You may have heard the saying “stop building castles in the air”. I came across this interesting twist to it: “build castles in the air, but build foundations on the ground for them.” I came to like this remixed version; it shows the need for us to have dreams, as well as the important fact that dreams alone are not enough. We need to work hard to make them a reality.
I am, like many others, a man of many dreams – some small, some big. It is my desire to see them come true. Over the years I have learnt three things about dreams. 1) Life has no direction without a dream; 2) Dreams need a foundation – hard work – to make them come true; and 3) Dreams require patience, persistence and commitment to turn them into realities.
Our dreams are of two kinds: those that are realistic and have a chance of success – (we usually call these goals), and there are those that are not realistic (which we call fantasies). When we are young, we are usually full of childish fantasies, and as we grow older, we shed most of the fantasies, leaving behind refined goals. Over the years, I realised that it takes maturity and experience to distinguish between goals and fantasies. No wonder our parents and other elderly ones usually tell us to be level headed! They are not trying to stop us from dreaming; they are just helping us set realistic goals.
As we go on in life, let us not stop dreaming, but instead be guided by the wisdom of age to build those kinds of castles for which true foundations can be built, and to enable us turn them into realities.
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