Why most people fail to live their dream?

Why most people fail to live their dream? All my life I have heard this phrase ‘Have a dream and follow it passionately till you turn it into a reality’. Then again, I was told by some that the dream you see must be realistic. Dream or aspire what you can achieve. Is there an upper or a lower limit associated with the dreams? Why should I dream of a thing if I can achieve it just like that anyways? Or I shouldn’t I have a dream that I should get everything without shaking a leg?

How big can one dream?

I think no dream is too small or big for anyone. Dreams do change as one grows and gets exposed to life. The same person who dreamt of being an auto driver as a kid may dream of owning a luxury aircraft when he grows up. Unfortunately, most kids are just not allowed to dream. Their parents take on the mantel of decisions making on their behalf. How can someone who has not been trained in the art od decision making succeed in life.

Yesterday a young 21-year-old boy came to my place on behalf of ‘Urban Clap’ to give me a haircut. We were casually chatting as he went about his task. I asked him about his interests and what he wanted to achieve in life. He very enthusiastically told me about his love for motorbikes and that he had owned/ disposed of three of them in last two years. Since he was short of money, he bought only pre-owned bikes, used them to his heart content and sold them off. Being a young bachelor, he could afford to save enough to fulfil his dream of owning expensive bikes. Nothing major wrong about his dream and the plan being followed to realise it.

Where is the problem?

The problem was added when he said his aim was to ultimately own a shining Rolls Royce car in which he will travel to the residence of his customers to give haircut. Listening to him I was reminded of the story of a rich little girl I had read in my school days. When told to write about a poor man the girl wrote “once upon a time there was a poor man, he had a poor chauffer, a poor house-maid and even his guards were poor”. know most of you must be laughing at this. But then don’t most of us go/ have gone wrong in our dreams/ thoughts in a similar fashion.

What we think or dream is usually related to our own experiences. The little girl was exposed to a particular way of life which for her was the only way and hence she just added a poor man to that way of life and created her story. Similar was the case of the young boy giving me haircut. Even after owning an expensive car, he wanted to travel to people’s residences to give them haircuts. He was not dreaming of changing his way of life or of owning a chain of salons. The main problem with his dream was that he had no action plan to achieve it. He had no plan in place to increase his income nor had an investment plan in place.

The answer….

Not his fault entirely. Our education system falls way short of educating the kids about dreaming and practical ways of realizing them. This boy had completed his 12^th standard but had no idea of basic financial management. Our education system is just loaded with theories and there is hardly any emphasis on practicalities of life. Investment is not just related to finances; it has more to do with gaining knowledge which will help in realizing a dream. The education syllabus got to be made more practical and relevant instead of just being loaded with information.

There is nothing wrong in having any dream. Where most people go wrong is in preparing a plan for achieving the dream and seriously going for it. People have a dream but have no idea how to realize it and there is no one guiding them to it. Two major ingredients for achieving success are preparation of a practical plan and putting in the requisite hard work for making that plan successful.

A dream never lets you sleep….

Be ready to pay the price to achieve a dream……