Making ends meet between dreams and reality
By Viviana Benfenati.
We all have plans; our whole life is jam-packed with them. What are you going to have for dinner tonight? What are you going to do tomorrow? Simple plans that take up little effort to design and sometimes even less to execute.
What is the place you are looking forward the most to travel to? What do you need to do before you can buy your first car? What do you want to major in? Questions that result a tad more complex, right?
But what do you want to happen for you in your life? What is that one thing (whether singular or plural) that keeps raiding your mind so often and so sturdily you can almost feel it happening already? The one thing that gets you going, the reason you get out of bed in the morning? Now we are really talking about plans.
A plan is a dream taken to action. However, when it comes to this statement, the hard question lies not on what our dreams are but on how to make them happen.
What do we need for our dreams to come true?
-But the list is endless, it depends on what you want to achieve – someone will say.
Of course. However, regardless of what our goals in life are, what are those things everyone needs in order to achieve anything? Can you think of any?
Those with a determination of steel will certainly root for perseverance. One of our two eyes is meant for staring down at the path we are walking, overpassing every obstacle in the way, they will say. The other must never lose sight of the target, for as long as it is waiting for us to make it happen.
However, the cake can never be ready without a solid tablespoon of courage. Not only those fond of baking will place their bets on courage as a paramount ingredient to achieve anything. There are many concepts behind that seven letter word, though. To be brave is to have the ability to stand up, in every sense of the word. Standing up from our chair in pursue of what we want, to standing up for what we believe in. To be courageous is to dare, and to dare on time. Meaning to do it is half the battle, to win we need our actions to be timely.
Regardless of whatever bigger force we believe in; whether we are religious devotees, numerology experts, or faithful followers of Tom Cruise, we will always entrust at least one slice of our destiny pizza to sheer luck. However fanciful this asset is, nonetheless, that does not refrain it from being a little true. Everyone has believed, at one point or another, that the stroke of luck they so longed for was cast upon them. Sometimes it does help being in the right place at the right time.
The next goal-achieving quality is one of my favorites, precisely because it is the hardest of them all. It defines as the ability to adapt and recover quickly from adversity. That is, of course, resilience. It is only through this asset we can triumphantly spring back into our original, true selves, despite being sunk in the deepest swamp of toughness. As events always turn out the way we least expect them to, the ability of achieving mental and emotional elasticity is definitely a tool we are going to need when playing the videogame of life.
However, as essential as all of these requirements are for achieving our goals, here’s the catch: they also happen to be just the tip of the iceberg. Our best warriors are actually closest to us, and often taken for granted.
Self-esteem, for example, is the item I would place as number one when it comes to goal achieving. The phrase “fight for your goals” is somewhat misinterpreted. You don’t fight for your goals; you strive so that your future self will be found in a situation where those goals are true. The ultimate goal behind fighting for our dreams lies in getting ourselves a better future. And you cannot win when fighting for someone you don’t love.
The second most important item is an apple that doesn’t fall far from the tree of self-esteem. There is not a more heartfelt and true voice than your very own. Make sure that this inner voice guiding you towards that goal is truly yours. Is that dream what you really want? Notice the italics are not placed in the wanting part but in the one that refers to you. Is that goal aligned perfectly with your own will (and not someone else’s?). The first step towards achieving anything is simple: to truly want it.
Even the wildest party animal will eventually go home. No matter how much you love dancing, how much alcohol is marked on your to-drink list for the night, or what a blast you are having with your friends, eventually the time will come when you will need to retrieve your caribbean body and killer latino moves back to the chamber of ease and coziness. This brings us to our third item.
As we danced through the night, our feet got sore, our eardrums swollen and our bodies weary. A metaphorical example of the many drawbacks and pickles that wait for us in the party of life. To achieve anything, we not only need emotional and intellectual weapons; a safe place to come back to when things go rough is just as important. Amidst the rampage faced by those who attempt to achieve anything, an emotional recharge is vital.
But, is a ‘safe place’ always a literal form of building? Of course not. In our lives we have (and need) many ‘safe places’, and the most important are not made out of bricks and concrete. The support and backing of those you love is the hazelnut in that Nutella you are cooking.
Having someone by your side to hear about your journey, to rant and vent with for hours, someone to lend you their shoulder to cry on, while you share the most perfect cup of hot chocolate, is an infallible therapy for the best emotional recharge. And when rowing towards your goals down the river of life you are going to need countless of those.
The people you surround yourself with play a vital role in the achievement of your dreams. However, even more important than having good support is to have a great adviser. A leader, a go-to person (ideal if its more than one), the mirror to your decision-making approach. A person of your entire trust and fondness with whom to validate your choices and ponder your intentions. A guide and guru for all of those times when you find yourself before a crossroad, which will always be more than you can imagine.
Finally, there is one belief you need to place firmly on your mind: A future exists where you are already there, where you really want to be. The present time is just the past of that moment. Be the tattoo artist that engraves that thought in your mind until it comes true.
However -there is always a however- bear in mind that happiness is not a destination, but a journey. Make sure you never miss the beauty of the path while you voyage through it <3
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