How often do you let your mind drift off to that dreamy place where everything is perfect, just like you have always wished? When I was a child I imagined that I had the same magical powers that superman had, that was my dream and all I thought about. Dreaming is a great way to escape, even for adults, it's a form of meditation that helps lower stress levels and revitalise the mind. I hold the belief that true intelligence is not a measure of what we know but of what we can imagine. Anyone can learn, but that's really just monkey see monkey do. Having a head full of book knowledge is more an indicator of how you spend your evenings and how good your memory is than of how intelligent you are.
Real intelligence is being able to use your "book knowledge" to make dreams a reality, to change lives, to invent new things, to create new ways of living and seeing the world. The real pioneers throughout history were firstly dreamers and secondly doers. Dreams are the chalkboard of great architects, the canvas of inventors, and the chisel of a master sculptor.
Most of the mistakes that we make in life come from dreaming the wrong dreams, or from imagining unrealistic outcomes from our dreams. Of course it's crucially important that we keep dreaming, forever imagining better ways to do things, better ways to relate to people, better ways to see life and the world. It is however a mistake to chase the wrong dreams to the extent that people around you suffer from your pursuits. As I said, dreams are a great sounding board, a great place to pin up the butchers paper and pencil your ideas, but like everything in life you need to keep things realistic and within the realms of sensible possibility. You should always table your ideas and consider everything in light of your family, your relationships and yourself.
I can almost hear the naysayers at this point,
"if it were not for passionate men chasing impossible dreams modern society would never have evolved and we would still be using the horse and cart."
Guess what... they are right!! If it were not for such people many of life's modern conveniences would not exist, medicine, industry, art, literature, architecture, the list goes on, would never have become a reality. Despite this indelible fact I would like to challenge the modern notion that we all should chase our dreams and make them happen at all costs. As a minimalist I believe that we need to temper our dreams and focus more on collective aspirations rather than individual ones. Many lives, relationships, and families have been ruined by the selfish pursuits of just one person. Is that person you ? Are you letting your personal dreams / wants come before the things of real importance in your life? If you are then now is the time to change, remember once is a mistake, twice is a choice, learn from your mistakes and re-establish your priorities based on things that really matter. I chose to become a minimalist because I no longer felt the need to chase over the top personal dreams, someone else can run that gauntlet, I want the quiet life, a life of meaning and deep personal connections, I have nothing in life to prove other than my devotion to the ones I love. Make your dreams come from your heart, because if you allow your heart to hold your real treasures then your dreams will reflect what really matters.
~~~ Brett Tulk ~~~
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