I Have A Dream

“I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin, but by the content of their character.

Most of us are familiar with the quote from Dr Martin Luther King Jr and the phrase, “I have a dream” always evokes the instant memory of him giving that speech.

He is not alone as I believe everyone has a dream of some sort, whether it is a dream to be a parent, be self-sufficient, find love, internal peace and happiness, get married, be economically independent, find a great job, start a business or rebuild a broken relationship.

Others have more grandiose dreams to change the world on a much larger scale looking at things like a greener planet, renewable energy, child slavery or anti-human trafficking.

Children at a very young age have their own dreams. As a child, I went through a phase when I wanted to be an Aeronautic engineer just because it sounded complicated and intelligent.

In addition to having a dream, I want to add the quote from Colin Powell which says, “A dream doesn’t become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination and hard work.”

It is easy to have a dream, we can all imagine a life when ………. But the question becomes how do we make that dream a reality?

Sweat

Sweating isn’t the most glamorous thing to experience. When we think of sweat, we see the moisture dropping and in time the odour being released. It’s messy and not elegant.

When you are getting the work done in the right way in the gym, you find that the sweat falls easily.

Same applies to other areas of our lives. A new entrepreneur will often go through a stage in their business when they are CEO, cleaner, driver, Sales and Customer service. This is the tough stage which can go on for years before they are able to recruit their first employee.

The sweating is an unavoidable pre-requisite to making our dreams come through. We have to be willing and ready to sweat.

Determination

To move from dream to reality, you must be determined. The work will not do itself. There will be knock downs and rejection letters but we refuse to give up knowing that every ‘No’ we get moves us closer to a ‘Yes’.

I love reading autobiographies of people who are successful in their fields and one thing they always have in common is a dogged determination which follows a belief in themselves and in their product or service.

Hard work

There is no substitute for hard work if we are going to get the results that we want to see. To publish that book, you must be willing to get up everyday and write whether you feel like it or not.

To make that sale, you have to make the calls, and to  submit multiple proposals, you must be willing to write them. If you’re looking for a new job, you must be willing to tailor your Curriculum Vitae to individual job knowing the easy one size fits all CV will not cut it.  

Quite often, people approach me for support in getting them a job but once I send them a few job adverts, I stop hearing from them. I soon realised some were looking for a magic wand of just showing up to start a job without going through due process.

If you can’t go through the hassle, yes hassle, of the application process, how are you going to do the job when you get it?

So as we start the year, please have a dream, have a lofty dream but make sure you are willing to put in the sweat, determination and hard work that it will take to make it a reality.

Martin Luther King Jr did not just have a dream, he took steps that ensured he had a seismic impact on race relations in the United States and he eventually paid for his dream with his life.

Dreams are costly and while most of us will not pay the price of death for our dreams, we can’t avoid other prices. Dust off your 2020 dream and be ready to pay the price.

Thank you for reading and sharing my post with others. Have a great week.