Everywhere you turn today, our children are urged to "follow your dream." It seems like a harmless, even inspiring bromide to motivate children to achievement.
It isn't.
...
Wanting something, they have been told, is the only requirement needed to get it. This is, of course, absolute nonsense.
The simple fact is that people who achieve excellence in their fields didn't just have a dream. They got up at 4:00 a.m. to practice on parallel bars or had to forego other desirable activities and paths in order to get in six hours of violin practice a day, or stayed off the several million absurd writing advice blogs with their overheated little cliques that dispense useless regurgitated maxims and empty praise and decide to actually confront their thoughts on a page. Or they read Beowulf and Dante carefully and deeply when they didn't see any point, since all they were interested in was Sylvia Plath, because someone of more experience and wisdom told them to do so. I don't know whether we're overly lazy, stupid, or childish these days. But the idea of preparing oneself for excellence has somehow disappeared.
Harrison Solow, National Post · Sunday, Nov. 14, 2010
Since when has "follow your dream" ever meant "all you need to get something is to want it"? Many successful people, in describing their success, make it very clear that they "followed their dream", and that doing so required lots of hard work and commitment. It is having the dream that motivates a person to do the work. Without the dream, where do you go? How do you succeed in anything?
Re: National Post: Don't Follow Your Dream
Posted: Mon Nov 15, 2010 7:59 pm
by mexhunter
Dreams must be accompanied by actions, then a human being has a great potential to achieve your goal.
Greetings
César
Re: National Post: Don't Follow Your Dream
Posted: Wed Nov 17, 2010 11:00 am
by Céline Richard
Hello,
Sometimes, i think we need dreams in the present, in order to change something, one day, in the future. Sometimes, reality seems to be a deadlock, although this is just an appearance. Dreams are some sort of hope, maybe even some sort of blindness. However, when dreams are maintained by hope and important values, they are worthy to be tried. Of course, it can be dangerous to try and fulfill certain dreams, because failure can happen, while action to fulfill those dreams often involves huge psychological efforts.
I would like to write a wonderful quote of Voltaire: "Passions are winds which swell up the veils of the ship; they submerge it sometimes, but without them, it couldn't sail".
(in french: "Les passions sont les vents qui enflent les voiles du navire; elles le submergent quelquefois, mais sans elles, il ne pourrait voguer".)
Then, one of Georges Bernanos: "Who had never seen the road, at dawn, very cool, very alive, doesn't know what is hope".
(in french: "Qui n'a jamais vu la route à l'aube, toute fraiche, toute vivante, ne sait pas ce que c'est que l'espérance")
Thus i agree with Chris. And I know César (Mexhunter), action is a pragmatic solution to fulfill one's dreams.