Fola Daniel Adelesi: Closer To the Dream

Many of us who have been working daily towards our desired dreams are closer to the dreams than we can imagine. Yet we seem so far away at some point. We begin to wonder when we will ever achieve those big dreams of our hearts.

Sometimes it just looks like these dreams will never come to pass. We have written big goals and strategized in a very big way but the resources coming in are peanuts. We also don’t seem to be getting into the right network of people who can help. When this happens to you and you see things jelling – working out – for other people you are tempted to think yours may never happen.

Let me quickly say there is a great danger in not knowing that you are closer to your dream or not feeling that you are making progress. This quickly reminds me of the book, ‘Acres of Diamond’ written by James Allen. I suggest you read it if you have not. He shares a brief story of a man looking for diamond. After a while he set out, leaving his country home to look for this diamond.

All the efforts and his trip was a wasted one. Why was that? He never realised that he was living right on top of the diamond he was looking for. So he left what he was so close to because he thought it was far away.

Your diamond is not far away. I can tell. I know you have been working at it for a while and I just want to encourage you to know you are closer to that diamond or dream. Keep chasing it and chase it in the right place. This of your dream as something ‘kidnapped’ and you are on a search and rescue mission. Now you are very close to where the dream is and all the kidnappers have taken just by hearing your footsteps! How will you now give up at a time like this?

There may be some points when you feel you are just daydreaming. I think you need to remember that those who have things working for them today were at some point day dreaming. There was a time when they did not know what to do.

You can imagine how frustrating it is to have all the skills needed to get things done but you don’t have a dime of the resources needed. It can even be worse when everyone keeps telling you how talented you are and they all pity you that nothing is happening for you.

If you keep working at those dreams and you don’t stop, even though things don’t seem to be working out, I can tell you authoritatively that you are one step closer to the dreams you are chasing.

There may be times when you have taken a few wrong steps and you also know it. That’s okay. Sometimes when you don’t take the wrong steps you will never know where to put your feet the next time you need to make a move. It’s running into some bumps in life that we learn where to slow down and where to go at top speed.

When you wake up on daily basis to pursue your dreams and others are laughing at you, just know that you are one step closer. They may be laughing because they think you are wasting your time. They may be laughing because they think you will never get anything done. Let them laugh as much as they want. When you finally take the last step on the dream chasing journey, you will be the one to start laughing.

Don’t ever think about quitting. You should not let the lack of visible results weigh you down. There are times when things just seem to shut down completely. it looks like nothing will work again.

You will even be more scared or discouraged when you see people you revere failing or making terrible mistakes. You may begin to ask how you will ever make it to the finish line if these giants are dropping out of the race.

Don’t look at those ones anymore and don’t despise them. You were supposed to get your inspiration from them but now you have to choose another source of inspiration. You need to keep working and talking and seeing.

All the efforts you are putting in that business are taking you one step closer to the dream. All the time and resources are taking you one step closer to your dream. The only time you are not going closer to that dream is when you stop doing anything for the dream.

Remember this point I am trying to make like someone driving through a very long tunnel. You know that it does not matter how long you drive you will not see the end until you are there. Driving in the tunnel without seeing the end does not mean you are not making progress or getting close to the end. But you should note that you will only see the end of the tunnel if you don’t stop driving.

So in real life, don’t stop driving yourself or pushing yourself towards that dream on a daily basis. There is so much you are doing and everything takes you a step closer to the finish line even if you can’t see it yet!

Photo Credit: Dreamstime | Xiao Cai