Humans Are Malleable. So Make Sure Your Dreams Are Too.

In the words of Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson,

"Have faith that the one thing you wanted to happen, oftentimes is the best thing that never happens."

I thought about this quote the other day, and what rose from it was dreaded what if?

While in the military we are told never to acknowledge what if's existence, I did not heed that warning.

What if all the money I spent on my rental property, instead, I took the thirty thousand dollars, a good portion of it debt, and instead invested in my dream to be an author?

Ah yes, my dream of becoming an author—a novelist I might add, but we can say a non-fiction writer of this novel, is in itself, a fine example on what it means to keep your dreams Malleable.

So lets back up to when I was fourteen years old. It's the year 2011, and I had just completed my first novel. Hell, I remember the storyline of my first book as if I wrote it yesterday. It was a novel based on time travel, focusing on two families that sought power through human instinct, with two complete opposite philosophies on how to utilize the power of human instinct.

One family decided to kill their inner humanity; allowing human instinct to completely overcome their being. They were inherently strong, and thought only of the future and survival, and easy ability to identify threats. But with that, they also lost their humanity.

The other family thought to separate humans and their instinct. This family was inherently weak, except for the unconditional love of their spirit animal—which was where their power came from. their companions, being animal spirits—were bonded through unconditional love.

And I was obsessed with this story—obsessed! And by the end of summer 2013, I scraped up enough money through my part time work to hire my first editor.

And while the story never amounted to much (mostly because the file corrupted suddenly, and I learned what a backup file meant) it launched my eight-year writing career that has culminated in my book series Valentine.

And so far, Valentine has been nothing short of a financial disaster. From a business perspective, I have dumped close to ten thousand hours over the course of seven years, written almost five hundred thousand words, spent almost one and half thousand dollars on editing, and have spent that amount alone in advertising.

I think I've sold about twenty copies.

And yet I still do it. Some would ask me why, and no doubt I would answer because it's my dream!

And thus, because I am a dreamer, I am a slave to my goal—loyal to my belief that I will ONE DAY become a famous, successful author.

But let me let you in on a little secret: While not all fools are dreamers, all dreamers are definitely fools. And that is not a dig on dreamers, as I do believe there is a purpose to following dreams, As Friedrich Nietzsche states it best, "He who has a WHY to live for, can bear almost any HOW,"

However, that returns to the question of what if?

What if I had taken all my investments, and debt, and pumped it into Valentine?

Where would I be today?

Now that, my peer, is a scary what if. Because while some would commend the blind loyalty to the cause—your ability to chase dreams and never give up on your dream—there is a limit in life, when you must morph your dream from what you think it should be to what your dream actually is.

And while most consider dreamers that of creative minds, I'm a big believer we are all dreamers, and as humans we are all exposed to absolute suffering; as for every one thousand dreamers that share the common vision of success, only one will outright succeed. And just like survival of the fittest, it may not be the brightest star that claims king—as success is a multitude of immeasurable factors.

And since success will always be a floating variable, it's important to never put all your weight on one possible outcome that is fixed.

Instead, allow your dreams to be malleable, the same way you as a human being are. After all, your beliefs and views on the world change yearly, so why can't your dreams?

Photo cred : https://pixabay.com/photos/book-landscape-nature-wind-weather-2929646/