By NAVEED GILANI
“All our dreams come true – if we have the courage to pursue them” – Walt Disney
Walt Disney’s dream was to bring happiness to the children of the world no matter how many continents away they lived from the make believe world of fantasy land. As a child I used to fantasize about rides in Disneyland’s ‘mad tea party’ and the ‘haunted mansion’. How it captured my heart then and later as a young man when I visited Walt’s Disneyland I was delighted to have rediscovered the child in me. I met with Donald Duck, Mickey Mouse, Goofy, Pluto, and the entire gang. Thank you Walt!
Martin Luther King had a dream; “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character”. Enter Barak Obama – King’s dream come true, indeed.
Iqbal, the deeda-war (visionary), had a dream and we owe our existence as a free people of Pakistan to his dream.
Big Dreams, no impossibilities.
Some time ago I received an e-mail from a friend which prompted me to write these lines. The e-mail:
A man lay on his bed at the end of his life waiting to die. His dream came to pay his last respects and bid farewell to the man who had never used it. As it entered the room the man looked down in shame.
“Why did you not realize me?” the dream asked.
“Because I was afraid,” the man said.
“Afraid of what,” said the dream.
“I was afraid I would fail.”
“But haven’t you failed by not attempting to use me?”
“Yes I did, but I always thought there would be tomorrow.”
“You Fool!” said the dream” Did it never occur to you that there was only ever today? The moment that you are in right now? Do you think that now that death is here that you can put it off until tomorrow?”
“No”. Said the man, a tear gently rolling down his cheek.
The dream was softer now, because it knew that there were two types of pain, the pain of discipline and the pain of regret, and while discipline weighs ounces, regret weighs pounds.
Then the dream leant forward to gently wipe away the tear and said, “you need only have taken the first step and I would have taken one to meet you, for the only thing that ever separated us was the belief in your mind that you couldn’t have me”.
Then they said goodbye and they both died
So, now here is the deal. At the time of our birth we are all gifted with those unique dreams waiting to be fulfilled. If you are like me you will probably leave them be, undiscovered & uncharted. Don’t! Go seek your dream and make it come true.
Dream huge dreams, challenging dreams, exciting dreams, impossible dreams, for they fuel the passion and you know what? Passion begets success. I look at the people who have been successful in life and I find one common denominator, Passion. They discovered their turn-ons early in life. I read of a girl in a remote village in northern Pakistan who was passionate about being a lady health worker to make a difference in the quality of life of the womenfolk in her village. Was she successful? You bet. A young boy studying in a ‘tat ka school’ (a village school where students sit on a gunny rug) in Jhang, Pakistan learned to become a Nobel winning physicist. Was that successful? Yes, indeed. And much closer to me in real life I have known a hugely successful young pathan colleague, a Chartered Accountant, who as a child used to wash cars in Karachi sadder. It all starts with a dream.
This is the first step to achieving great things. Dream of whatever turns you on. Let your mind drift and see what puts a smile on your face. Is it climbing a mountain or looking at the stars? Is it studying birds or soaring like a bird? Is it the study of the real or study of the abstract? Know what makes you heart go, ka boom, ka boom. For, therein lays the key to your happiness and your destiny.
Our dreams are limited by our knowledge of knowns, which when I was growing up was also limited. Today my children’s sphere of knowns is a billion times more. From northern lights to the Patagonia fjords to the K2 and the Everest are all known to them and offer adventure possibilities. From a brewer master to a financial engineer to a physicist in the super collider are endless career possibilities. And I often meet young boys and girls who want to serve the fellow humans. I know that some may turn out be the future Sattar Edhis others as Quaid-e-Azams or Nelson Mandelas. All is possible from that kernel of a dream.
You become what you dream about. Your mind is like a fertile land, returns what you plant. A fertile land doesn’t care whether you plant wheat or nightshade. Plant your wheats, nurture them, and enjoy the fruits of a bumper success. As a teenager Einstein had a dream that refracted the path of physics to propel us beyond our world and into the depths of space. He dreamed that he was sledding down a steep hill at night, his sled traveled faster and faster, until it approached the speed of light. At that speed, the stars and night sky were transformed into a dazzling spectrum of colors. Einstein once said, “my entire scientific career has been a meditation on that dream.”
Only as high as I reach can I grow
Only as far as I seek can I grow
Only as deep as I look can I see
Only as much as I dream can I be
Karen Ravn
Get the wings for your imagination. They are free.
