Your dreams will break your heart, but here’s why you need to follow them anyway.

They’re funny things, dreams. They’ll show up one day in your mind — but without instructions, of course. They just appear in your life, imploring you to leap and do them.

And if you don’t listen to them, of course, they don’t go away. Just like children that you try to ignore while you’re making the Important Phone Call, the dream will tug at you. It will show up at times both inconvenient and challenging. It will show up on birthdays, New Years, graduations, and funerals. It won’t leave you alone.

They break your heart, though, because — again, like children — they’ll make you walk through fire to get to them. They’ll make you face fears that you’d rather leave untouched. They’ll make you examine your soul to discover if you’ve got what I call the 3 Cs: Courage, Confidence, and Conviction. Especially conviction. Conviction will rip you apart when you’re face to face with it, when things aren’t going your way but you’re determined to stay the course and live your dream. Trust me, I know what I’m talking about on this one.

But your dreams will also make you stronger. They’ll bring out strengths and talents that you didn’t know existed. I didn’t know I was a writer. I didn’t know I could get up on stage and sing in front of people. I mean, sure I could do it for family, but for total strangers? I was terrified. If you ask anyone who’s achieved some kind of creative dream, they’ll tell you the same thing. They had to face fears and find within themselves a sense of creative fortitude that would pull them through.

Your dreams call to you because you, my dear brilliantine brave one, are their shepherd. Not because you’re the one who will keep them safe, but rather because you will take them out into the dangerous world and give birth to them, setting them free to touch the world and call upon other dreamers to wake up and live their own dream.

That’s what dreams do: when they’re done calling to you, they go out and call upon others.

It doesn’t matter who you are or what you do; you are not immune if you’re a teacher or a student, an executive or a janitor, a mother or a grandparent. Age doesn’t matter, and it also doesn’t matter what role you’re currently playing in life. We all have dreams — and the truth is, most of them involve using your creativity in some way. I’ve been amazed at how many people I wouldn’t have labeled as a “creative” that confide in me that they dream of writing a book.

Following your dreams will break your heart. And of course, I probably don’t have to tell you this (but I will anyway): Denying your dreams will hurt even more.