Friday, November 30, 2012

Gaze and Reach for the Stars


Losing a dream is like losing someone whom we love dearly.

Consider the following Grace Potter & The Nocturnals Stars lyrics and watch it's rendition by Amanda Brown :-

I lit a fire with the love you left behind,
And it burned wild and crept up the mountainside.                                                                   
I followed your ashes into outer space I can't look at this place,                                        
They make me wonder where you are
Stars,
Up on heaven's boulevard And if I know you at all,
I know you've gone too far
So I, I can't look at the stars
All those times we looked up at the sky,
Looking out so far,
We felt like we could fly.

And now I'm all alone in the dark of night,
The moon is shining,
But I can't see the light,
And I can't look at the
Stars,
They make me wonder where you are

Stars,
Up on heaven's boulevard
And if I know you at all,
I know you've gone too far
So I, I can't look at the stars

Stars,
Stars,
They make me wonder where you are
Stars,
Up on heaven's boulevard
And if I know you at all,
I know you've gone too far
So I can't look at the stars.


Yes, we may wonder how far our dreams have drifted away and we find it so disheartening to even think that they can be regained.

This calls for faith; aggressive faith to muster creativity and energy to gaze and reach for the stars again. We need to fight the good fight of faith to keep believing against all odds.

Consider, Dr Ting Choon Meng who is a medical doctor and inventor of BPro -- a wristwatch with a sensor for monitoring waveforms from a person's central aortic pressure (blood pressure near the hear) non-invasively, which won a World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer Award in 2007. As recounted in his interview by Susan Long and published in the Straits Times on 30 November 2012, there was a time when cardiologists boycotted his talks and he was snubbed as being only a general practitioner. But, he soldiered on and kept his dream alive.

A dream makes life worth living. Even those who patronise the lottery or big sweep outlets get a boost to live for dreaming of striking it rich. As Dr. Benjamin Isaiah Mays would say, "It must be borne in mind that the tragedy of life does not lie in not reaching your goals, the tragedy lies in not having any goals to reach. It isn't a calamity to die with dreams unfulfilled, but it is a calamity not to dream. It is not a disaster to be unable to capture your ideals, but it is a disaster to have no ideals to capture. It is not a disgrace not to reach the stars, but it is a disgrace to have no stars to reach."

Your dream and my dream, they are worth fighting for. They are the stars upon the limitless horizon of our imagination that energize us to step up and move purposely to the direction of our dreams.

Monday, November 12, 2012

The Train of Our Thoughts


What we focus our mind on will have a hold on us. For example, the ubiquitous television will continue to wield its hypnotic power over us unless we have enough willpower to send it to sleep or get far, far away from it. If not, it will control us and we end up as a couch potato.


Often, we speak of a 'train of thoughts'. Come to think of it, that is what thoughts are really like. Thoughts are like a train that takes us to a destination. That destination could be 'anywhere' if we do not decide at the onset where we wanna to go. But, if we decide on 'somewhere' then we can come to the desired place.

An idea is a concoction of thoughts and possibilities. As described by Carl Schurz, "Ideas are like stars; you will not succeed in touching them with your hands, but like the seafaring man on the desert of waters, you choose them as your guides, and, following them, you reach your destiny."

Consider this takeaway from Earl Nightingale, "People with goals succeed because they know where they're going."And, chew on this healthy tablet of 4 steps to achievement by William A. Ward -- "Plan purposefully. Prepare prayerfully. Proceed positively. Pursue persistently."

Thus, the sooner we align our thoughts, interests and priorities with our destination, dream or goal, the sooner we will reach our train station, so to speak. It takes discipline to train our thoughts, but it is well worth it. Afterall, discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishments.