DREAM | BELIEVE | CHASE
Recently, I was on a leisure trip with my family when I happened to stop at a colourful and petite dhaba (food outlet). We ordered aloo parathas, hot tea, and finger food items. I was amazed by the cleanliness, happy faces of the staff and of course, the fabulous taste of the food at this outlet. So much so that I felt I should give a good feedback to the manager. As I was approaching the manager, my eyes quickly spotted an elderly man who was passionately cleaning near the entrance area. He was a decent guy. I asked him what made him work so passionately to clean the floor. He replied with a smile that it was his dream to serve people with good food and bring smiles to their faces. I interrupted and asked how he was achieving it by cleaning the floor. I was astonished by the reply. He said that bringing a smile to other people’s faces is an outcome of customer satisfaction. Maintaining cleanliness is one of the important parts. The manager arrived and revealed that the elderly gentleman with whom I was interacting was the owner of the outlet. I could not stop but acknowledge and salute his dream and purpose in life. This event stayed in my mind for some time. It took me back to my ongoing self-exploration journey of finding a dream and purpose for my life.
Finding a dream is a vast subject. For the sake of clarity, let me narrow it down to dreams that connect with the passion and purpose of life. Is passion and purpose the same? Well, I think they are quite different. I think passion is what excites the self, motivates the self, makes one happy or gives a sense of achievement, it’s more inward. While purpose is more focussed, reasonable, deep, and outward, we often know or find our passions but, it’s difficult to find a purpose. When was the last time you thought of finding a purpose in life?
The world is filled with infinite opportunities and possibilities. It’s up to us whether we are cognizant of them. Many people start with their dreams but often land elsewhere. Many often crib with whatever they think they are forced to do for a living, may it be a job or some business. Many find out ways to remain focussed and be successful even though they are not close to what their passion would be. The point is even if people land up doing different things, few still find ways to be successful in whatever they do, but does that give them satisfaction or does that make them happy?
I love exploring this space. It’s crucial to find purpose and, more importantly, the “why” part of it. I thought I should pen down a few thoughts brimming in my mind for the readers. Hope it will help in igniting spark and dreams.
I have always tried to find purpose in my dreams and so far, have been able to navigate through the rough waters, trying to get clarity around it. The good part I like about dreams is there is absolutely no restriction it’s an open mind that is full of unreal and fancy thoughts. But that’s how dreams should be – “unreal”, else how it can be a dream, it would rather be a reality.
There are many examples of people who thought differently, walked unchartered paths, and chased their dreams to make history. I can think of Steve Jobs who dreamt of “putting a computer in the hands of everyday people”. Stephen Hawkings dreamt of discovering the secrets of the universe and experiencing zero gravity, which he eventually did. But this may or may not happen with everyone. We have ample examples where, despite passion, things have gone completely wrong. I think there is a big connection between having a dream and chasing it. That connecting link is “believing”. Believing in dreams, believing in your abilities, believing in the outcome, believing in the people around you, believing that you can do it. This “believe” part is the biggest hope of converting dreams into reality. The good news is that we can make ourselves believe in just anything.
Dreaming can be rogue and vague. It is, therefore, essential to refine it before you manifest it. Refining would also mean we have to believe it first. For this, we need to have conviction, we may have to work hard to convince our minds. I think mapping our dreams, processing the information, and critically analysing it to verify real-life scenarios is an important step in refining our dreams. Our ability to simulate the dreams and run the simulations in various scenarios that we could think of would better prepare us for the refining of dreams. Many leaders, thinkers and coaches are better prepared for any situation because they “simulate” things proactively. They can picture themselves acting in a crisis situation, or handling press conferences that go wild or managing shareholder demands or responding to complex questions on a holiday while sitting in a chair comfortably. Now that there is conviction, it’s important to convert the dream into a goal or vision.
Once we have a goal or vision, I have found that sharing it with our close network, mentors and guides is important and beneficial. They can keep adding value which can help us to further refine the goal or vision. The more we keep sharing with them, the more we start believing in it. Once our goal is clear, our vision is set, half the work is done. It’s then time to break down dreams into milestones or minigoals, chart an actionable plan and execute the plan. The most important thing is to enjoy this process and embrace it joyfully because finally, this connects back to the purpose. We may fail, we may deviate but it’s important to rethink, revisit, recourse and enjoy the achievements in the process.
Well, this article is not intended to lay down any golden rules that can work, but I wished connecting some dots in our minds, toy with some thoughts and philosophies, provoke you to see the bigger picture, and check if all of it makes sense. I trust it will certainly trigger more thoughts and take you back to your dreams.
If you had a dream that you let be dormant, re-ignite the dream and fan the flames. Keep dreaming, keep believing in yourself and chase your dreams!
-Abhishek Bhave,
Growth Unit Head,TBWES, Energy House, Chinchwad
