Dreams

Pursue your dreams.

Follow your dreams.

Make your dreams come true.

All are variations of the same message, that your dreams are the flawless ideal and that you should devote your life to fulfilling them. However, I suggest at least pausing and pondering a couple things. Dreams, at least for me, are natural, almost innate, as if I never made the conscious decision to set them on the pedestal of my life. If you discuss and compare your dreams with a larger group of people around dinner or something, you begin to see a underlying similarity, and that the differences are primarily because of differences in your personality.

Peoples’ personalities change, sometimes slowly, and sometimes drastically. When that happens, you’ll see the dreams alter as well, but some characteristics will remain. Throughout the change, you see the commonalities that allow you to see that dreams are only the product of our current state.

Dreams are nothing but the means to the perfected forms of our presently held values.

Dreams are the means, but never the end. So why do we assume that they are? If my dream is to, let’s say, become a famous, successful movie director in Hollywood, what will actually being that give me? That’s kind of how it is with money, for example. If your dream includes having wealth, simply having it wont bring you anything, but it’s the spending that will lead you to something else. Wealth is just a mean. So what would you do with 10 million dollars?

House?

Car?

Wardrobe?

Travel the world?

What do these things give us that make everything better? Given the economic state of the world, it would certainly give us the envy of our peers. Is that it? Envy? Are our dreams simply just a means to attract all of the envy, admiration, and praise of those around us? Let’s take this another step further.

If our true desire behind our dreams are to be admired, envied, and loved, why? Is it our flawed self-esteem that’s the driving force behind it it all? Are our dreams just the product of our slavery to our insecurity? Is that why they always seem so irresistible?

I had a blog post a while back about pursuing experiences over things, and right now I’m taking a Louisville Slugger to it. Am I pursuing experiences over things only because I would have a story to tell others? Is it a ploy to appear more interesting to others? (Dos Equis commercials for example)

Before you answer that question, answer these.

What if I could reach the end beyond my dreams without having to even take that route? That route that would require me to dedicate my life to it. Wouldn’t that then make my dreams insignificant and trivial? What if I come to find that my dreams aren’t worth pursuing at all?

If that’s the case, then before you follow your dreams, always question your dreams.