Dreams And Intentions Will Get You Nowhere, Only Actions Can Create Reality

By Jonathan Timar
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I know you have a dream. In fact, you probably have several dreams. Perhaps you dream of travelling to Spain, or owning a Lexus. Maybe you simply dream of having your own business. Perhaps you dream is to retire somewhere tropical and spend your days basking in the afternoon sun on a beach of pearly white sand while a cool breeze dances over your shoulders. I especially like the sound of that one.

Dreams are wonderful aren’t they? But they won’t get you anywhere in life. The problem with dreams, I am sorry to say, is that they are not real. They are an imaginary projection of things we would like to be real, but that we know are not. Let me give you an example:

John smith has always dreamed of drifting down the canals of Venice in a gondola. He’s had this dream for a while actually came to him for the first time in college when he met a girl who had been there and talked about it all the time. John dreamed about going that summer, but didn’t because he didn’t have the money. Now John is 43 and he still dreams of going to Venice but he can’t. He has the money now but he just doesn’t have the time to spare between work and his wife and kids.

Do you see the tragedy in that story? Do you see the problem with dreams? Dreams are imaginary, and to our brains anything imaginary seems un-attainable. As long as John’s desire to visit Venice remains a dream, it will continue to remain beyond his grasp. Dreams must be transformed into something else in order to properly serve their purpose, which is to inspire. Let’s take a look at John again:

After college John intended to fulfill his dream of visiting Venice, but unfortunately he had to buy a car to get to and from his new job, and with all the new bills he had to pay it just wasn’t possible.

Such a shame, isn’t it? John intended to make his dream a reality, but it still didn’t happen. Why not? Because John did not take action. John did absolutely nothing to create the reality of a trip to Venice. Why didn’t he? He was in college and didn’t have any real commitments. He was single and un-attached. And why did John not take the actions needed to go to Venice? All he really had to do was eat out a little less and save a bit more and he could have had a plane ticket booked within a few months.

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    Because Venice was a dream, and John never converted it into his reality. Somewhere in the back of John’s mind he continued to see it as un-attainable, whether because of his childhood programming or otherwise, that was John’s true belief. Therefore Venice for John remained something imaginary, and no matter what, no one can ever acquire something imaginary, something that does not exist.

    You are sitting at your desk, and you notice a piece of scrap paper lying on the ground. You think to yourself I should pick that up, and immediately an image pops into your mind of you getting up to pick up that garbage and throwing it into the trash. If you area bit more whimsical, perhaps the image you have is of a little gnome appearing and doing it for you. It doesn’t matter either way, because as long as you dwell on that image, which is an imag(e)ination or a dream, nothing happens. You intend to pick it up though, but still nothing happens. Finally when you get sick of looking at it you stand up and get the paper and throw it away.

    The only difference between the above scenario and John’s story is that no one ever doubts their ability to stand up and pick up a piece of paper, but John never really believed he would be able to go to Venice.

    Dreams exist to provide inspiration. But unless you convert your dreams into intentions, and ensure that you take actions to turn those intentions into reality, then your dreams are worthless.

    You create your own reality.