The importance of following your dreams

Dreams are wonderful. Sometimes one gets lost in an imaginary world and in their daydreams but sometimes, just sometimes, the dreams actually become real.

We all have dreams, we have hope, aims, a desire to achieve something better; we strive for our goals, because this makes us happy. Dreams bring us to a magical place, a happy world, they make us get up and out each day, with a pep in our step to keep hoping, striving for and living the dream. Dreams can be small and they can be everyday things. If we set them small enough we can achieve daily dreams leading to a bigger more exciting, unimageable place.

We all have completely different dreams and that’s what makes us all unique, individual and interesting. To live a life filled with dreams is a life filled with joy. True happiness is when one is achieving their own goals and not anyone else’s or achieving for someone else. Did you ever meet someone and think they have it all but yet they are never happy, always complaining? Maybe they are living someone’s else’s dream.

When it comes to sport we all have different dreams, hope, aims and aspirations. That’s what makes us train and work hard, practice in the hammering rain on a dark morning or winter’s night, or why we might choose to miss a night out because we have a match. With each training session we achieve the smaller dreams, all for a greater aim. Our dreams motivate us, make us push through the elements, the extremes, the pain. Our happiness is our reward and makes it all worthwhile.

We in Mayo all have that long-term dream for our county team to win Sam Maguire. This dream has been an ongoing one, we have had ups and downs each and every year but in January the dream starts again; the Mayo team togs out, the league begins and off we go, wearing our jerseys with pride. It ignites the fire in the county and we live the dream.

Sometimes when the dream doesn’t become a reality we become stronger, we learn, we get up and strive again. Throughout our life, maybe as we get older, aren’t feeling well or are in certain situations, our dreams change, sometimes becoming smaller but none the lesser. But no matter how small our dreams may seem, it’s important to have some focus because then we have hope and hope motivates us, encourages us and keeps us going.

Our children dream all the time, in sport, in their playtime with their friends, when they read a book, or watch their favourite programme. They practice, focus and achieve their dreams. If you bring a child to a place they are excited about, like a surprise visit to the woods, just watch their eyes light up when they see the trees, they think ‘Brilliant. Climbing, freedom’. When I head to the woods for a run, I too become a child, excited about the trees and the freedom, . the majestic sights, the beautiful scenery, the carpet-like feel beneath my feet, the smell of fresh air, the sound of the leaves crunching when running in the dark. Before one knows it, you are living a dream, one of fulfilment, wellbeing, escapism, a break from noise, traffic, humans. The silence is therapeutic, not a care in the world, happiness, and some me time.

Some days the dream is just to get to this place. For some, this might not seem like a dream but for others this is heaven. For some this seems too small or not a very good dream but for some this is a dream fulfilled every day and while in the dream, more dreams become imaginable and that’s what keeps us going.

Every day I wake up I have many dreams, first up is running. This I always fulfil because whether it is road, trail, mountain or track, the experience makes one feel alive, gives a sense of achievement, a mindfulness experience that takes the mind and body to another place – and I love it. On returning home I am in a cloud of happiness ready to face the next dream which is my family; getting all off to school and to work happy is a beautiful sight. And then there’s my own work. When doing what you love every day, one is intrinsically motivated, self-fulfilled and driven to achieve; the dream continues. Yes, there are down times, but these make us stronger, we learn, work harder and overcome the obstacles, and then the dream is achieved. A gratitude journal at the end of one’s day can highlight what we have to be thankful for and not so much what we have not got.

In the running calendar, the marathon is over, we are heading into winter and with lots of people’s goals achieved, it can become hibernation period for some. The weather is a huge contributing factor too. Most of us take the time to recover, return with a pep in one’s step and set a new focus, new dreams and hopes. Finally though, we have had some dry weather and the morning sunrise this past week has been breathtaking.

On a tough threshold run, my mind was quickly distracted by the most wonderful sight up ahead, a perfect clear view of Knock ma in the distance and the sun rising to the right, and so I began to dream again about some far away trips, reminisce on some very recent dreams achieved and suddenly I become focused on my future goals. For now, it’s speed, but as the new year begins the goals will change. It’s also cross-country season and so I get to do some training while travelling down memory lane.

My father needing some help putting in stock, what better cross-country training than running through mucky fields, the sheep our competitors, challenging us by breaking out, doing laps around the field trying to put them in. The faster we ran the quicker they got, us tiring but they not. They had an aim also, not to be trapped, eventually us succeeding; the dream was achieved because there was no giving up here, the animals had to be put in.

Running through these fields brings back some wonderful childhood memories, all the fields having names. Their history distracts the mind from the tough running through the undulating hills, thistles, nettles and muddy puddles. Today, like in my childhood, I distract the mind by trying to remember the names of some of the fields, the hill field, corna, the cally field, and my grandfather telling me the name came from the famine times, a new potato crop in the field, a dream to have cally potatoes on returning back to the house. My grandfather’s dreams were different than mine this morning but he was always a very happy man. People striving for their dreams have a passion for what they do and they pursue to achieve.

Catching a dream is hard, it frustrates you. Catching a dream seems impossible, but once you finally do grasp that dream, the sense of pride overwhelms you, makes your body tingle in excitement.

For me, once you get a taste for success you want more. That feel-good feeling ignites a fire inside us that we want to keep burning and so the dream continues. Each day starts with a small dream; today it might be the woods, tomorrow the fields, with a larger dream at the weekend because dreams wake us up, give us a smile and make us look forward to a bright new day. Follow your dreams everyone, however small, big or different they may seem. They are your dreams and your hopes and you will be ignited. It all begins with a dream.