moving forward as we work towards the dream. His

A dream should curtail your overconfidence at the same time as quelling your fears. Because it never goes away, you can rely on it to ensure you keep moving forward, however long and rambling the route.

A dream’s capacity to change our perception of reality, even briefly, is one of its most important features. Because it is open to anyone. You don’t need money, a job, qualifications, or even a roof over your head. Dreams are democratic and they are universal. Indeed they are even more important to people who have little, or nothing, than to those

That is what a dream is capable of – it enables you not just to survive adversity but to grow through it. If you can hold onto your dream as you experience all of life’s setbacks, then it and you become stronger as a result. Because the dream is still intact, you are still here, and if those things aren’t going to stop you then perhaps nothing

The idea of the dream is influential. It is provocative. It makes us stop and think, lingering in our mind long after it has been spoken. Part of the reason is that the dream has an element of the taboo. Lots of people are afraid to say that they have one. It risks marking you out as someone unserious, arrogant and presumptuous. Who are you to have

Part of a dream’s power is that it takes us to a different place from the one we are currently in. Whatever the struggles of our life – trying to find work, to pay bills, to achieve qualifications, to have a family – the big idea lifts us beyond them. Not for good, but for long enough that we can glimpse what a better future may look like. It

There are plenty of voices and influences telling us that a dream is fanciful and we should accept our lot. The constant message is to put your head down, pass your exams, get qualified and keep working hard towards the next promotion. That’s advice given with good intentions, but it discourages you from the things that you need to achieve a dream

A dream may give you a destination to aim for, but quickly you find yourself wondering how you are going to get there. You realise that, however confident you are, it is going to be hard. That is why you need to start with a dream rather than a plan, a goal, an objective or a hope. Because getting things done in life is difficult, you need the

This is so much more than an idea. It is a power source, like plugging yourself into the mains when you have been running for all this time on half-empty batteries. When you have a dream in your life, you never need to question why you are doing something or if it is worthwhile. You already know – it is taking you one step closer to the thing you