I stopped dreaming long ago…

Dan Miller —  February 12, 2013 — 5 Comments

Here’s a note I just received from a Wisdom meets Passion reader:

Yes, I still do 8.5 hours of time in my “human filing cabinet” each day.  Yes, I still dream of breaking out and finding my true calling. Yes, I’m still scared to death to do so. I stopped dreaming so long ago that I can’t even remember what I loved to do when I was 20, much less 5. I just remember loving baseball more than anything else. Maybe I should get a glove and a ball and find a wall and play catch with myself for a dozen hours, and baseball throwmy dreams might start to come back.  Hmmm.  Maybe I will.

That actually is a great idea.  Just breaking the cycle of our routine is often the jarring that our brains need to wake up.  Go ahead and spend that 12 hours throwing a ball against the wall – I’m absolutely confident that in that time you’ll wipe away some cobwebs, release the fear, peel back the scales from your eyes and begin to get in touch with your childhood dreams.

So often I see people who have become numbed to their dreams just because “life happens.”  Mortgages come along, kids need school books, and it’s time for new tires on the car.  Who has time to dream?  But that’s why unexpected and even unwelcome events like a job loss or a business failure often break the normal day-to-day existence and wake up our best dreams.  Take the initiative while things are okay – go spend a day at the zoo, walk 4 miles out in the country, call an old high school friend, get a massage, go on a cruise, or throw a ball at a wall for 12 hours – that just may be the tipping point to reveal your true calling.

  • http://zenartandillustration.wordpress.com/ Raven Burnes

    This is really great advice and very important to do regularly. Julia Cameron, author of The Artist’s Way, calls these “artist dates”. You “take yourself out” (it’s important to go alone) and do something fun and unusual. This loosens up the mental cobwebs and allows us to have expanded thoughts based not on current “limitations” but on what’s really possible. Today at school I snuck into a class I wasn’t enrolled in and sat through the lecture. While the teacher was speaking I came up with a ton of ideas for other projects I’m working on. It becomes a way of life after a while.

  • http://www.mondayisgood.com/ Tom Dixon

    Isn’t it funny when our flippant answer to a problem actually turns out to have some merit? Sometimes we know what to do all along. Can’t think of anything better to get out of a rut than spending a day getting some stress out with a baseball…love it!

  • epickett

    I think I’ve forgotten HOW to dream. But I’m unemployed, and can’t seem to FIND a job. Right now, getting some money coming in is more important than living a dream. How can I reconcile that?

    • Margie

      Even the unemployed can dream. I know. Taking a walk at the lake in the quiet reminds me that I’ve lost the bigger picture. Deep breathing nice and slow and my anxiety begins to leave and I feel I’m beginning to touch nature again and then God comes and touches me and hope returns and dreams begin to change. And that’s sometimes good.

  • Jonathan

    Thanks, I needed that