Let me introduce for you this 1st tip to living your dreams…
Many years before today there lived a great man named Yirmiyahu. He looked at the society around him and he saw a terrible flaw. He described this flaw with the following comment:
“They follow the course of their life like a horse running headlong into battle.”
Now imagine a horse running headlong into battle… Imagine it galloping, it’s hooves powerfully thundering upon the ground, it’s eyes keenly focused ahead, it’s momentum undying… What do you think Yirmiyahu was implying when he described the society around him in this way? It actually sounds quite good, like the society was focused and driven!
So, here’s an amazing analogy that illustrates the point that Yirmiyahu was making. The analogy is of two men who were given the job to cut a path through a rainforest. These men set off energetically swinging at the undergrowth with their sharp machetes, clearing the path in front of them as they moved through the forest. When they began to tire and their machetes began to get blunt they sat down, took a drink, sharpened their machetes and then, after that break, these two men stood up and set to work again. They worked this way for a long time … until… One of the men decided to do something… He put down his machete, walked over to the tallest tree and climbed it. After reaching the top he was able to see above the canopy of branches and leaves that had previously blocked out much of the sky and the light. It was late afternoon and so the sun was heading towards the western horizon, which meant… Oh my!!!… that the path that they were cutting was heading in a northerly direction…
His friend started to call up to him, urging him to come down quickly so they could press ahead.
“Hey!!!” The man at the top of the tree yelled down, “It’s amazing that you’re still so full of energy, and that you want to continue cutting, but there’s a problem… We’re cutting really well, we’re making a great pace… BUT WE’RE HEADING IN THE WRONG DIRECTION!!!”
The flaw that Yirmiyahu saw in the society in which he lived was that although they worked hard and lived energetic lives, they didn’t leave any time to stop, ‘climb up the highest tree’ and check whether all the energy that they were expending was taking them in the right direction.
The flaw of rushing through life like a horse rushing headlong into battle is the flaw of not pausing regularly to ask ourselves the simple questions:
- What are my dreams? (The dreams that come from the highest part of ourself)
- Am I living these dreams?
- (And if not, what changes do I need to make?)
In other words, the first tip to our living our dreams is … TAKING THE TIME OUT TO CLARIFY OUR DREAMS! (And then of course to check that we are heading in their direction – but the first step of course is having our dreams clear in the first place!)
Practically this means scheduling times when the computer, phone and T.V. are off so we can make the space to dream, to think about what we truly yearn for, what our most important values are, what it is that according to our best understanding we were put down here to do… Making this time just once is a great start, but it isn’t enough. We need to keep regularly taking out the time to reconnect with our dreams… so our vision stays clear and vibrant and becomes more and more real until it is a beacon for us to focus on and draw inspiration and excitement from… A beacon which we can look towards as we set our goals and make our daily decisions.
How many people do you think schedule a regular time – maybe once a week, or at least once a month – when they can pump energy into and meditate upon their dreams? I have asked many people if they do take time out to really clarify their dreams. From my informal surveys I have found that most people do not.
Why do you think that is?
I think there are 3 main reasons:
- The society that we live in does not stress the importance of doing this and so there are no external forces pushing us to do it.
- Even if at the back of our minds we know that we need to do this, it is not something that is ‘urgent’, so taking time out to ‘climb the tallest tree’ will always get pushed aside by something that seems more urgent, or more fun.
- People don’t know exactly what they need to do in such ‘dreaming’ sessions.
What’s the solution?
So I want to share with you one of my dreams…
I dream of a time and place where there will exist groups of friends or even communities who appreciate the importance of taking time out to make their dreams clear and tangible… And who once they have clarified their dreams, these friends support each other to keep them alive, to believe in themselves and to keep on striving towards them.
On a practical level this actually necessitates scheduling time to meet up, not to watch a movie or to play a game, but to put our attention towards our DREAMS, in a proactive, empowered sense.
I think it would be so rewarding to find at least one friend who we can schedule times with, whom we can talk out our yearnings, our desires, our values, our goals with…
Is this something that you think you might want to do? (I’m not asking will you… at this point… I’m just asking is there a part of you that would like to do this?)
O.K. Now I’m going to ask … Why don’t you schedule a time to meet with a friend for an hour to talk about your dreams? If you want some direction, there are 2 exercises that I have provided on this PDF that will help a lot: 2 exercises to help clarify your dreams.
With regards to the actual process of making one’s dreams into specific goals which can be broken down and tracked… Yes it’s important to break down our dreams into specific goals and to track our progress and to tweak where necesary, but that all comes after first having clear, vibrant dreams that come from the highest part of ourself. Making the time to first clarify our dreams so they are not just ‘kind of clear’ but are clear, so they are detailed and tangible is what I am stressing here. It will never happen unless you make it a priority.
So why don’t you send this article to a friend who you think you could do this with and then make a time to meet together when you can put time into injecting energy into your dreams… the 2 exercises on the PDF will help you focus on the things that dreams are built out of.
B’hatzlacha – I wish you much success!
I hope you enjoyed this post
Until next time
By the way – If you think anyone else would enjoy this thought please can you:
- Share this on facebook. There is a facebook icon below which you can click on which does this.
- Send a link for this article to someone who you think would enjoy it. I have prepared a message for you to copy and paste if that helps:
Hi
I thought you’d like this, I did
https://thinkingjew.com/2016/06/08/5-tips-to-living-your-dreams-no-1-dream/
Enjoy
