Dare to Dream Greatly

In the world of sensory data, dreams are devalued.

It amazes me how we blush at or hide the nature of our dreams. The larger we dream, the more we hide them away, not speaking of them. We dare not share what we think we can have, or be, or do; especially if it is something big, something grand, something spectacular. We value the mundane and hate it at the same time. We dare not share with our friends, family and co-workers that we dream of changing our world. And sometimes we dare not share it even with ourselves.

The only reason life is mundane is because we have chosen to see it that way. The true nature of life is overflowing with possibilities of colors, sizes, directions, brightness, and opportunities. But we choose to see only a few and insist that that is all our lives will be, can be, should be, will ever be.

But at the same time we value those men and women who have gone before us, have chosen to see more of the spectrum of life and have dared to dream greatly.

Nelson Mandela dreamed, while in a prison cell for eighteen years, that he would some day be released and would lead his people in peace. Year upon year of isolation, hard labor, near starvation and potential hopelessness were what his senses offered him as choices to see and become. But he dreamed greatly and saw those dreams change his  and our world.

Rosa Parks, a seamstress in a local department store, an African American who lived in a country that refused to see her as anything more than a second-class citizen, and to some no more than a slave, chose to look past her persistent “reality” and dream greatly. Today she is memorialized as “the mother of the freedom movement.”

JK Rowling was a divorced, single mother living on social security. She thought herself a failure. But she had a manual typewriter and a big idea. In five years, she became a millionaire and eventually one of the riches women in the world with a net worth over a billion dollars. She has inspired many children and adults alike with her story-telling and has been named ‘Most Influential Woman in Britain.’ She dared to dream greatly.

And there are hundreds, even thousands of more examples of those who refused to accept that the way things were now, was how they always would be. They were not ashamed of their dreams. They chose to dream big and they changed their reality and our world.

Don’t accept only what your senses offer as the single truth in your life. Don’t accept that the way things have always been is how they always will be. You can change things, you can choose. You can change your world. You must begin by allowing, owning and feeding your dreams! Dare to dream greatly!

Teddy Roosevelt, another dreamer said, "It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly...who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who have never known neither victory nor defeat."