Importance of Dreams

I am currently on day 2 of my 3 day weekend. Yay! Even though I love my school, I do enjoy days off. During my time off, I have the opportunity to work on my personal projects. In my busy world of school, homework, after school activities, and music, my time often runs short. I am grateful for the chance to work on what I want to work on, instead of what I have to work on.

I was thinking about Martin Luther King Jr. while I was organizing my time for this 3 day weekend. You know what always comes to mind when I think about him? 4 words. Can you guess what they are? “I have a dream”. In my mind “I have a dream” defines Martin Luther King Jr. Thinking about that very important sentence made me question, what is the difference between dreams and goals? Could Martin Luther King Jr have said “ I have a goal”, and it have made the same impact?

We just celebrated the New Year, and some of us made resolutions for this year. Personally, I jotted down a list of goals that I wanted to accomplish this year. 4-5 items are on that list. Was anything on that list a dream of mine? Maybe 1 item. The rest were just goals. I looked at my list and it helped me define the difference between dreams and goals. I came up with three thoughts. 1. A dream is much bigger than a goal. Dreams are your overall big picture, goals are the actions you take to accomplish it. A football team can have a goal to win the game they are playing, and a dream to make it to the state playoffs. Goals are the steps on the way to the dream. 2. Both dreams and goals are very similar in that they both require action. Both! It is simply not enough to say you have a dream and then go about your day, never working on it. My 5th grade teacher used to say that anything worth having was worth working for. This train of thought led me back to Martin Luther King Jr. What he was working for, was so much bigger than a goal. It was a dream! He worked tirelessly on promoting equality, despite the odds against him. This brings me to my 3rd thought, 3. Dreams have a way of pulling you through failures, if you let them. Dreams become a passion that is a part of us. When a door closes on a dream, we are crushed. However, if you stick with your dream, your brain will find another way (I have experience with this, ask me sometime why Microsoft doesn’t host acalympics.com). In comparison goals, can be easy to give up in because sometimes we aren’t really that attached them in the 1st place.

What are your dreams for this year? What goals will get you there? Zig Zigler said “You are born to win. However, you must plan to win, prepare to win and expect to win.” While your dreams may seem a million miles away, if you start now, by the end of this month you will make so much progress and be that much closer than you are now.  Don’t be afraid to dream big. I read a little sentence that said “if your dreams don’t scare you, they aren’t big enough”. I would bet that there were times Martin Luther King Jr. was scared. However, he didn’t give up and our world today is a much better place because of him. Tomorrow, remember him, come up with a dream to make the world a better place, and Dare To Dream Big!