Tagalog Version (Click Here)
There’s an old Filipino saying “libre lang ang mangarap” and it translates to “it’s free to dream.” While it sounds nice on paper, these days it implies that while you can dream big all you want, achieving your dreams is too difficult or impossible so you should never even try. While we wish we were rich and successful, it won’t happen and we’ll have to settle for an “ordinary” life instead. If we were born poor, we’ll just have to accept it and STAY poor.
Well what if you really DO want to become successful? Well then you need to have BIG dreams in order to achieve it! It’s free to dream… and it’s also free to think, plan, and find the way to achieve those dreams!
“If you limit your choice only to what seems possible or reasonable, you disconnect yourself from what you truly want, and all that’s left is a compromise.”-Robert Fritz
5 Great Reasons to Dream BIG
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You NEED Great Goals in order to Succeed.
It’s non-negotiable. You don’t end up climbing Mount Everest or build a multi-BILLION-dollar business empire without aiming for it. Most, if not ALL great achievements start as great goals. Start thinking of yours right now.
Dreaming is free, and as General Wesley Clark once said, “It doesn’t take any more energy to create a big dream than it does to create a little one.” So what do you dream about right now? What DO you want to achieve before you die? Do you really want to become successful? If you do, then you have to DREAM BIG!
“One of the few differences between the superachievers and the rest of the world is that superachievers simply dream bigger.” – Jack Canfield
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Big Dreams move people’s souls… including YOURS.
“Dare to Dream big dreams; only big dreams have the power to move men’s souls.” – Emperor Marcus Aurelius
Imagine you have two paths around a mountain:
The first path is very easy, but it’s filled with trash, mobs of people, and the view isn’t all that great. At the end of it, you receive a can of tuna.
The second path which leads to the top of the mountain is far more difficult. You need to climb boulders and cliff sides and, while it’s possible to reach the top, if you don’t prepare properly (learn the best/safest path) or if you aren’t careful, you might get injured or killed. At the top, however, you get $100 million, scholarships for your children, lifetime healthcare and insurance, fully paid travel packages for you and your entire family, AND MORE. The view from the mountaintop is amazing, and you’ll also meet the greatest people there.
You can change paths any time you like, but the more time you waste, the less time you’ll have to reach the top and whether you’re ready or not, you’ll soon have to leave the mountain forever.
Which one will you choose?
That’s exactly how life works. You not only get what you pay for (buy cheap, get terrible quality stuff), you also get what you work for (do what’s easy, you get low pay).
What do you want in life? Greatness… or mediocrity? If you want it, you’ll find many ways. If you don’t, you’ll find many excuses. You can choose to be an entry-level worker forever… or you can choose to be great. You decide.
“My Wage” by Jessie Rittenhouse
I bargained with Life for a penny,
And Life would pay no more,
However I begged at evening
When I counted my scanty store;
For Life is a just employer,
He gives you what you ask,
But once you have set the wages,
Why, you must bear the task.
I worked for a menial’s hire,
Only to learn, dismayed,
That any wage I had asked of Life,
Life would have gladly paid!
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You have the capability to be great. Use it.
Most of us have been given the same hands to work with, feet to walk and run with, and a mind to think with. Those are the same things athletes like Michael Jordan or Manny Pacqiuao, geniuses like Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein, and Alexander Graham Bell, and rich people like Bill Gates and Warren Buffett have.
When we were all babies, we were the same as they are. No skills or knowledge. Great people just learned to use and develop their bodies and minds well.
Imagine, you could have been valedictorian or varsity… but you just didn’t think you could so you never studied and you never practiced or attended training. You never bothered searching for that special talent that you can learn to develop.
In the same way, you never even started and expanded your own business. You could have been the top executive or CEO… but you never tried learning the skills required. You were content with just being an entry level worker or a low-level supervisor forever.
You CAN be great… but only if you do your best to earn it.
“Begging would have been the best option if God had given talents to only a selected few. Fortunately, He gave us all our compactible gifts respectively, so it is an offence to be a chronic beggar.” ― Israelmore Ayivor
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You can change your World.
Robin Sharma once said “Everything is created twice, first in the mind and then in reality.”
Look around you: You’re likely using a computer to read this. Who thought of building that computer? If you’re reading this from paper printout, who built the factory that manufactured the paper and who thought of and built the machine used to print this? Who thought of using electricity to power these machines?*
People once thought it’s impossible for humans to fly… yet who thought of building airplanes? It’s impossible to talk to people far away… yet who thought of sending mail, telephones, emails, SMS/text messaging, video chat?*
Look at every single thing you own right now, from the blocks to your house, the clothes you wear, and the food you eat. Who thought about using them and selling them to you in order to earn money and grow rich?*
Dream big. Your mind can create things that can change the world, whether it’s by doing your job differently and more effectively, using the money you earn well (through saving and investing), or by creating something new using the knowledge that you have. There is something that only you can do and the world will be better off thanks to you.
Whatever it is, think about how you can make it real.
*Note: For all of those, you can simply find information on the internet. In fact, you can learn just about anything from the internet nowadays, from science to stocks and investing, almost all of it is there. You just have to look.
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Leave a legacy and inspire others to do the same.
As I’ve mentioned before, my mother’s family grew up poor. They barely had enough money to buy food, and they sometimes ate just shrimp paste (called bagoong) and rice for dinner (Sometimes just salt and rice). She often mentioned that they couldn’t afford shoes and had to make do with sandals (she almost never went to school herself since they barely had enough to pay for tuition).
Despite all that, however, my mom and her brothers worked hard at school, graduated, and did well in their careers. One of my uncles became an operations manager, another one succeeded in the construction supply business, another joined the air force and eventually became an airline captain, and my mother herself became a supervisor before she left work to marry my father and take care of us.
What did they teach me? Even if you were born poor, you don’t have to STAY poor.
“Some people don’t get to succeed in life because they spend most of their energy and time being envious of those who have succeeded, instead of learning from them.” – Edmond Mbiaka
They aren’t the only ones I know who became successful:
One of my college friends started a travel blog and now he gets paid to travel to amazing places.
Another one of my friends has HER own travel and fashion blog and she’s VERY successful at it.
One of my former colleagues started drawing at DrawCrowd (you can have her do commissions here) and streaming artwork at Twitch (here’s her channel link).
Yet ANOTHER one of my friends/batchmates changed cosplaying from a “weirdo” hobby and into an art form.
One more? My father posthumously earned the Medal for Valor (the highest award in the Philippine Military). That gave my brother and I government scholarships to ANY school/university in this country as well as a pension for my mother.
What have I learned from all of them?
“If they can succeed, then so can I!”
If they can succeed… then SO CAN YOU.
Now think: What legacy will YOU leave your children and grandchildren? Will you simply give them expenses to pay thanks to your medical bills, food, and funeral? Or will you leave them a wonderful, stable, and abundant family life all thanks to your hard work?
“The poor do not need charity; they need inspiration. Charity only sends them a loaf of bread to keep them alive in their wretchedness, or gives them an entertainment to make them forget for an hour or two; but inspiration will cause them to rise out of their misery. If you want to help the poor, demonstrate to them that they can become rich; prove it by getting rich yourself.” – Wallace D. Wattles, The Science of Getting Rich
It’s free to dream. If your dreams are wonderful enough to inspire you and give you the courage to act despite your fears, and persevere despite failures and setbacks, then you’ll find the power to make them reality.
Are your dreams big enough to change the world?
“The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it.” – Michelangelo