about living in a little city close to the sea. Then one time she went for some days to a little town at the sea to find out if she could live there. She loved it, yet could not decide to make the move. What held her back? She loves city-life, the social contacts, the cultural events and was afraid to lose all of that. Two more times she spent some days at the sea but she couldn’t decide until she finally realised: “I can change it whenever I want and move back to the city. Nothing is forever if I don’t want it. It is me who holds everything in my hands.” Now she lives her dream happily at the sea and enjoys everyday a wonderful walk along the ocean.

Does that sound too easy? Might be, but you hold it in your hands. Nothing is fixed, you can change it. Earlier or later, it is always your decision.

If you want to pursue your dreams and get frustrated because you see others achieve their dreams faster, don’t give up and stick to your dream, at your own speed.

It is your Dream and you realise it in your Time.

Then: let the first step arise in your mind, visualize it until it is razor-sharp.

And then?

Take that first step into action and start realising your dream.

However small that first step might be.

REALISE: NOTHING YOU DO IS FOREVER, YOU CAN ALWAYS CHANGE IT!

Share your dreams in your comment.