Day 65: Declaring a Dream

Day 65.  I find it oddly difficult to “Declare My Dream” for the anonymous experimental motivation project.  Which is silly because it’s anonymous—no one will know which dream is mine.  I’ve already made a bold declaration of my dream of making a narrative film.  I should just do my postcard on that.  But, since I’ve already declared it, everyone will know it’s me and, I feel like I want to declare another dream, something else.  But what?  It’s not like I’m short on dreams, I have a million.  But when I wrote “I am” on the back of the postcard on Friday, that’s as far as I got.  I have stared at it ever since.  You see, I don’t want to declare just anything.  I don’t want to go all pie in the sky either and declare that my dream is to be superwoman or a ballerina or the President of the United States.  For some, those could be plausible dreams, but for me, not so much.  Which reminds me it’s probably a good idea to review which definition of “dream” I’m actually after here.  According to dictionary.com there are eight definitions for dream.

1. a succession of images, thoughts, or emotions passing through the mind during sleep.
2. the sleeping state in which this occurs.
3. an object seen in a dream.
4. an involuntary vision occurring to a person when awake.
5. a vision voluntarily indulged in while awake; daydream; reverie.
6. an aspiration; goal; aim: A trip to Europe is his dream.
7. a wild or vain fancy.
8. something of an unreal beauty, charm, or excellence.

Declaring a dream.

In this context, I’m going with number 6: an aspiration; goal; aim.  I want to declare a dream I can truly act on and make happen in the next few years.  There’s a fine line between a dream and a fantasy.  I can make my dream of creating a narrative feature film come true.  I can’t get Brad Pitt in the sack.  The former is a dream the latter is a fantasy.   Thus, the “pause” continues.  I want it to not only be something I really want to do but also something I actually can do.  Yes, I want to have relations with Brad Pitt but no, I can’t actually make that happen.

There was a dream that popped into my head the second I wrote, “I am.”  It set my heart to racing but I was too afraid to write it down.  It’s still tugging at my shirtsleeve and it still gets my heart racing.  I’ve been thinking about it for a few years now and keep dismissing it as impossible.  But the truth is, it’s not impossible.  It’s kinda crazy but still totally doable in the next few years if I work and plan for it.  What was it I was blathering on about regarding fear the other day?  Oh, yeah, right.   Day 51.  Doves, Fear and Action.  My best friend and Grant Cardone agree that when you’re scared shitless about something the fear is telling you exactly what you should do.  In this line of thinking then, the fear inside me at the thought of saying my “it feels impossible but really isn’t” dream out loud tells me it’s exactly the dream I should declare.  Why does it feel so scary though?  I think it feels so scary because with any dream you have there’s a chance it might not come true.  So “declaring” it feels risky like you have something to lose.  It sets you up for disappointment.  But, if we don’t declare our dreams we’ll never ever try and go for them and if we never ever go for them we’ll never know if we could have made them come true.  Time to go for it.

Until tomorrow, create from what you have…dreams that can come true.

Kelli Joan Bennett is a filmmaker, actress, writer, entrepreneur, advocate for creative thinking and Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Think Outside The Box Inside The Box Media.

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