As many of you might know by now, the foundation-story I share in all of my publications is the necessity of ownership over the self. This is the one prerequisite for a meaningful life- to know who you truly are, to see your truth and to express it in the world via actions.
This inside-out attitude is an indisputable natural principle many of you have learned to ignore. You submit what was once yours to prevailing beliefs that exist outside you without questioning them. By doing so, you invite foreign truths to take seat at your table and steer you in a direction opposed to your own.
There are many foreign truths that take over one’s life: The way you see money, time, love, relationships, health and even your personal space. Whenever you shift your notion of them from being something that supports your happiness towards something that supports your place in society, you give up a piece of yourself. Amidst all these resources, there is something that is especially dire to lose: your dreams and your ability to dream.
True dreams are reflections of your heart’s deepest desires. When you are aligned with yourself and open to see yourself for who you are, your heart speaks to you in a constant dialogue. It instructs you on the things it needs to expand on but also where to draw boundaries. The ability to dream and to hear your dreams are your most important source of direction. It’s your communication line with your intuition. Those who have read “The Alchemist” by Paulo Coehlo should know what I mean.
But there comes a time in everyone’s life where this ability is compromised and shifts from dreaming your personal dream to dreaming a more common dream. Growing up in Switzerland opened me up to the “Swiss dream” – the way Switzerland defines success and the goals that represent that success. Being a white male infused me with other specific dreams. Once I got into advertising these dreams got extended further.
Over time, more and more of my authentic heartfelt dreams were overwritten with seemingly more relevant societal dreams that stood in agreement with my fearful mind that sought approval, respect and a secure place within society.
Obsession with social conformity invites foreign dreams into the mind that clog the lines to one’s heart until our personal dream is just a rare and faint whisper.
And yet, nobody can truly rid themselves of their heart’s desire. It resurfaces every now and then, in a quiet moment, in absence of distraction or when the doubt over the things you do on the daily and the world in general overwhelm you. If you are confused right now it is because of this disagreement.
It is a general truth that we can only live in the outside world if we recognize our inside world first. Loving someone else requires us to love ourselves first. It is the same when it comes to our dreams. Your outside dreams are nothing if they are not in agreement with your inner dreams. They are confused narratives, disconnected and disjointed fragments of someone else’s dream. If you choose to live by them and chase them you choose to chase an illusion. And the thing with illusions is that they vanish as soon as you catch them because they don’t mean anything to you.
So do yourself a favor and identify the false dreams you have. What are the things you do for no other reason than to live up to someone else’s opinion, expectation or judgement?
What are goals and plans you have set that have no origin within you and that only seek to measure up with the world?
And who are the real owners of these dreams?
You’ll be surprised by how many owners of your dreams there are, and how much they cloud your ability to walk on your path of happiness.
