Teach Someone to Dream

I have discovered, in this 52nd year of my life, that I never learned how to dream; to dream so big I must set goals. I remember hearing people say I must do that, I never did find anything I was passionate enough about to pursue. Therefore, setting goals was difficult. Don’t get me wrong, I was a great student, always top of my class and a very hard worker.

Was it fear that kept me from dreaming? Or could I just not decide what I wanted bad enough to risk being discontent if it didn’t happen?

I think this must be the trick. We have to dream. But we also have to be willing to dream in such a way that our life is bearable until the dream happens or doesn’t.

So how do we teach people to dream when they are afraid? One shouldn’t be told what they should want, how do we help them?

Along this same line, how do we teach students to dream? Especially when they have little or no guidance from home? Most of these kids can’t even imagine something better much less imagine that they could make it possible.

This is not a rhetorical question. I remember many lessons on setting goals and how important goals are. But no one, not one single person, taught me how to dream. How to reach inside me and find what I’m passionate about, how to not be afraid to claim that as a dream. For our students less fortunate than us, how to look outside their life and realize that many things are possible but first they have to begin with a dream.

Most children today only see people dream about being an entertainer, or an athlete. With most children distracted by media of all kinds they rarely see someone dream about real things. Let’s face it, not everyone can make it big as an entertainer. But every one of us can have a passion to create, to reach others, to invent, to heal, to learn, to explore, to find something that motivates you to do, and be, your best.

But I’m still waiting to hear the best advice of how to motivate one to find a dream in their heart, one that can motivate and carry them to find purpose.