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Day dreaming is for the strong of mind and don’t let anyone tell you any different. Day dreamers are resilient, creative, passionate, and definitely going places. I owe all of the good in my life to my ability to dream for it. Imagine, visualize, explore, and go for it. Yet many of us are told to keep our heads “out of the clouds,” by teachers, parents, co-workers, and friends.
Day dreaming is good for our minds because it helps us visualize our goals, aids in brain health and memory, and allows our minds to problem solve. If you don’t believe me, check out this Time article on the importance of day dreaming, or this article by Psychology Today. Of course, our day dreams may be distracting from time to time, but more often than not, they tell us our true desires and show us what we really want out of life. That is a powerful tool to have.
When you know what your heart wants you can create ways to make it happen. Studies of day dreamers have shown that people who day dream often usually make more progress in their goals than people who don’t.
As an introvert, I do day dream often. I have faced criticism for it over the years, as well as recently. But I have a message for them: My day dreams make me happy. The reason why I have been able to achieve every goal I set my heart to is because I am a dreamer. For years I day dreamed about flying a plane and I made it happen. I day dreamed about being a professional photographer back in high school and I made it happen. I dreamed about starting this blog last Spring and I have made it happen. Every adventure, travel experience, educational goal, and achievement I have ever made happened because I dreamed it first.
If nothing else, day dreaming is fun. It brings people joy to think of possibilities for the future and it helps us get through tough times. As a kid in a bad household, my day dreams gave me hope for something better. I owe a great portion of my own happiness to my ability to dream, to cope, and to overcome. In college they helped me see the possibilities and the finish line. As an adult they have inspired my life’s greatest choices and have given me the courage to live the life I want to live. Now I am living it my way and making progress every day.
You see, people will try to tear down these dreams. My fiancé, Matthew, says that everyone has a castle in their mind. This castle holds all of their dreams and most often other people will try to tear down that castle. People have their own reasons. Sometimes it is jealousy. They weren’t able to achieve their dreams so they don’t want you to have yours. Usually this comes in statements like, “Well, I had to deal with real life experiences so I couldn’t keep my head in the clouds.” Everyone is dealing with their own real life and people react differently to that. Often day dreaming is a response to difficult real life situations that helps the dreamer get out of that dark hole. There are other embittered responses to day dreamers. “If I can’t, then neither should you.” Or even, “That won’t ever happen. Just get over it.” And my personal least favorite; “Time to take off the rose colored glasses.” When you hear responses like these when sharing your dreams and goals for the future, it has nothing to do with you. This is a reflection of their own failure to follow through. This is bitterness speaking. Feel sorry that they feel this way, but know that you’re doing right by yourself. As my step mom says, “Don’t join them on the ride. You can stay on the ground and wave as they go by.”
Sometimes these naysayers are simply afraid. Afraid that you will fail and be hurt by it, afraid that you will leave them behind, afraid that they cannot measure up to your dreams, afraid that their own dreams will never come true, afraid for any number of reasons. If someone tells you it is “safer” to do something else instead or “why don’t you wait until…” then they are afraid. Again, wish these people well and keep going forward.
And if you are the one always tearing down other peoples castles, ask yourself why.
Do you want to be known as the person who always puts others down? Or do you want to be known as the person that encourages and raises others up?
The secret power of day dreamers is that they have the tools to create their own lives and achieve those dreams. The day dreamers are the people who raise others and raise themselves along with them.
