Tags
Cleopatra, Dreams, future, goals, imagination, limitless, past, pirates, President Lincoln, SpongeBob, time travel
As you are probably abundantly aware, I strongly value goals and dreams. I guess it is commonly thought that these things are pretty much synonymous with each other. But my feelings on the subject differ. In my humble opinion, Dreams and Goals are yes, similar, but at the very same time they are completely different.
Dreams to me are things that have no limits and no bounds. They do not have to abide by the physical laws of our reality. They cannot be stifled by any rules and they don’t have to follow any guidelines. They can be as far-fetched or as realistic as you wish, and no one can tell you any different because it’s your mind and it’s your imagination and it’s your…dream.
You can dream of flying to the moon on a camels back. You can dream of swimming in an enormous bowl of chocolate pudding. You can dream of going back in time and hanging out with President Lincoln, or better yet, hanging out with Cleopatra. Anything is possible with dreams. You can dream of anything and no one can stop you, that’s the most amazing thing about dreams. The only thing that could possibly limit them is your own imagination, and if your imagination is very extensive, then they are really, truly, limitless.
Goals. I think that the only thing that separates goals from dreams is that goals can be limited, and from my experience, they always are limited. Perhaps by our own insecurities; thinking that we couldn’t actually tangibly accomplish something that we would like to. They are limited by the laws of our physical universe, the laws of our society, they are limited by social customs, and mostly it seems they are limited by events and circumstances beyond our control entirely.
This is perhaps, why I like dreams so much more than goals. If you tell someone you dream of being a pirate they will chuckle and maybe think that you are weird, but usually you will just get an uncertain: “Pirate’s are cool,” from them. Now on the other hand if you tell someone that it is your goal to be a pirate…well I don’t think that would go over very well at all and, most probably, would incite people to question your sanity.
Goals, for me anyway, seem to more often end in disappointment. Because when you decide that it is your goal to do something, you’ve set your heart on it and you have set your mind on the determination of actually accomplishing that thing. So if you fail to attain to it, it’s truly disappointing because you had so many things, and so much of yourself riding upon realization of it. Dreams, though, are different. They are just crazy notions that exist entirely within your imagination. They are a place that you reside when the world just gets too rough to handle. They are your little secret. They are your place of comfort. Dreams, unlike goals, are merely projected into your mind, but their actual residence is in your heart.
Dreams are just amazing things that would be even more amazing if they actually happened but you don’t set your heart on them actually getting accomplished too much, because you know that even if they don’t (and chances are they won’t) come true, you can always go there inside your mind and heart whenever you close your eyes, whenever you have a minute alone, whenever you need a break. And if, by some crazy happenstance, you actually do tangibly accomplish one of your (albeit, more realistic) dreams, then that is just the icing on top of the imaginary cake. It just makes the dream that much better. And in the future you have a greater point of reference when you decide to take the journey back there in your mind.
I know I love dreams more than goals, but I do completely recognize that both are intrinsically necessary for human existence. If we were all solely dreamer’s and never had any realistic goals, there probably wouldn’t be very many successful people in the world. I guess the point is just to find the balance between your dreams and goals. But make sure that you know which the thing you want to accomplish is: a crazy Dream or a realistic Goal.
Always,
CAT