2.5
Dreams come in two categories, though they may overlap. The first of the kind are the ones we have in our sleep. No one is sure exactly why we dream, but in my opinion the brain is an organ and this is one way it repairs itself, clears out memories, and then resets itself for the next day. Quite often this takes a bit of time, for those familiar with computer hard drives it is like defragmenting.
I am usually taken aback when people say they do not remember their dreams, then again some people are seven feet tall, so we all come with different genetic make ups. Personally I have vivid dreams. So much so that when they are great, it is like being in a movie. When they are bad, well let us not go there. On a positive note, the happier I am the less bad dreams I have. This is not the difference of dreams.
The other type of dream is the aspiration, or the wish of what we want to become reality in our lives. Like a person dreams of being an NFL player, or the first female president. One guy wants to open his own pizzeria or some lady wants to be a custom car entrepreneur. These are quite different from the dream where we sleep. Perhaps it is the good ones we confuse with what we wish to accomplish in our lives.
Recently I was asked on quora.com if I could have 3 wishes but wealth was not one of them, what would I wish for? My answer? I passed on the question. I mean as a kid, we wished for toys, video games, sequel to a movie we could see before it came out. Wishing is a lot of what makes us a kid.
It is my belief that wishing as an adult is a dangerous thing. Say we actually live in a multiverse, and the person you are right now is the version of yourself that is experiencing the best life of the millions of possibilities. For all your mistakes, they are necessary for the continuation of the journey.
Throw in a wish. Say you wished for world peace, you could wake up the next morning the only person on the planet. There would be no more war for sure. Say you wished to end all illness on the planet. Imagine exactly that was the case, how long before the world was over populated with its creatures and how fast would all the resources go? Perhaps that is a negative view on wishes, but they are usually so fantastical that they never come to fruition for that very reason.
The cosmic powers of the universe look at you and say, “Nope.” So how then do we achieve the goal of a dream or a wish. Here is the thing. They do not happen on their own. You must work, sweat, fret, and fail. Over and over and over. When you have worked hard enough, sweat long enough, fretted long enough, and failed over and over you must be willing to keep doing it as long as it takes. Never look at those words above with fear. It is the price that must be paid to get what you want in this life. It is not going to happen on their own.
There is a quote in an old video game that always stuck with me. The game was called Street Fighter II. If you played as the character Ryu and won the solo campaign he walked away with out his trophy saying “Ceremony means nothing to him, the fight is all.” It stuck with me. Through all my life ups and downs, the work is the fun.
Will it payoff with millions? Who knows, but if the millions are all you care about than your dream is not about the love of your work or creation, it is about money. Know the difference. I am not saying that money does not come to those who quest for it, or let their dream become that. It happens every day. Is it luck? Chance? Or a combination of work and the other two I just mentioned? The thing here is not to get caught up on “them”. Worry about you, your works and your potential to be more than you were yesterday. That is where true satisfaction exists.