Currently I am reading this book – Wild At Heart by John Eldridge. Couple of you guys must have read it. For those who haven’t, get a copy as soon as you can. The book will stir within you a sense for adventure and a sense to get to the core of who you really are.
One of the key things that the book talks about is ‘Dreams’. Drawing from that I am writing this note or whatever you would like to call it.
What surprises me about many people these days is that they lack ‘The Dream’. You cannot blame them for that either. The current scenario that we live in doesn’t allow us to pursue our interests and at the same time be a ‘Family Man’ or the ideal girl. There has been a dynamic shift in our vision and goals that we set for our lives. Nowadays we live for Survival and not for dreams. Right now what one works for is a good job which pays well enough to enjoy two vacations a year, a nice family car, good schooling for the ‘munnas’, etc. there are very few of us that live to pursue a dream. A dream that is yours alone and a dream where your place is forever yours. It’s a tough call but an exciting and an adventurous one. Many will at this point scoff and say, that is all madness and it doesn’t happen now. That is the very reaction that some of us who live our life for that dream have to battle and many do succumb to the numb arrows like those that are aimed at them.
What we are going through right now, as I said earlier is a survival era. Here is where the poser’s part comes in. You see when many of us succumb to the numb arrows and compromise with our dreams; we end up living a life which was not meant for us. We end up even becoming someone else. Maybe you are not that someone else. You are meant to be you and the place you have in your destiny no one can take unless you let go of it. If many of our ‘role models’ had’nt dreamt, they simply wouldn’t be. Imagine this – if Sachin would have given in to his teachers sayings that cricketers don’t go anywhere and education is what will earn you your bread and butter, we wouldn’t have the Greatest Batsman in the World being from Mumbai. If Shah Rukh, Alshay or Aamir wouldn’t have dreamt we wouldn’t have had such fine actors in the world. Steven Spielberg dreamt of making movies ever since he was 8, if he wouldn’t have dreamt then and worked towards achieving that dream we wouldn’t have had half of the modern day classics.
Every person dreams different. Some dreams may be similar but not everyone dreams alike. And as I mentioned earlier, every dream has only one hero. The moment you deem it as impossible and unreachable without trying to work or live that dream you are letting go a part of yourself. I met a man in his fifties the other day, he looked with deep longing at a guitar lying next to him and told me about how he always wanted to be Hendrix or page but couldn’t because he thought it better to play it safe by joining a shipping company as an accountant. The longing in his eyes said it all. What if? That was his biggest battle. Times when he sits alone he asks him self, what if I had chosen the guitar over the numbers?
To give up a dream is to give up a big part of you are and replace it with a self you either are or your not. It’s usually the latter. Then starts a circle of living a life, which we trudge along with dissatisfaction and the eternal What If’s? Sometimes taking the plunge into the unknown is the only option and often the more exciting one. The others even though more safe and monetarily satisfying wont give you the same thrill as what the fulfillment of your dream will give you. That is an experience in itself.
Why am I bringing this up now? Well its simple actually – 1) Personal Conviction and 2) I want to see a renewed youth and a world where the generations to come won’t be afraid of dreaming. A couple of days back my close friend Aditya and I were sitting and discussing our Golden Globe speech and another close friend came by and told u don’t dream such big things. Adi nonchalantly replied, dreams are the place where you define whether you will be or you wont. And why compromise while dreaming. Dreaming alone is not enough but we have gotta work towards living that dream or making it come to pass. Whats a dream if its not one to be?
You see ever since I was a kid I always wanted to be a cricketer, but it’s a fact in Mumbai, most kids want to become Sachin Tendulkar. But circumstances and lack of encouragement thereof made me look in a complete different direction. Then I wanted to be a Chef but then once again due to a series of events that dream got crushed too. Finally after a lot of deliberation I chose to be in the Media field with the single focused dream of being an actor and a director one day. For that too i had to fight to get my way, you see by then I had made a decision not to give up no matter the pressure. And I am happy I did so. The field of Media gave me opportunities and breakthroughs that I had only Dreamt of. Now my dreams have become more ‘cinemascopish’ rather than the handicam quality types. Even though some dreams have been fulfilled faster that doesn’t mean it stops at that, it only means I start dreaming and aspiring new things and new heights and places.
The question then arises. What if we fail? Then I would say try again. If you believe your dream, you don’t need it to come through, you will make it come through. Dreaming alone doesn’t help, as I said before. You need to work towards building and making your dream a reality. Sometimes we dream but don’t have the qualification or the gifting to, we need to be aware of these things and go about in enhancing our talents and gifting in that particular area. And if we still fail, then maybe we gotta pack bags and settle for the next best option. But then again you wont be like the 50 year old guy I met who lived in What if’s? at least you know you pursued it to the best of your abilities.
Never stop dreaming. Dreams motivate you and charge you up to reach higher and push yourself to the maximum. Imagine the satisfaction Tendulkar must have felt when he reached the 10000 run mark or every time he scores a century. I want to feel that feeling. When I am old I want to look back at my life and say yes I lived my Dream. I Dreamt and so am I.
One of the key things that the book talks about is ‘Dreams’. Drawing from that I am writing this note or whatever you would like to call it.
What surprises me about many people these days is that they lack ‘The Dream’. You cannot blame them for that either. The current scenario that we live in doesn’t allow us to pursue our interests and at the same time be a ‘Family Man’ or the ideal girl. There has been a dynamic shift in our vision and goals that we set for our lives. Nowadays we live for Survival and not for dreams. Right now what one works for is a good job which pays well enough to enjoy two vacations a year, a nice family car, good schooling for the ‘munnas’, etc. there are very few of us that live to pursue a dream. A dream that is yours alone and a dream where your place is forever yours. It’s a tough call but an exciting and an adventurous one. Many will at this point scoff and say, that is all madness and it doesn’t happen now. That is the very reaction that some of us who live our life for that dream have to battle and many do succumb to the numb arrows like those that are aimed at them.
What we are going through right now, as I said earlier is a survival era. Here is where the poser’s part comes in. You see when many of us succumb to the numb arrows and compromise with our dreams; we end up living a life which was not meant for us. We end up even becoming someone else. Maybe you are not that someone else. You are meant to be you and the place you have in your destiny no one can take unless you let go of it. If many of our ‘role models’ had’nt dreamt, they simply wouldn’t be. Imagine this – if Sachin would have given in to his teachers sayings that cricketers don’t go anywhere and education is what will earn you your bread and butter, we wouldn’t have the Greatest Batsman in the World being from Mumbai. If Shah Rukh, Alshay or Aamir wouldn’t have dreamt we wouldn’t have had such fine actors in the world. Steven Spielberg dreamt of making movies ever since he was 8, if he wouldn’t have dreamt then and worked towards achieving that dream we wouldn’t have had half of the modern day classics.
Every person dreams different. Some dreams may be similar but not everyone dreams alike. And as I mentioned earlier, every dream has only one hero. The moment you deem it as impossible and unreachable without trying to work or live that dream you are letting go a part of yourself. I met a man in his fifties the other day, he looked with deep longing at a guitar lying next to him and told me about how he always wanted to be Hendrix or page but couldn’t because he thought it better to play it safe by joining a shipping company as an accountant. The longing in his eyes said it all. What if? That was his biggest battle. Times when he sits alone he asks him self, what if I had chosen the guitar over the numbers?
To give up a dream is to give up a big part of you are and replace it with a self you either are or your not. It’s usually the latter. Then starts a circle of living a life, which we trudge along with dissatisfaction and the eternal What If’s? Sometimes taking the plunge into the unknown is the only option and often the more exciting one. The others even though more safe and monetarily satisfying wont give you the same thrill as what the fulfillment of your dream will give you. That is an experience in itself.
Why am I bringing this up now? Well its simple actually – 1) Personal Conviction and 2) I want to see a renewed youth and a world where the generations to come won’t be afraid of dreaming. A couple of days back my close friend Aditya and I were sitting and discussing our Golden Globe speech and another close friend came by and told u don’t dream such big things. Adi nonchalantly replied, dreams are the place where you define whether you will be or you wont. And why compromise while dreaming. Dreaming alone is not enough but we have gotta work towards living that dream or making it come to pass. Whats a dream if its not one to be?
You see ever since I was a kid I always wanted to be a cricketer, but it’s a fact in Mumbai, most kids want to become Sachin Tendulkar. But circumstances and lack of encouragement thereof made me look in a complete different direction. Then I wanted to be a Chef but then once again due to a series of events that dream got crushed too. Finally after a lot of deliberation I chose to be in the Media field with the single focused dream of being an actor and a director one day. For that too i had to fight to get my way, you see by then I had made a decision not to give up no matter the pressure. And I am happy I did so. The field of Media gave me opportunities and breakthroughs that I had only Dreamt of. Now my dreams have become more ‘cinemascopish’ rather than the handicam quality types. Even though some dreams have been fulfilled faster that doesn’t mean it stops at that, it only means I start dreaming and aspiring new things and new heights and places.
The question then arises. What if we fail? Then I would say try again. If you believe your dream, you don’t need it to come through, you will make it come through. Dreaming alone doesn’t help, as I said before. You need to work towards building and making your dream a reality. Sometimes we dream but don’t have the qualification or the gifting to, we need to be aware of these things and go about in enhancing our talents and gifting in that particular area. And if we still fail, then maybe we gotta pack bags and settle for the next best option. But then again you wont be like the 50 year old guy I met who lived in What if’s? at least you know you pursued it to the best of your abilities.
Never stop dreaming. Dreams motivate you and charge you up to reach higher and push yourself to the maximum. Imagine the satisfaction Tendulkar must have felt when he reached the 10000 run mark or every time he scores a century. I want to feel that feeling. When I am old I want to look back at my life and say yes I lived my Dream. I Dreamt and so am I.
