Say it!

I just hit a truth.

But before I go on let me say this. 

Once upon a time – in one of my more profound states of mind – I stumbled upon this thought:

“The deepest truths in life are not taught, they are caught. At some point they will just dawn on you in a way that no one could ever have explained it to you.”

Ironically this statement is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Of course, thoughts this insightful don’t come to me on a minute-by-minute basis (but I’m working on that). However, once in a while they do. One just did…

“In the same breath that you speak your dream to another person, you give it life.”

You may have heard a cliché about the importance of talking about the things we want (things like ‘confession is possession’). I know I have, but most times the first time we hear a cliché, or anything at all, we do not fully grasp it. (I believe that is why God created echoes, the opportunity to listen again, to remind us to go back, to search beyond the surface and dig out the substance behind what we have just heard.) 

Think about it. How else can a dream ‘materialize’ before it actually materializes? Before your dreams do come true, the only other way they can be expressed is when you SPEAK them. Think of them as locked up in your mind, and the only way you can let them out is to say them.

Lately I’ve been feeling a bit unsure of what I want to do. Let me rephrase – I know what I think I want to do, but I’m not sure whether:

a. I can do those things (are they within my reach?)

b. I want to do those things (what if I’m making a mistake?)

Also when it comes down to it, I’m awfully averse to blowing my own trumpet, so, when I’m asked – “’Damilola, what are your plans?” I’ll beat around the bush and give a long-winded non-answer. A paraphrase would be: “I want to do something, and just about everything, which is nothing really”. Usually I’ll see the person nod, squint and their eyes will glaze over in confusion. Then I’ll nod my head. Mission accomplished.

But today, for some reason (maybe because I didn’t feel threatened by the person who asked, or maybe because we were the only two in the room, or maybe because God had a lesson to teach me), I answered the question honestly and in detail. My heart literally started to beat faster as I spoke about what my plans were. As I talked, some new ideas even came to me. And then I realised that by keeping my plans to myself I’ve been shortchanging myself. My head is a very great place, but at the end of the day it’s an incubator, a womb. The dream has got to come out after some time or else it will die.

Now I’m not talking about saying your goals to yourself – an affirmation, confession type of thing… I’m referring to saying it to another human being. I wrote earlier about echoes. From my understanding, an echo occurs when sound waves bounce off a surface. Now imagine other people as ‘surfaces’. In order for someone to hear an echo (be able to go back, reflect and dig out more substance from our dreams), Ithe person needs to talk to another person. All of us have a level of insecurity and self-doubt (if you don’t, please email me, we NEED to have a chat), so imagine what it’ll do to you when someone nods and says “that’s a great idea”.

Of course there are some exceptions to the rule of ‘freeing your dreams’. I’ll name three I can think of:

·         You can’t say it to just ANYONE (Please shut your trap in the presence of cynics and people who you don’t trust)

·         You can’t say it ALL (keep some mystery to it)

·         You can’t say it all the TIME (then you sound like a broken record, simultaneously reminding everyone that your dreams haven’t yet materialized)

Keep those in mind, but whatever you do, don’t keep silent. You must hear your dreams echo, and those echoes must give you the strength to forge ahead. You MUST give expression to your dreams.

That’s That!

P.S. On Friday I read ‘The Noticer’ by Andy Andrews. Please read it if you can, and his other books too. The man is brilliant. I’m still processing the book and it’s changing me.

P.P.S. There’s some fiction coming up soon! Enough of the pseudo-inspirational talk and on to the short stories! The thing is, I’m just a teeny-weeny bit shy about sharing them, but we all have to get over our insecurities at some point, don’t we? Alrighty then!