Dream the goal

It is very common for all of us to dream of a wonderful future. This is fundamental to the positive thinking without which our life would become difficult. It is the serotonin in the body that helps us with that kind of positive thinking without which there won’t be any hope in our life. Now, the questions are:


1) Are we doing the right thing by dreaming about our future?
2) When is the right time to dream about our future and how long?
3) How do we realize the potential of what we dream?
4) What precisely we need to dream about?


Dr.Abdul Kalam, former President of India and renowned scientist who was instrumental in developing nuclear missile technology in India requested all the youngsters of the nation to dream. Of course, it is right to dream about our future. We need to evaluate our capabilities when we dream about our future. Even if we dream beyond our potential, we need to take the steps to build the necessary skills now. It is unrealistic goals that shatter the very purpose of positive thinking. For example, John F. Kennedy, President of the United States made a statement, “United States would put a man on the moon by the end of the decade and bring him back to earth safely”. If we carefully analyze his statement, we could easily understand how realistic he was in making that statement. He had already built a strong space program. He did not say US wants to be the first. He only indicated the time frame as end of the decade with no specific date and only focus was to put a man on the moon and bring him back to earth safely.


There is no right time to dream and whether we are young or old, everyone could dream. But, we have to make sure that whatever we visualize should be real and should be ready to equip us with all necessary training and development to do that. We need to be ready to sacrifice anything for achieving that goal. Dr.Martin Luther King Jr.’s scintillating speech in 60’s “I have a dream” had a clear road map for civil rights which later became a law. He adopted the principles of non-violence following the foot-steps of Mahatma Gandhi and readily admitted it. He fought for the civil rights without instigating violence. He did everything that is necessary without worrying about the end results. Visualizing something should not remain in dream forever and we have to make concrete steps to realize those visualized goals.


Whatever we dream should be broken down into various steps. The dream should not be only a goal but it should be a detailed plan how to achieve that goal. We need to evaluate all the gaps and try to fill up the gap to achieve such goals. We need to do a detailed root cause analysis for what would prevent us from achieving the goals. Unless we understand the huddles to achieve that goal, we would never have the courage and conviction to face those huddles. The clarity and our ability to communicate that goal are also essential. Even if we do mid-course correction on steps to achieve goal, it should not change and should always remain the same. Dilution of the goal is not an option. Mahatma Gandhi’s goal for India is self-governance and not to promote ill-will against the British rulers and it did not change until it was realized.


Lastly, it is important to understand that the dream should be about precisely what we would like to accomplish and not about associated results of such goal. Even when we encourage our children to perform in the school, we should always tell them to prepare well for their exams and focus on their preparation more than the end results. The end results would come automatically based on the effort. When Rajiv Gandhi created foundation for open market economy in India, his goal was to make India a fast growing economy. He did not dream of becoming # 1 or # 2 economy in the world. If it happens eventually, that is actually a result of his visualization and execution and not a goal by itself.

 

Dear Stangerrr,

Thank you for your first fb and your summary in a sentence of what I wrote in a page. I always find that as the difference between generations.

Viswa