Motivation - If you can dream it

MOTIVATION – If You Can Dream It


By Nikki Viljoen of N Viljoen Consulting CC November 2009

One of the most profound sayings that I know of is Walt Disney’s “If you can DREAM it, you can DO it.”

This certainly is one of the motivational tips that resonates the most with me – and boy do I love to dream.  It is my most favorite part of the day.  When I am lying in my bed at night, just before I slip into ‘lala land’ (if I am extremely lucky you understand), in that place between being awake and being asleep that I love to call ‘the twilight zone’, where I allow my mind to wonder to all the delicious possibilities that are available, and believe me when I tell you there are millions!  I doubt very much that there is a single night that I don’t go to sleep with a huge big grin on my face and that I think, is very good for the soul!

Sadly, even in this day and age, there are still millions of people out there, who never mind don’t have even a single dream, but worse still, they have no idea how to dream.  People who are caught up in their mundane lives, who are so busy putting ‘one foot in front of the other’ in order to stay alive, so focused and intent on just existing that there is no room for anything else.  Or, what about those folk who have been so damaged by life that they do not think that they deserve anything good in their lives, much less even the notion that they too can dream?  Then of course you have the people who do not even believe in dreams, people who are so cynical about the magical aspects of life that they cannot even begin to understand how important it is to dream.  My heart really does go out to all of these – I could not even being to imagine my life without my dreams.

Here’s the thing though – it’s no good just dreaming!  Sure it’s a lot of fun and sure it feeds the mystical, magical, fantasy side of our lives, but in order to have those dreams become a reality (the ones that you do want to be part of your reality that is, not the ones about the flying red dragons), then you have to do something with them, about them and to them, in order for them to become the reality.  There has to be some sort of action on your part.  You have to become (if you’re not one already) a ‘doer’!   You have to create the ‘space’ for the dream to become a reality and I think for most, therein lies the challenge.

Think about it for a moment – how would you feel about reading a book that has no ending!  You get all caught up in the twists and turns, the plots and the pleasures, the drama and seductions and as you get to the most critical stage, you turn the page and . . . .  nothing.  You hastily turn the page back, believing that you have missed something, that you have done something wrong and no, there it is the twists and turns, the plot and the pleasures and you turn the page again, hoping that the tale continues and there, as plain as day, staring right back at you, a blank page! 

That for me is what happens when a dream is not turned into reality.  Irritation at having been brought this far down the road and then left dangling, the plot not realized, the twists and turns only half completed and the story that started off rich and vibrant and full of life brought to an abrupt end.

So remember that the dream that you want to turn into reality, must be brought to fruition, the tale needs to unfold and the story needs to have an ending and quite honestly, whichever ending that you need to write will be the right one for you – it’s all about the choices that you make and how you want the dream to end.  So put in the effort, make it happen.  Dream the dream but don’t forget to turn the dream into your reality.

Nikki is an Internal Auditor and Business Administration Specialist who can be contacted on 083 702 8849 or nikki@viljoenconsulting.co.za or http://www.viljoenconsulting.co.za