Guard Your Dreams

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I’ve heard since childhood the importance of guarding your heart. But I somehow missed the equally important, but less taught, necessity of guarding your dreams. It’s taken the death of my dreams to learn a few lessons.

Dreams are treasures and should be treated as such. This means only sharing them with trustworthy people.

There will always be people who will discourage your dreams. Most of us already know to limit our conversations about our dreams around pessimistic folks lest we invite unwanted advice and/or criticism.

Unfortunately, we’re not as wary of the people who quickly befriend us and cheer on our dreams for seemingly no other reason than wanting to see our dreams come true. I don’t doubt there are those people who genuinely encourage without motive, but I’ve come to believe they are few and far between.

It’s equally important to make sure the people we trust with our dreams are surrounded by others who are trustworthy. If the loudest voices in the lives of those you trust are not trustworthy, walk away immediately or you’ll likely find yourself living in frustration with your dreams always just out of reach.

In addition, there are folks waiting to make money off dreams. Whether it’s $100 for an annual membership to a program that promises results, or $15,000 for assurances that God is going to fulfill your passions and purposes, dreams are big business. Just ask that monstrosity of a company in Orlando, Florida, where dreams are supposed to come true. It’s true that you often have to spend money to make money, but be wise about where you invest your dollars . . . and your trust.

Finally, there are jealous, bitter people whose dreams died long ago waiting in the wings to employ manipulative tactics that will ultimately destroy your dreams. They’ll befriend you, learn from you, use your platform, steal your ideas, then sweep the hope right out from underneath you, all while using it all for their own benefit. Those same people are likely to turn around and blame you for their own failures. Listen to and trust your instincts at the first sign of jealousy or competition.

Guard your dreams as vigilantly and with as much wisdom as you guard your heart. After all, your heart and dreams are connected. When one dies, the other is not far behind.