5-year old Susie goes up to her dad and tells him she would like to be an airline pilot. She is running around with her toy airplane, pretending to take all sorts of adventures to different parts of the world, and she is having a grand time doing it! Her smile is evident – she is loving the adventure. Her dad is busy looking at something on the computer so he doesn’t pay much attention except to say ‘that’s nice honey.’ She continues on her merry way and so, too, does her dad.
Fast forward to the Age of 10 – Susie is in Grade 5 and she is to research and write a story about her ideal career and how she would like to ‘be’ in her life. So by this time, her dream of becoming a pilot has grown somewhat. She has paid attention to stories on television that are about pilots, she is interested in documentaries on being a pilot, and she is starting to look online for information on how to become a pilot.
She invites her dad and mom to read her story that she has written for the class. It is clear from the look on their faces that there is something wrong about what she has written. She is puzzled – she has been talking about her dream for the last many years and they have said nothing. But today is different. As they finish her story, you can see the look of fear on mom’s face and the look of seriousness come over her father’s face.
They turn to Susie and tell her that she can never become a pilot because they don’t have the money to send her to school to do that. She will need to choose something else.
Susie can tell that mom is upset about what her dad is saying. But dad is completely serious with her – she needs to drop ‘this silly nonsense’ and choose something more practical – like going to college and maybe becoming a dental hygienist. That career makes good money and is more realistic…
Susie is devastated… she had no clue she wouldn’t be able to achieve her dream. But what dad and mom says is usually right… and a huge wet blanket gets dropped over top of her dream.
For the next few years, as she heads into High School, she still toys with the idea of becoming a pilot. But now she has way more doubt. Maybe it’s not possible – and that begins to shape how hard she focuses upon school.
By the time she hits high school, she is unmotivated to really excel and her grades begin to fall so that when she is choosing her next career move after high school, she doesn’t have the marks to consider anything other than a college program. So she opts to become a dental hygienist…
How many dreams have you had in your lifetime? How much have you allowed your dreams to fade, like Susie did?
We stay stuck in our lives because we dismiss our dreams as if they don’t matter. And we have been doing this, for a variety of reasons, since we were a child.
For most of us, our parents are the most important people in our lives. What they believed became our truth and our lives have become a manifestation of their greatest thought.
So what happens to our dreams? If they were dismissed in childhood, they are often dismissed throughout adulthood due to a variety of beliefs we learned from our parents:
- That will never make you money!
- We don’t have the money to afford that.
- You aren’t smart enough to do that.
- Money doesn’t grow on trees – you need to grow up and get real!
- That isn’t for you… that’s for other people, but not for you.
- You need to be practical.
These are only some of the beliefs that we hold subconsciously and suck the life out of our dreams and desires. It’s why becoming a conscious creator is so hard… deep down, we are not conditioned to believe that we can achieve these things or that we are deserving of these things.
So I ask you – what dreams are you denying? What desires do you hold, deep down, that you never take seriously? Dust them off, bring them out into the light of day, and create a vision card outlining that dream – and then focus on it daily. You would be surprised what you can do.
And when doubt arises, let it go – understand where it comes from and why it’s there. Children always knew that dreaming was FUN – well it is also purposeful, because what you dream creates your future!