Dare to dream always felt like such a cliche phrase. Every store seemed to have a journal, address book, or calendar with a similar phrase on it. It seemed almost flippant. How could I take that phrase seriously? Don't we all have dreams anyway? Why did I have to "dare to dream"?
I think I get it now. For a while I felt like I had no dreams at all. It was weird. There was nothing I thought I wanted to do, or thought I could achieve. It was probably partly depression, but I had lost sight of myself. Dreaming comes with the quiet hope that we're enough. The belief, however small, that we're capable. That we can achieve something more than what our lives are now.
When we lose sight of ourselves, of our inherent awesomeness--or worse--are robbed of that knowledge, we lose hope. And after enough time, we're in danger of losing our dreams. Maybe even our ability to dream, at least for a while. So yes, even when it's hard and seems almost impossible we have to dare to dream again. We have to remember who we are, that we are amazing, that we have the power to change ourselves, our mindset, our skills and our situations with a little bit of hope and learning to love and respect ourselves and others.
Not everyone will enable you or help you to dream. The ones who don't, are probably people who've already lost their ability to dream, at least temporarily. You keep doing you. Keep daring to dream about who you want to be, and what you want to accomplish. Then figure out the steps you'll need to take to reach those dreams. It's such difficult work. But I believe that we can live our dreams. We may have to keep working on them forever, but I'd rather keep trying to my last breath than give up and wonder if I could have achieved something more.
At the end of the day, it's whether or not we kept getting back up and trying. You only fail if you quit, if you stop trying. And even then, you can change your mind and get back up. It's never too late.
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