Everyone has dreams. They seem to start early in life as we discover the world around us and all the possibilities there are for experiencing all that life has in store for us. Information plays a vital role in our dreams, but the wrong information can have negative and even harmful effects. In this social media environment, while there is an unlimited amount of information, it is very difficult to determine what is fact and what is simple conjecture.

Sadly, a child can be crushed by harsh criticism delivered by someone the child believes to be someone to be trusted. Stories of abuse, physical as well as emotional, illustrate that the life of an adult has been irreparably harmed by receiving a dream-destroying criticism at a crucial moment. Just as a word of encouragement delivered by a respected person at just the right time can be the impetus to motivate someone to achieve great things, a harsh word at the wrong time can have just the opposite effect on someone’s life.

Some dreams need to be challenged. My high school band director affirmed that I had real musical ability. When I asked him if I should consider studying music in college, he told me no. Because my visual impairment kept me from reading music as fast as a professional musician would need to, he discouraged me from considering a career in music. That advice did not destroy a dream. It allowed me to see that some limitations make it prudent not to pursue some things even if we might have an interest in them.

Dream redirection is not the same as dream destroying. Dream destroying behavior can be seen in something that typically happens when someone decides to go in an entirely different direction with their life. Especially if this new direction involves giving up security and comfort, people in your life may have a tendency to tell you all the reasons not to do it.

As we move forward, it is always helpful to look at our lives to see if we have dreams. If we do, we might want to look at them from time to time to see if they are still relevant to our lives. As we move through life, it is normal to realize some dreams are not important enough to us to invest the time and energy necessary to achieve them. At the same time, we might discover that some dreams we had let go of are suddenly important again.

As we move forward, it should be our evaluation of a dream, its reasonableness as well as its importance in our life that should determine whether we will pursue it or not. As we move forward, it should be us and not outside dream destroyers who ultimately determine which dreams we will pursue and how far we are willing to go. Some dreams should never be let go of. Those are the ones that make our life worthwhile. No one should be allowed to destroy those dreams.

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