Theme for a daydream
By Amar Jit

YOUR daydreams can become realities. They are indeed the stuff that leads us through life towards great happiness. Psychologists say that day-dreaming is not only healthy but can add colour and humour to your life as well. Daydreams can and do materialise, provided you are a positive person, who is ready to work hard to realise them.

Take the case of Prakash Chandra.He was a clerk in a big bank in New Delhi. Feeling bored one day he looked vacantly at the men and women sitting at their tables or moving in between them on errands now and then in the big hall.

Suddenly he began to daydream, imagining that all the persons in the hall were wearing swimsuits. The boring scene changed to an amusing and even a hilarious one. He began to see fat, thin, medium-sized men and women dressed in multi-coloured swimsuits moving about or bending over tables, or sitting glued to their papers and computers. Their movements, gestures and actions turned it into a comical scene. It made Prakash laugh. And with that his boredom vanished. Its place was taken over by a joyous mood, thanks to daydreaming.

Einstein, indulged in mathematical daydreaming for years before he evolved the theory of relativity or the splitting of the atom.

Goethel’s dreamt of digging a canal across the isthumus of Panama long before it could even be built. Wright dreamt of flying machines which were heavier than air . Edison invented the electrical possibilities before he invented the electric bulb.

Yet these daydreamers were different. As individuals they decided to convert their daydreams into realities by taking steps towards that end.

They did not wish to daydream for the sake of daydreaming alone.

There are two types of dreamers — those who are positive and the negative ones. The latter do not take steps to fulfil their wishes. Rather they go on dreaming of miracles and a solution to their problems, hoping that they would get realised on their own one day.

Daydreaming is essentially a flight from reality, an escape into a land of make-believe. Probably that is why daydreaming has a black name, since many failures in life too are traced to daydreaming.

A positive daydreamer may and frequently does escape from reality by temporarily identifying himself with or sharing the emotional experience involved in watching a movie on TV, reading a fascinating novel or just leaning back in an armchair and letting his thoughts run wild.

He comes back to reality soon enough, turns off the TV, lays aside the novel, gets out of his chair and goes back to his work. The chronic daydreamer, however, is never done with his dreaming. The lullaby goes on indefinitely, soothing, holding back the reality.

And no sooner is one dream over, then he switches on to another because reality bruises him. In his daydreams he is always the champion of champions.

The power to daydream is a gift from nature or God. It is the misuse of daydreaming that results in continued frustration and failure. Knowing this you can convert your day-dream into reality.

How? First become aware of that daydream that keeps on recurring. Next time, it reappears grab it by the ears, look into its eyes, examine its teeth, analyse it. If the daydream is too big or too far beyond your capacity as of now, try to break it down into parts, some of which are within your grasp. Then switch on your thoughts and planning to the attainment of the possible.

Take for instance your dream to become a millionaire. Take positive action to acquire the first hundred and then the first thousand and so on.

Even if you want to become the chief minister of your state, it is not impossible. Since the mathematical chances or odds against you to attain this highest office are tremendous, why not begin your political career by working hard to become the president of your municipal committee or the village panchayat.

Be clear about the dream you want to fulfil, if you have a basketful of them. Don’t just fan yourself into fantasies. Take the case of a young man from a backward part of the state of Rajasthan. He had no money but a determination to make good in life.

He sold black gram on the pavements of a Calcutta street, after which he rose from one business to another. He became a millionaire in his own lifetime. He was the first Birla, whose progeny now controls one of the biggest industrial empires in the country.

Daydreaming is simply imagination running wild like a wild horse in the pasture. Rope that wild horse, harness it and you have a tremendous power at hand. That is how people create new products, lay ground work for constructive changes, acquire the riches that life has to offer.

If you are one of those persons with whom daydreaming has become a habit, become aware of it. Determine to halt each dream as it floats into your mind and examine it to see if it holds any possibility of getting realised. If not, chase it out. You can view only one dream in your mind at one time, shoo the fantasies away. Substitute them with positive steps that can lead towards solving problems you are facing today.

And should futile fantasies in the shape of far-fetched daydreams return, tell them, kindly or indignantly if you prefer, to leave you as you are too busy thinking about important matters. Make them unwelcome.