Don't let them die...

"Never be afraid to chase your dreams at any age." - Kristopher Belman

There is something cute in seeing a child chase birds or animals that induces instant happiness in all of us.

The child chases the birds and really wants to grasp them. The child does not care how much the bird hops around. The birds even fly off and settle somewhere else nearby. The child relentlessly goes after them again.

The child dreams of holding those fascinating birds in it's tiny hand. It chases that dream and does not give up.

As my wife and I watched this little girl chase pigeons in the square next to the town hall in Copenhagen on one winter afternoon in September 2015, we hoped that the little girl grew up chasing her dreams and never gave them up.

Here is the picture I took with my Nikon P900 :

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Seeing the child chase those birds got me thinking -

How often do we chase the things that we are passionate about? How often do we try and abandon mid-way ?

Why do we not keep our focus and chase our dreams?

Do we even know what our dreams are anymore? Have we adopted some one else's vision as our dream?

Knowing our dreams

It is easy enough to get waylaid and lose track of what our actual dreams are. Sounds weird? It is really not if you think of it.

We are all aware that our dreams do change as we grow up. Most little ones want to become firemen or train drivers because those are the interesting personalities they see in their little world as they grow up. Then come in the doctors and engineers to influence the 'I want to be...' ideas.

At certain age, we also start noticing what our parents do and start aspiring to emulate them later in life.

Then come the dreams of lovely women as girlfriends, Ferrari and Porsche and owning large mansions.

What, out of this whole medley of dreams is our true dream and true passion?

If we look at that list of dreams listed above, we note that most of those dreams are actually 'needs for possession'. Those are not things that we can not really live without. Mostly those things are all imprinted on our impressionable mind as 'necessary' to be seen as 'successful' in our society.

Basically - therefore, they are someone else's dreams!

What then, is our true dream - our true dream is that passion which consumes our whole being. Our life feels empty without it - not for just a few moments but for a lifetime. That dream fuels our every waking moment.

It is different for every individual on this planet. We need to recognize the signs of our true dream and hold on to it for dear life.

Chasing after our dreams - needs reinventing ourselves

There is an expression in English called 'labor of love'. It indicates all the hard work we put in for achieving something that we love, without caring for any material reward.

That is what chasing after our dreams should be like.

We need to know our dream and TAKE ACTION to achieve it. Taking action involves reinventing ourselves...

Taking action is not easy. Your routine, your family, your perceived ideas of success - a lot can come in the way. Let me talk about my personal experience. I have always wanted to retire early and devote more time to some of the things I love to do - Computers, graphics, photography and reading. Having never been trained to do any of the first three things, they never became a 'career' for me. My career and job, therefore, had nothing to do with my dreams.

I had to reinvent myself by stopping being an Executive and step back. I had to learn to take things easy in life. I had to change my perception of my own importance for people and more importantly, my family and I had to take a very informed view on being 'financially settled' in life...

Not easy but I have done it.

So, today, I dream of photographing a tiger while I look it in the eye, I dream of capturing Falcons swooping in and capturing their kill mid-air.

I also dream of understanding the crypto-currency world and becoming a respected Steemian some day.

I am working on my dreams. Irrespective of what people say or do, I am chasing them and I am going to catch them. What about you?

In Conclusion:

Decide - NOW is the time to start living the life you always imagined...

Steemians, please comment freely to share your experiences, knowledge and views about chasing your dreams. Thanks.

Note: All images except for the wildlife photos and the title image created by me are from pixabay.com. Image credit has been specifically mentioned for images not falling under these two categories.

Gif crafted by the Legendary @stellabelle for me based on my Lion Avatar