In the words of John Ruskin, an English writer, philosopher, art critic, and polymath of the Victorian era, “dream lofty dreams, as you dream, so shall you become.”
This goes on to suggest that one’s vision is the promise of what one shall one day be; while one’s ideal is the prophecy of what he shall at last unveil.
The truth of life remains that everybody does not have to be a genius to work hard and attain prosperity.
For according to Charles Dickens, “Industry is the soul of business and the keystone of prosperity. If you have great talents, the industry will improve them, if you have but moderate abilities, industries will supply their deficiencies.”
It is work and not birth that governs the aristocracy of the present time.
In life, you begin the process of becoming great by dreaming big dreams. All successful people are first dreamers. They continually allow their minds to float freely when they think about what is possible for them.
Experts believe that successful people continually practice “back from the future” thinking. They project into the future several years and imagine what their life would look like if they had achieved all of their goals.
They look back to the present, from the mental vantage point of the future, like looking from the top of a high mountain down to where they are actually standing in the present. They then look at the path that they would have to take to get to where they want to be in the future.
The implication of this is that your mind can be your best friend or your worst enemy. Your thoughts alone have the power to make you healthy or sick, rich or poor, popular or unpopular.
Your mind is like a powerful force that can be turned in any direction to bring about wonderful results, or wreak havoc and destruction.
Hence, your main goal in life must be to harness your amazing powers and direct them intelligently and systematically towards achieving everything you really want.
There are many parallels between you and the great masterpiece status of King David in Florence, Italy. You are very much like a great masterpiece enclosed in marble.
Read also: How to create your personal leadership plan
However, the marble that envelops you, and most other people, is the marble of small, limited thinking and excessive worry about the possibilities of loss or failure; rather than excited anticipation of the rewards of success and achievements.
You know the Biblical story of David and Goliath. The first thing that ran through the mind of young David while going to fight the giant, was what will be given to the one who kills this man. That is looking at the reward side of his assignment. Always learn to look at the reward side of your assignments.
To realise your full potential, your greatest need is to break out of your limited thinking by dreaming big dreams, and imaging unlimited possibilities. You need to remove all the negative beliefs that hold you back from becoming all you are capable of becoming.
Nevertheless, you must be ready to work on yourself for days, weeks, months, and even years, to develop and bring out all the talents and abilities that lie deep inside of you.
Vision is more about going somewhere beneficial to mankind to God’s glory. There is always a need to have a sense of direction in life. The power of creating a picture and holding the picture in the heart cannot be overemphasised.
What made President John F. Kennedy’s vision of landing man on the moon remarkable was not the accomplishment, but the picture itself. It is a clear picture of the future that people of his time could imagine, the ability to hold the picture was what really made it remarkable. People could see and sustain the invisible picture John Kennedy was painting till it was made visible.
The most important aspect of dreaming big dreams is for one to define his ideal future vision. It is for you to think about what you want before you begin to think about what is possible for you.
You dream big dreams by looking into the future and imagining that you have no limitations holding you back. Detach yourself from your current situation and allow yourself to dream.
Pretend for the moment that you have all the time and money you need. Imagine your ideal lifestyle, your ideal job, etc. Design your perfect life in every respect.
You begin the creation of your ideal future by making up your dream list. You write down everything that you would want to be, do, and/or have exactly as if you had no limitations.
Your ability to set goals and make plans for their accomplishment is the “Master Skill” of success. Putting your goals on paper is the next step in the process.
