Dreams fascinate me. Too often they don't mean much of anything, but every once in a while they do. I love hearing about people's dreams. I love people willing to share about their dreams. I don't often dream, but when I do they are often about the future or a different reality I want to live in.
Those are usually what I daydream about.
When I daydream, I often dream of a world that is limitless. No physical limit that prevents you from flying. No mental limit to prevent you from changing the world. I often wonder in the circus of my mind if part of it is dreaming of heaven.
My other dreams are more goal-oriented...
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As the New Year slowly approaches I finalize the details of my vision board and am reminded that we are often free to dream. Dreaming challenges you to push beyond your limits. Limits you might not realize exist. Have you played a game that reveals those limits? When reflecting on this year and the new one to come. I am reminded of a game I used to play in college. I don't know what it's called, but I found it online as the Personality Test: The Field, Cube, Ladder, Horse, and Flower Question.
Like dreams, our sub-conscience often holds our deepest desires and fears. What do you fear when it comes to the New Years? I fear the lack of flexibility. Many moons ago, I was in high school planning for college. My adviser or someone once told me a piece of advice I should stop applying when considering the future.
Planning a future based on someone else...
When selecting a University, that piece of advice made a lot of sense.
When planning a future with the people you love, that piece of advice does not typically pan out. You find a job that you love because of the type of work, because of your manager, because of your coworkers.
You start a business based on support. You take a chance and move to your dream city.
You start dreaming of a life filled with those you want to surround yourself with not just a life of yourself.
Not just based on who I want to become, on the activities I want to conquer, or anything else that only involves me. This coming year will be about the relationships we build and develop. The challenges conquered with others, the strengthening of the community, the growth of the church, the dreams developed based on the family expanding.
For the first time dreaming about the future isn't all about me alone, but about us and we. It is based on who we want it to be with. Who we want to become alongside people. It is a strange way of dreaming. It's a challenge. It is thinking less about myself alone.
They say it takes a village to raise a child. As a recent godmother, I often think about the future I want my goddaughter to have.
I think about the adventures I want her to take. The friends I hope she makes.
I think about my own family. The relationship I want to have with them.
I think about my friends and the influence they have.
I think about the hobbies I invest in etc...
Most of the goals I've set for myself for this passing year have been accomplished and changed. I've read more, I've exercised, I've saved, and I have even been right about my friends. What I didn't expect is the change and the influence of them.
Dreaming based on the people that enter my life.
I know that many will continue to enter my life. Over the years I've learned and become overly comfortable with the idea that people enter your life for a season. Sometimes a short season and sometimes a longer one. Either way, the expectation is that they eventually leave. For the first, I have become strangely and uneasy about these new people. They have entered and may never leave.
That's not a season, but a lifetime.
Some of them are not. They are challenging to understand. Moreso, they are challenging me. My roommate for example often desires the company of others to be fulfilled. I didn't understand this desire until I built a support system I currently hold dear.
A church family for spiritual support, a close group of friends for emotional fulfillment, a potential spouse to share life with. So many types of support can be found and kept if invested in. Many of them require us to be fulfilled in ourselves in order to give to others. Many of them require us just to be. Yet some, require us to think less of ourselves as a single unit.
That is my 2020 challenge. It is no longer just about me...
What do you hope to gain as you reflect on the year that has passed and the one to come? Are you going to set goals? Will you travel more, read more, love more?
Will you wait until the New Year? Will you wait until that Monday to start? How will you challenge yourself? Forgive yourself?
Is consistency the name of the game this year? For many, that word is the theme of their year. It is the driving force behind their newfound focus. They no longer want to react to a desire to change. They no longer want to start just to give up. They don't want to focus on change as much as small steps toward it.
