Realizing The Dream
Hey Dreamer,
I hope you and your family are healthy. This unforeseen sanitary crisis has rendered me a golden opportunity to take a step back and reflect upon my life. I’m elated to share some of my thoughts and learnings in this piece.
Sailing Life at a Glacial Pace
Until the end of last year, I was stranded in my mind, in a universe of tantalizing thoughts. In my mind’s far-sighted corner, I was racing towards an unknown destination. I was living in a fool’s paradise where I believed myself to be savoring a success. Building a resume was more important to me than feeding my soul. We are slaves to conformity. I was puzzled between movement and progress throughout my life. I never admitted how predictably irrational my life approach was. My favorite excuse was blaming the system, but never cared about changing the system. I was a puppet and my fear was my puppeteer. From outside, I was a happy camper, but deep down I was trapped in the vicious circle of entangled thoughts, always ruminating over the past and future. Even though I was working around the clock, always on my toes and was ahead of time ( as per my belief ), I never really got lucky enough to experience tranquility. The more I worked towards strengthening my social profile, the farther I was getting away from my real self. I was constantly fighting with them, and justifying my decisions and defending my dreams to the naysayers. Also, the lack of self-belief in my own vision left me emotionally crippled. As a result, I became a spectator of my life. But when I look back now, I was lucky that it happened. Had I not experienced this, I would have never realized my true passion, my dream.
Shifting the Paradigm
The advent of 2020 marked the culmination of my sad life. I could not willingly sleepwalk the rest of my life. As I realized that the ultimate battleground lies inside the mind, I made a self-commitment to transform my life on my accords. The will to transform my pain into my biggest strength has ignited the fire inside me. I decided to cultivate the courage to confront my deepest fears. Three months back, a dreamer said to me, “Success lies in beating ourselves every day”. It hit me hard and clarified my real opponent in the fight of life. It was never them, it has always been my past self. I stopped chasing tempting thoughts and vowed to develop my present self.
As Mark Twain put in,
“The secret of getting ahead is getting started”.
One of my close friends, by being an example, showed me the power of experimenting with ideas. His welcoming attitude towards new challenges posed by life has shifted my paradigm and encouraged me to reconsider my old lifestyle.
From Snail’s Pace to Gaining Astronomical Dividends
As I was desperate to transform my life but had no clue about the stepping point. Although I was highly motivated to sail the ocean alone, I still lacked the true knowledge to face off the stormy winds. I had reached the same state of mind several times in the past, but this time, I was not ready to give up. I was more interested in learning the science behind sustaining daily habits.
As said, once you have a strong reason to be the captain of your ship, the mysterious cosmic energy spread across the universe empowers you in the pursuit of your dream. And the following day itself, I happened to come across what I was looking for. I was intrigued by the Fogg Behaviour Model on building effective habits, developed by BJ Fogg, founder of Behavior Design Lab at Stanford.
Navigate to the following link if interested in his scientific approach for a behavior to occur: https://www.behaviormodel.org/
The secret is, “Taking tiny steps to build great habits”
While religiously following him, I am experimenting on building new habits. Through consistent, conscious & tiny efforts over the past three months, I have been honing my capabilities, acquiring knowledge and striving hard towards achieving higher-order thinking. I’ve mentioned a few of my recently developed habits below:
- Workout — Increasing intensity with time
- Meditation with Motivation — Enabling me to gain self-awareness
- Building a great Vocabulary — Two new words picked from real-time conversations ( crossed 230 words in total ) and revise them every day using contextual memory
- Exploring Science — Allowing me to discover my passion for science
Actions Spawn Courage for Materializing Dreams
There is no big deal about earning a living. Look around you and see if you could find a person who is not earning a living ( consider the pre-COVID situation ). We are a product of our accumulated efforts. The catch is just by being consistent, you can harness your true potential.
“The point of maximum danger is the point of minimum fear”. — Will Smith
The most fearful thoughts that previously were holding me back are turning out to be my best friend. It’s a bliss once you embrace your deepest fears. Let your past achievements be the source of your inspiration. After I started exploring science, I have realized that everyone is gifted with certain mental faculties that one seldom cares to manifest. Some of which are the following:
1. The power of imagination — Every great scientist does thought experiments. You can learn how to develop it with time. This link includes one of my favorite videos of Bob Proctor on Imagination. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkL9eRJlnic
2. The ability to think — Let’s be honest with ourselves. We don’t prefer to think in most cases because our decisions are driven by traditional social constructs
3. The will to do it — Every great visionary has a strong will to achieve dreams. Have you ever wondered about the man who had a strong will to go to the moon? Watch this video if curious to know the mindset of one of the greatest leaders of all time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=th5A6ZQ28pE
Only a high achiever can inspire a true dreamer. But with time, a common person is losing his ability to dream big. Increased levels of anxiety, social pressure, lack of courage and herd mentality are few reasons for dispiriting many brilliant minds from pursuing their passion. Maybe it’s time to follow our hearts and feed our brains with inspirational stories. A dream without goals is only a dream. But a life without dreams is equivalent to the life of minor species. I will end this with an infamous quote by Walt Disney.
“All dreams can come true if we have the courage to pursue them”
