'I have a dream...'

“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.” 
― Eleanor Roosevelt

So since I've had a lot of time to myself recently, I've been thinking about dreams. If you believe in all the Instagram quotes and the inspirational memes your best friend keeps sharing on Facebook, then your dream is just one moments clarity away from reality. Oh how it would be nice if the white words filtered against a typical hipster sunset background were true, wouldn't it?

If you're anything like myself right now, or you've had a lot of time to think things over recently then you've probably come to the conclusion that dreams are stupid.

For the longest time I've wanted to become a full time blogger, worker for a fashion magazine and even dip my toes into the pond of the whole 'YouTube world'. This is what I've wanted to do for so long, and I suppose I can give myself a small pat on the back since I have created a blog and kept up with frequent content as much as possible. *Pats back*.

For a long time I thought I'd grown out of this 'phase' of these dreams, I created a YouTube channel 23rd June 2009 - 6 years I've been trying to pluck up the courage to start doing what I wanted to do, and 6 years later I'm still on 4 subscribers. Now I'm only 20 years old, I often get told 'I'm still a baby' and since I look about 12 years old, that's not very hard to believe. But I like to think I've matured a lot in 6 years and I've got my shit together a little bit better... Emphasise on the 'little'. I think a lot of us think we've matured past these dreams that take up a lot of time, money, preparation and energy. But really, we keep dreaming... we just do it on a smaller less inspired scale.

"When I grow up I want to be a Princess who rides a multicoloured unicorn to princess school everyday and I want all my food to be covered in fairy dust so I can fly and go say hi to Peter, Wendy and the lost boys" -
Yeah, that's much more of a rational dream right there.

However when you're 5 years old and you've just been asked for the first time what you'd like to be when you grow up, nothing matters but everything is possible in that little imagination and you believe that you're going to get that multicoloured unicorn! But, adulthood is not the time to start giving up on your dreams, it's the time to honour and embrace them. But first you need to figure out what is worth inhabiting your 'dream space'. We need to dump the stupid, just brush it under the rug and make room for good, the golden, the jack pot baby!

Leave behind what distracts you from your goals. It's time to abandon the impossible. (It's hard I know, I'm still coming to terms with the fact I'm never going to get the chance to sing on stage with S club 7)!

When you abandon the impossible, you generally start to realise the unnecessary and the unwanted. Who wants the uptight girl who lives in a fantasy when you can have the girl who laughs about having whipped cream thrown in her face and lives in the real world of NOW.

These impossible dreams are a poor stand-ins for the real thing. They keep you fantasying rather than achieving and they negate the real value of all your efforts. You're worth a hell of a lot more than the inflated thought that's written in your dairy. Get shut of them.

Stop dreaming other peoples dreams, make your own happen. If you want 1,000,000 followers on Twitter or IG go hashtag every post until you can't physically move your fingers any more. You want that new car your friends daddy just brought for her? Go save your arse off (hard I know, but rewarding). If something isn't making you happy and you're just doing it because you've seen somebody else's happiness from what they've achieved and what they've had, stop being a sheep! It's time to become a Shepard!

True happiness is a deeper and more abiding experience than any of us are willing to admit most of the time. Let’s start seeking that kind of joy and let’s stop worrying about what everyone else is doing.

Who are you? What makes you happy? What are you doing when you feel the most fulfilled? Are you with your children? Are you creating? Career making? Cooking? Writing? Giving parking tickets? A mixture of a few things in different ratios?

Answer those questions and you’ll be closer to discovering what your souls been dreaming of than you've ever been.

Once you've got to know yourself that little bit better and you've figured out that little bit more about your hopes and your flaws. Embrace yourself and all your worth and make what you want to happen, HAPPEN! Whether it does take time, money and energy - you know that the outcome will be so rewarding that none of that will matter, because you've achieved your dream!!

I hope you've enjoyed this post, it's been one of my favourites to write! And until next time my loves; keep dreaming and keep smiling!

TTFN xxx