A Pleasant Daydream
I was hoping to have a wonderful dream last night, but I had a nightmare instead. So, I am not going to talk about the surreal occurrences -- dreams or nightmares -- that come to us when we are asleep. Instead, I would just focus on dreams as ambitions or aspirations. That is also a wide topic and let me just zero in on big dreams, small dreams, and daydreams.
Only the insane do not have dreams. But most of us are conditioned from young NOT to have big dreams. “Wake up and smell the coffee,” says dad. “Stop dreaming!” says mum. “Dream on,” says your sister. “Haha…you must be dreaming!” says your mate. So we make small dreams, accepting the so-called fact that the bigger the dream, the bigger the disappointment. In doing do, we reign in our guts, confidence and self-belief, do the ordinary, and follow the flow. Is it any wonder that more than 80% of the world population are common and ordinary?
What can I say about daydreams? They are pleasant thoughts or wishes, and it is therefore not surprising that we all get lost in our own fantasies once in a while. That is being human. The difference is that some do it more often than others. And extreme cases, as psychologists would tell you, do exist. Other than that, it is safe to say that people who are less ambitious – those with small dreams – tend to do it more often than those who dream big. Daydreaming presents a convenient outlet for our suppressed bigger dreams, doesn’t it?
Is it wise to dream big? Did our famous Uncle Lim Goh Tong ever think, wish or dream that he would build a business empire as big as the Genting Group today? Did Datuk Lee Chong Wei ever imagine that he would be a world-beater in the badminton arena one day when he was a kid? They might not have foreseen what they have achieved when they were small, but I’m sure along the way as they achieved one success after another, their dreams grew. How often have we heard world athletes said in interviews that it had been their dreams to win an
Only the insane do not have dreams. But most of us are conditioned from young NOT to have big dreams. “Wake up and smell the coffee,” says dad. “Stop dreaming!” says mum. “Dream on,” says your sister. “Haha…you must be dreaming!” says your mate. So we make small dreams, accepting the so-called fact that the bigger the dream, the bigger the disappointment. In doing do, we reign in our guts, confidence and self-belief, do the ordinary, and follow the flow. Is it any wonder that more than 80% of the world population are common and ordinary?
What can I say about daydreams? They are pleasant thoughts or wishes, and it is therefore not surprising that we all get lost in our own fantasies once in a while. That is being human. The difference is that some do it more often than others. And extreme cases, as psychologists would tell you, do exist. Other than that, it is safe to say that people who are less ambitious – those with small dreams – tend to do it more often than those who dream big. Daydreaming presents a convenient outlet for our suppressed bigger dreams, doesn’t it?
Is it wise to dream big? Did our famous Uncle Lim Goh Tong ever think, wish or dream that he would build a business empire as big as the Genting Group today? Did Datuk Lee Chong Wei ever imagine that he would be a world-beater in the badminton arena one day when he was a kid? They might not have foreseen what they have achieved when they were small, but I’m sure along the way as they achieved one success after another, their dreams grew. How often have we heard world athletes said in interviews that it had been their dreams to win an