Beware of Dream Thieves
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Over the course of time, people have been focusing on thieves who rob their valuable materialistic assets and properties. They invest a large sum of money and energy on CCTV camera systems, burglar alarms, security services and equipment as well as many other necessary gears to ensure the safety of their wealth and property. Unfortunately, people do not invest sufficient energy and time to build a protective wall around their minds, so that they could safeguard their dreams, which could be easily stolen by whom I call the “Dream Thieves”.
When Walt Disney presented his first creation to a company in the entertainment industry, he was utterly shunned by them, and he was told that he lacked the creativity that was essential for a creative production, thus he should proceed towards a different avenue in life, as he was not suitable for the creative arena. However Walt Disney’s unwavering focus and creativity was capable of overturning the paradigm of the entertainment industry. The company that rejected Disney by attempting to provoke negative thoughts in him was unsuccessful, as he did not give up his dreams.
Sadly, there are many dream thieves amongst you, and unfortunately, they could even be from your own family. Friends who bid you to skip classes are dream thieves themselves, as they attempt to steal your dream by distracting your focus on your studies through activities of instant gratification. There were numerous dream thieves surrounding Henry Ford, who originated vehicle production in mass scale.
When Ford explained his concept of mass production to the others involved in the industry, people began calling him a lunatic. It is said that females of the society at that time, sympathized Ford’s wife and grieved for her assuming how hard it must be to be by the side of a mad man. Nevertheless, instead of opening his ears and mind to what the dream thieves had to say, he focused on paying attention to his inner voice which ultimately functioned as a safety wall for his dream.
Dream thieves are ever-present and they are negative by default. They always see the challenges that prevent an achievement rather than the strengths that can overrule the challenges towards achieving one’s dream. Dream thieves could easily be identified, as most of them use statements such as, “it’s impossible” – “no one has ever been able to do this” – “don’t waste your time” – “I don’t think this will work” – “are you crazy” – “don’t be a fool”, all of these statements are negative from the root. The persons we commonly refer as thieves are unknown to us, but dream thieves are inclined to us, they can be our friends, colleagues or relatives.
Some of them are purpose driven dream thieves who act out of jealousy, as they have not been able to achieve their own dreams. When a person realises that he cannot run fast, he will certainly prevent others from running fast. Likewise, if a person is not willing to give up his habit of consuming alcohol, he will constantly push others to pursue consuming alcohol. Dream thieves attack dreamers with their relentless negative thoughts.
I am sure you have witnessed a littles worm destroying a whole basket of apples, one cunning wolf can destroy a large vineyard and a single ingredient can spoil the taste of the whole meal. Therefore, be vigilant do not open your mind to a single dream thief who is apparently weak in following his own dreams.
Apart from live dream thieves, there are non-living dream thieves as well. ‘Fear’ is one such gigantic dream stealer. Fear will always try to implant the pain of rejection, loss, condemnation, guilt and many other fearful aspects in a dreamer’s mind. Another enormous dream thief is ‘Doubt’, it will continuously strain you to plant the seeds of uncertainty in your warehouse of thoughts which is your mind. ‘Discouragement’ is another dream thief that will always remind you of your previous failures and mistakes.
The more you focus on thoughts that discourage you, the more you lose concentration on your original dream. When I started the second episode of my life, my father enrolled me to do CIM-UK. I could not reminisce anything I studied, my mind was attempting to deceive me by saying that my memory cells have been damaged due to my longstanding association with heroine and other dangerous drugs. Instead of accepting the negative comments, I rebuked such thoughts, voiding them and progressing in faith.
The paramount aftermath of challenging discouragement is that it enhances your endurance, likewise if you allow discouragement to take root within you, it will undoubtedly decrease the capacity of endurance of your mind. To be precise with my story, I advanced further in my studies and won the best Sri Lankan student award, for the most crucial CIM-UK stage three examination.
Therefore, it is essential to carry out a self-diagnosis to determine your level of being exposed to dream thieves. Many songs and dramas that are telecasted on TV and heard on Radio in Sri Lanka are nothing but dream thieves, they prevent people from living in the reality. These unrealistic songs and dramas have even taken the lives of people. Why should we or our children tolerate this claptrap? When you sit before the TV at 7.30pm and wrap up at 9.00pm, there is nothing that you have gained, all that happens is that you lose your happiness, letting those programmes to steal your rich values by inculcating their nonsense into your mind.
As I have mentioned in many of my articles no thief can steal, unless the owner himself opens the gate.
You are the sole owner of your mind, thus you have complete authority to open or close its gates to these demolishing dream thieves. Please do not misinterpret me for saying this, but I do not encourage some of my relatives to associate my children for long, as they are so negative. Whenever they visit, I quickly give them anything they require and send them back soon, as I know, if they stay longer they surely will throw seeds of negativity which might get rooted in my innocent children’s minds.
Therefore, I invite you to invest your time to fertilise the dreams of yourself and your children. Be certain that you protect them with courage, boldness, focus and hope, so that no dream thief in this world could ever divert you from your original dream. The possession of wealth will enable you to buy any stolen asset or property, but you will never be able restore a stolen dream, and give life to it again. Therefore, the moment you witness a dream thief, may it be a person or circumstance, run away from it as if you would run if you found a parcel bomb right next to you.
Do not foolishly test temptation, flee away from it. Many have been trapped by trying to test their abilities before negativity.
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E-mail: philipnehri@chandanalepa.lk
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