When does a dream born, exactly?
Is it when we are kids? Or when people ask us “what is your dream job?” or “what do you wanna be when you grow up?”. Or is it when we find a hobby, activity, talent or art that fills our hearts completely? That thing we know — deep inside — we are really good at.
Our life dream certainly keeps up with us during our journey, at least for a while. It fills our imagination with thoughts about where could it take us, the things it could help us conquer, and how much happiness it could bring us.
Some of us even take a step ahead of our life dream: by saving money, making a career plan — or any kind of plan — , improving our skills, amplifying our network, or simply trying to stand out wherever we are. For a while, we get enchanted by the idea of fighting for our dreams. But then, the dreams thief catch us.
The catch
When he first come into our lives, it feels really subtle. His entrance makes sense not only at the beginning but during our whole journey. Besides, everyone else is also being robbed by the same thief, so is probably normal. We grow up seeing how the dreams thief feeds an entire system, and as soon as we get old enough, we join it.
In exchange for stealing our dreams, aspirations and ambitions, the dreams thief gives us the cards to play his game, and to survive in his world: regular jobs (for those who have the opportunity), conditions to pay for bills, for food and for houses.
In the dreams thief game, the lucky ones get to multiply their cards and to turn them into big things: travels to incredible places, fancy houses, expensive stuff, opportunities to run their own company and to triple their fortune.
In the meantime, most of the players live with basic cards: regular jobs, no luxuries to afford, and salaries ok enough to pay the bills and wait until the next payday. Somehow, the dreams thief gets into people's heads and convinces us it is all for a purpose.
The zombie mode
And then, playing the dreams thief game turns so natural as breathing. It becomes so automatic we can barely feel it. We just do it: day after day, week after week, month after month, and during years that turn into a whole lifetime.
The zombie mode is so effective that, even when the regular players feel tired, invalidated, confused, irrelevant, sick or lost between their tasks, they just keep going. They keep feeding the system by their robotic modes. Less of living and more of surviving.
While the dreams thief’s game gets bigger, stronger and full of followers, somewhere in space, dreamland becomes forgotten, more and more. It becomes almost a utopic place, a parallel reality. A bluff.
I mean, the dreams thief world worked so fine so far, that it would be crazy to leave it to discover what is out there. It sounds risky, right? Stupid, a lot of people would say. It is a whole system we’re talking about here. It is all we’ve ever known. Safe and stable, some would say.
The outlander
A few weeks ago, I met a person who claimed she came from the dreamland. She said that it is real: a place full of possibilities. You don't hear that stuff a lot in the dreams thief world, so the talk got my attention.
The person told me all about making your own plans to get the hell out of the dreams thief world, to stop playing his game and go after your real dreams. Of course it doesn't happen overnight, but the person told me that as long as I have a plan and, especially a dream to believe, I can get there.
Whats your dream? — The outlander asked me, excited to hear it.
Dream. A word I had pretty much forgotten about. Wait. What is my dream? Have I ever had one? Ok, I must have something on my mind. Anything. Damn. Blank. It was like my zombie mode has erased my whole memory: my true ambitions, life aspirations, dreams and even my authenticity. All gone.
Somehow my conscience got back as if my mind was no longer a part of that system. It felt like my own system was shutten down, as if the programming failed. Suddenly, things around me didn't make sense anymore. What was I doing? Where was I heading? Did I even feel relevant on things I put my energy and time on? Or was I just another player?
Dreamland can be real
Of course that in the dreams thief world, the outlander was seen as a crazy person. Delusional, unstable. But the brightness of his eyes, the excitement in his voice and the resolution present in every word that came out of his mouth just made me believe that going to dreamland is a real possibility.
As soon as I turned my robotic mode off, I could see there was nothing crazy about the outlander. What sounded crazy for me was to join those zombies back again, and to pretend there is some purpose or meaning in the dreams thief game. Who is actually winning, anyway?
Sometimes in life, we might have to play the cards according to the game, to reach our dreams. But we should never forget about our dreams. So, as the outlander taught me: play your cards if you have to, but know when it’s time to shut your system down. And be aware of it.
If the dreams thief made a world of his own, so can we. We make our own realities. Now, you tell me. What is your life dream? And do you have any plans to become an outlander? :)
