Dreams have meaning

Do Dreams Have Meaning? What the Experts Believe

Some dreams slip away like minnows when you wake up and hazily try to grasp at them. Others remain vivid in your memory, so clear and unforgettable that, as the days pass, you might start to wonder if you actually dreamed them more than once.

Even if you don’t remember many (or any) of your dreams, you do still have them. While experts still have plenty to discover about dreams, they do generally agree that dreaming is part of the human experience.

You can cover a lot of ground in your dreams. Common experiences include:

sexy encounters with a crush
ordinary activities, like doing chores or buying groceries
terrifying experiences, like returning to high school or being chased by monsters

gaining superpowers or magical abilities

Whether your dreams are mundane or peculiar, you might want to know if they have any deeper significance. Experts haven’t come up with a clear answer, but you’ll find some main theories below — along with a few tips for decoding your own dreams.

Plenty of psychologists and other experts have theorized on the deeper meaning of dreams.

Freud’s theory of unconscious wish fulfillment

Psychologist Sigmund Freud had a lot to say about dreams (and not all of it related to sex).

He suggested that dreams helped protect people from waking up early when light or sound disrupted their sleep, but he also believed dreams pointed to buried desires.

Your sleeping brain creates what he called a “manifest dream” from snippets of everyday images, experiences, and memories. The manifest dream simplifies, reorganizes, and masks the “latent dream,” or your repressed and unconscious wishes.

In other words, the manifest dream uses various symbols and bizarre or unusual images to conceal the latent dream, or what you’re really dreaming about.

Jung’s theory of compensation and self-portrayal

Like Freud, Carl Jung believed dreams had meaning. Jung focused on specific archetypes, or patterns, that appear symbolically in dreams, theorizing that dreams could help explain daily events and balance out aspects of yourself you aren’t aware of yet.

Say, for example, you have a lighthearted relationship with your partner. You enjoy the same hobbies, have great sexual chemistry, and get along well — but you can’t shake the feeling that something deeper’s missing from your relationship.

One night, you dream the two of you are reviewing housing listings, wandering through the furniture section of a department store, and then, suddenly (in the abrupt nature of dreams), taking a leisurely walk through a quiet park.

Upon waking, you might realize your dream exposed some of the more mundane things absent in your relationship, while also suggesting you might want a relationship that includes thoughtful planning for the future along with fun.

Other key theories

Other dream researchers have offered their own theories as to the meaning of dreams.

Psychologist Calvin S. Hall considered dreams part of the cognition process, or a type of thinking that happens as you sleep.

Since the images that appear in dreams reflect elements of daily life, Hall believed dreams could offer important insight into how you view yourself and others, your problems and conflicts, and the world in general.

Linguist and philosopher George Lakoff believed dreams offered a metaphorical glimpse into daily challenges and life events. In other words, the abstract symbols appearing in your dreams represent real hardships.

Psychologist and dream researcher Rosalind Cartwright also tied dreams to significant life events and emotional experiences. She believed dreams played an important role in cognitive processes, including memory and emotion regulation.

Professor G. William Domhoff also connected dreams to daily experiences. The things you do and think about during the day can resurface in dreams, he suggested, while your emotional mindset helps shape their unique content.

Domhoff also noted that, although dreams may shed some light on heavy concerns, they might not have any real purpose. You forget most of your dreams, after all.

William Dement, who helped found the field of sleep medicine, similarly suggested that, while dreams may lack a clear purpose, they can still convey meaningful messages.

Many experts don’t believe dreams have much meaning, but believe they still serve a purpose.

Existing theories outline a few of these purposes.

Threat simulation theory

Some researchers suggest that dreams serve an important evolutionary purpose.

According to threat simulation theory, dreams offer the chance to practice identifying, avoiding, and dealing with potential threats. By safely handling these threats in your dreams, you might feel safer in your waking life.

Research from 2009 found some support for this theory by comparing dreams of children who had experienced trauma with children who hadn’t.

Of course, threat simulation theory can also tie into other theories about dream meaning. Traumatized children could, for example, have more threatening dreams, because they often feel afraid in daily life.

Activation-synthesis theory

According to the activation-synthesis theory, dreams are nothing more than a collection of random images and thoughts, projected during sleep as a result of normal brain activity.

These images don’t follow any narrative structure, thanks to the pons, your brain’s random dream generator. You create the story of your dream on your own, after waking up.

Supporters of this theory believe dreams can feel strange, because these random images often make little sense when they’re combined.

Dreams as emotional regulation

The unpleasant or unwanted emotions you experience in daily life can pop up in your dreams, too.

Anxiety, guilt, sadness, or fear can quickly get overwhelming. But some experts have theorized that navigating these feelings in dreamland can help you begin resolving these feelings without all the stress.

Wondering how that might work? Well, when you dream during the rapid eye movement (REM) stage of sleep, the parts of the brain that help regulate emotion and memory are active.

What’s not active is the chemical messenger noradrenaline, which can produce feelings of anxiety or stress.

Continual-activation theory

Your brain doesn’t completely shut down when you go to sleep. Instead, it uses this time to carry out important processes, including transferring short-term memories into long-term storage.

As you sleep, your brain also takes out the trash, in a manner of speaking, by getting rid of all the leftover, unnecessary information.

As your unconscious brain focuses on processing memories, activity in your conscious brain slows way down.

According to the continual-activation theory, this prompts your brain to send a flow of data from memory storage into the conscious brain. You can think of this data — aka your dreams — as a sort of screensaver keeping the conscious part of your brain up and running, despite the lack of actual activity.

Common themes and their potential meanings

No matter what scientific theories might suggest, people around the world have long believed in the significance of dreams and attempted to guess their meanings.

Dreams may seem so intriguing in part because they’re not fully understood. But certain dreams show up so often across generations and cultures that many people believe these common themes suggest that dreams do, in fact, have significance.

Here are some common dream themes, plus possible interpretations:

A dream about	Could mean
cheating on your partner	you’re having a hard time getting your needs met in the relationship, or you feel trapped in another area of your life
your partner cheating	you feel afraid of losing your partner or rejection in another area of life
failing a test	you’re facing some stress that you don’t feel ready to handle
being naked or experiencing other public embarrassment	you feel vulnerable and worry other people will notice your flaws
discovering money or treasure	you feel confident, worthy, and good about yourself
missing your bus or train	your everyday life leaves you frustrated and you believe you’re lacking something important
losing your teeth	you’re worried about aging, or you have insecurities around how other people perceive you
finding new rooms	you’re discovering new abilities, interests, or future possibilities for yourself
falling	you feel unsupported by loved ones, or as if you’re losing control over some aspect of your life
dying	you’re facing some unwelcome changes or you have some uncertainties about the future

Ready to dig a little deeper into your dreams? These strategies can help.

Make sure you’re getting quality sleep

Remembering your dreams is an important part of deciphering them.

Dream recall may happen more naturally when you get enough sleep. Aim for about 7 to 9 hours of sleep each night to get the right amount of REM sleep. This may, in turn, boost dream recall.

Tip
As you drift off to sleep, try repeating to yourself, “I’m going to dream vividly, and I’m going to remember those dreams when I wake up.”

Review the dream

When you wake up from a dream, your first instinct might be to reach for your dream journal. Instead, lie still for a moment and let the dream really marinate.

As you let each scene that comes to you unfold, try to open your awareness to any thoughts or feelings you experienced during the dream.

As you think back over the events of the dream, pay attention to any small details that stand out. They might seem minor in the light of day, but it’s very possible they had more significance in your dream.

Write it down

Once you’ve taken yourself through the dream, grab a notebook and write down everything you can remember. As you write, you might remember more key details that help shape the dream narrative.

Jot down everything you can think of — even if you aren’t sure exactly what happened. You might write, for example, “Wandering through forest alone, searching for someone or something. Not sure, but I felt lost and lonely.”

Keep track of details, like:

colors and sounds
other people in the dream
anything you said or heard someone else say
buildings or places you visited
moods and feelings
key objects in the dream, like cars, weapons, tools, or books

Tip
Keep a notebook and small lamp on your nightstand to make this process easier, especially if you tend to wake up in the middle of the night.
Even getting out of bed to find some paper can end up jarring fragments of the dream from your mind.

Make connections to your own life

Books that offer dream interpretations can be helpful, but you’ll often gain more insight by examining the dream from the unique lens of your experiences.

People have plenty of things to say about their own dreams, but someone else’s meaning might not hold true for you.

Maybe you dream about a rabbit eating grass in the park. At first, this might seem like a simple, even somewhat boring dream. But, when you dig a little deeper, you remember feeling happy and peaceful in the dream, and that you wanted a pet rabbit as a child.

Connecting these facts to your everyday life, you might conclude that spending time outside felt good and decide to visit the park more often. You also realize you’d enjoy having a pet in your life.

No one knows for certain what purpose dreams serve. But, at the end of the day, their true function might not really matter.

If you find them meaningful, then they have value to you.

Crystal Raypole has previously worked as a writer and editor for GoodTherapy. Her fields of interest include Asian languages and literature, Japanese translation, cooking, natural sciences, sex positivity, and mental health. In particular, she’s committed to helping decrease stigma around mental health issues.

Do Dreams Have Meaning? What the Experts Believe

You can cover a lot of ground in your dreams. Common experiences include:

sexy encounters with a crush
ordinary activities, like doing chores or buying groceries
terrifying experiences, like returning to high school or being chased by monsters
gaining superpowers or magical abilities

Plenty of psychologists and other experts have theorized on the deeper meaning of dreams.

Freud’s theory of unconscious wish fulfillment

Psychologist Sigmund Freud had a lot to say about dreams (and not all of it related to sex).

He suggested that dreams helped protect people from waking up early when light or sound disrupted their sleep, but he also believed dreams pointed to buried desires.

In other words, the manifest dream uses various symbols and bizarre or unusual images to conceal the latent dream, or what you’re really dreaming about.

Jung’s theory of compensation and self-portrayal

Other key theories

Other dream researchers have offered their own theories as to the meaning of dreams.

Psychologist Calvin S. Hall considered dreams part of the cognition process, or a type of thinking that happens as you sleep.

Domhoff also noted that, although dreams may shed some light on heavy concerns, they might not have any real purpose. You forget most of your dreams, after all.

William Dement, who helped found the field of sleep medicine, similarly suggested that, while dreams may lack a clear purpose, they can still convey meaningful messages.

Many experts don’t believe dreams have much meaning, but believe they still serve a purpose.

Existing theories outline a few of these purposes.

Threat simulation theory

Some researchers suggest that dreams serve an important evolutionary purpose.

Research from 2009 found some support for this theory by comparing dreams of children who had experienced trauma with children who hadn’t.

Activation-synthesis theory

According to the activation-synthesis theory, dreams are nothing more than a collection of random images and thoughts, projected during sleep as a result of normal brain activity.

These images don’t follow any narrative structure, thanks to the pons, your brain’s random dream generator. You create the story of your dream on your own, after waking up.

Supporters of this theory believe dreams can feel strange, because these random images often make little sense when they’re combined.

Dreams as emotional regulation

The unpleasant or unwanted emotions you experience in daily life can pop up in your dreams, too.

Wondering how that might work? Well, when you dream during the rapid eye movement (REM) stage of sleep, the parts of the brain that help regulate emotion and memory are active.

What’s not active is the chemical messenger noradrenaline, which can produce feelings of anxiety or stress.

Continual-activation theory

Your brain doesn’t completely shut down when you go to sleep. Instead, it uses this time to carry out important processes, including transferring short-term memories into long-term storage.

As you sleep, your brain also takes out the trash, in a manner of speaking, by getting rid of all the leftover, unnecessary information.

As your unconscious brain focuses on processing memories, activity in your conscious brain slows way down.

Common themes and their potential meanings

No matter what scientific theories might suggest, people around the world have long believed in the significance of dreams and attempted to guess their meanings.

Here are some common dream themes, plus possible interpretations:

A dream about	Could mean
cheating on your partner	you’re having a hard time getting your needs met in the relationship, or you feel trapped in another area of your life
your partner cheating	you feel afraid of losing your partner or rejection in another area of life
failing a test	you’re facing some stress that you don’t feel ready to handle
being naked or experiencing other public embarrassment	you feel vulnerable and worry other people will notice your flaws
discovering money or treasure	you feel confident, worthy, and good about yourself
missing your bus or train	your everyday life leaves you frustrated and you believe you’re lacking something important
losing your teeth	you’re worried about aging, or you have insecurities around how other people perceive you
finding new rooms	you’re discovering new abilities, interests, or future possibilities for yourself
falling	you feel unsupported by loved ones, or as if you’re losing control over some aspect of your life
dying	you’re facing some unwelcome changes or you have some uncertainties about the future

Ready to dig a little deeper into your dreams? These strategies can help.

Make sure you’re getting quality sleep

Remembering your dreams is an important part of deciphering them.

Dream recall may happen more naturally when you get enough sleep. Aim for about 7 to 9 hours of sleep each night to get the right amount of REM sleep. This may, in turn, boost dream recall.

Tip
As you drift off to sleep, try repeating to yourself, “I’m going to dream vividly, and I’m going to remember those dreams when I wake up.”

Review the dream

When you wake up from a dream, your first instinct might be to reach for your dream journal. Instead, lie still for a moment and let the dream really marinate.

As you let each scene that comes to you unfold, try to open your awareness to any thoughts or feelings you experienced during the dream.

Write it down

Once you’ve taken yourself through the dream, grab a notebook and write down everything you can remember. As you write, you might remember more key details that help shape the dream narrative.

Keep track of details, like:

colors and sounds
other people in the dream
anything you said or heard someone else say
buildings or places you visited
moods and feelings
key objects in the dream, like cars, weapons, tools, or books

Tip
Keep a notebook and small lamp on your nightstand to make this process easier, especially if you tend to wake up in the middle of the night.
Even getting out of bed to find some paper can end up jarring fragments of the dream from your mind.

Make connections to your own life

Books that offer dream interpretations can be helpful, but you’ll often gain more insight by examining the dream from the unique lens of your experiences.

People have plenty of things to say about their own dreams, but someone else’s meaning might not hold true for you.

No one knows for certain what purpose dreams serve. But, at the end of the day, their true function might not really matter.

If you find them meaningful, then they have value to you.

Why Dreams Matter - Drink-Drink

You slip into the back row at your ex's wedding, hoping to go unnoticed, only to realize you're naked. You open your mouth to make a big presentation at work and all of a sudden your teeth fall out. Or you are taking your final exam in a subject you have never taken.

When you wake up and realize that you were dreaming, the images quickly disappear, but the feelings they evoke can persist until morning.

Everyone dreams, and although many of our dreams have common themes, each nightly story is unique and personal, weaving together fragments of memory, imagination and emotion. While experts have compelling theories, we dream and their meaning is not fully understood, but that doesn't mean you should dismiss dreams as weird mental home movies.

Instead, you can use your dreams to access insights and meaning in your life.

General themes in sleep

“Although we are unique as dreamers, some types of dreams seem to be the same across cultures and history. It makes sense because people share similar emotions,” says Sanam Hafiz, a New York-based psychotherapist, neuropsychologist and director of the Mind Understanding Assessment and Treatment Center.

And then there are general impressions. According to a 2015 study of Chinese and German students, the most frequently mentioned topic was school, teachers and learning. Of course, all of the participants in the study were in academia, so their day-to-day experiences already touched on these topics.

Current events and persistent emotional problems such as anxiety may also play a role in your dream story. One 2021 study of Italians who were in lockdown during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic found that the frequency of their dreams and nightmares increased, especially due to fear of infection.

However, as a general rule, many dreams focus on feelings of vulnerability, anxiety, grief, loss, and fear, all powerful emotions that people often struggle with. There is also joy, such as excitement, desire or freedom.

Dream Dictionary

Evidence-based medicine does not support the role and legitimacy of dream interpretation, says W. Christopher Winter, MD, president of Charlottesville Neurology and Sleep Medicine in Virginia, author of The Sleep Solution and The Rested Child ". However, there are some commonly accepted (but not scientifically proven) interpretations of common themes, including: run."

Fall

If you are afraid in a dream, it may mean that you have lost control of the situation.

at school

You may have unresolved issues because you don't live up to expectations or feel unprepared for something important.

Flying or floating

You may feel a sense of freedom or hope, especially if you can control the flight path in your sleep. Flying is often positively interpreted as freedom from obstacles.

I'm late

Dreams of chasing a train, plane, or bus may mean a missed opportunity. They may also be associated with fear of not living up to expectations or general insecurity.

Stress at work

These dreams, as a rule, literally reflect anxiety about the professional situation. Maybe you're afraid of failing a big presentation or missing a deadline.

Tooth loss

At a basic level, tooth loss, bone fracture, or some other physical health problem often reflects a deep personal loss, but can also refer to anxiety about coming change.

Seeing someone who is dead

The dream interpretation here is based on how you treated this person. If the person was dear to you, it may simply mean that you are still grieving. If a person hurt you or caused you fear, it may mean that you are still experiencing these feelings.

Be frozen with fear

This may mean that you feel cut off from your feelings, but it can also be a reaction to sleep paralysis, which occurs during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. If REM is still going on but your mind is waking up, you may experience a few seconds of actual paralysis in your body.

Having sex

The interpretation here will depend on what happens in the dream and how you feel about it. These dreams are very common and may indicate normal sexual arousal or a desire for more intimacy and connection.

Being naked

This may be associated with feelings of insecurity, vulnerability or judgment (especially if the people around you are fully clothed in the dream).

Being abandoned

If you feel relief from being alone in a dream, then "abandonment" can be interpreted as a step towards independence. If you feel left out or left behind, this may reflect a feeling of neglect or invisibility in everyday life.

What does it all mean?

"No wonder dream interpretation is difficult," says Hafiz. While the list above provides some possible explanations, there is no definitive reference or agreement when it comes to what the dream might mean. Psychologists such as Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung have put forward theories that are still used today, mainly that dreams are expressions of repressed desires and represent our subconscious desires or problems, but these are just theories.

However, Hafiz says dreams can be a tool to help you understand the mind in new ways. If you have that curiosity perspective, dreams can give you a starting point for learning about what's going on in your life.

The Psychology and Neurology of Dreams

“Dreams allow people to recall memories and process new information,” Hafiz explains.

Sleep and dreams help the brain to make connections, solve problems and change points of view, which is essential in the creative process. They may even play a role in neuroplasticity, which refers to your brain's ability to physically adapt - effectively "rewire" neural pathways - in response to experience.

“We know that the brain is able to flex and adapt when new changes occur,” says Hafiz. For example, people who have lost their sight often experience an increase in other senses as their brains adapt. “When you sleep, your brain is awake and triggers unique patterns. Active regions include the hippocampus, amygdala, and visual cortex, which are responsible for processing memories, emotions, and images."

One of the prevailing theories in dream research is that this nighttime research is a way of organizing the vast amount of information received during the day and combining it with the expectation of what will happen.

"There is evidence that memory fragments are used in a specific way to alert us to some future event," says Erin Wamsley, Ph.D., assistant professor of psychology and neuroscience at Furman University.

In a 2021 study she conducted, participants in the sleep lab were woken up 13 times a night and asked to recall the content of their dreams. More than half of the recorded dreams, about 53 percent, were associated with flashbacks, and 25 percent were associated with specific impending events. About 37 percent of dreams involve memories of future events and past experiences. This was especially common the longer the participants dreamed.

In terms of why many dreams tend to be so strange, Tufts University neuroscience researcher Eric Hoel, Ph.D., believes they are inherently strange. In a published hypothesis, he claims that our brains create our sparse hallucinatory visions to support learning and generalization, similar to how AI technology is coded for augmented learning.

“When a system gets too familiar with the data, it tends to anticipate certain outcomes,” explains Hoel. “It reduces how much he can learn. To counteract this, scientists introduce some chaos and randomization. In a way, our brain does the same. They introduce weirdness as a way to expand our understanding."

You can test this for yourself, he adds.

Try a new task today that you have never done before. For example, if you have never practiced yoga, try doing a simple sequence of yoga poses 10 times. Or, if you're not a fan of word puzzles, try solving some crossword puzzles today. Hoel says such activities often lead to dreaming with these activities...although your brain often "makes them up" to memorize them more effectively.

The Physiology of Dreams

If you want to try to tap into your night visions to get a sense of your life, it is helpful to understand what is going on in your body when you sleep, because this sets the stage for how expansive your dreams can be. .

Dreaming is largely a phenomenon of the sleep stage called rapid eye movement or REM. At this stage, your eyes and surrounding muscles are active, but the rest of your body is paralyzed, which is believed to be the mechanism that keeps you from physically manifesting your dreams.

We usually start dreaming about 90 minutes after we fall asleep, although this may vary depending on factors such as alcohol use, depression, or previous lack of sleep. Once you enter the REM phase, you will cycle through sleep stages from about every hour to 90 minutes, with progressive cycles getting longer and more intense.

"An interesting thing about dreams is that our brains have the ability to incorporate what's happening in reality into what we're dreaming," Winter says.

“In your dream, the horn of an alarm can transform into a back-up horn for a truck. Sleep apnea patients who struggle to breathe often report having dreams of drowning or being followed. Our brain creates a narrative around a feeling,” he says.

Use your dreams

The moment you wake up, once vivid images and storylines quickly slip away, sometimes so quickly that you can’t even remember what you dreamed, although feelings such as fear or happiness may stay.

If dreams are such fleeting phenomena, how can you better understand your dreams? Hafiz offers the following suggestions:

Train yourself to remember your dreams

Record your dreams at night. If you get up to go to the toilet, it is most likely after REM sleep. Take this opportunity to take some notes about your dreams. (Tip: Keep a notepad next to your nightlight so you don't wake up too often.)
Do this slowly in the morning. Allow yourself to fall into and out of a dream a little, try to remember what you saw in your dream. Over time, you will be able to remember more.
Write your dreams. After allowing your mind to wander for a few minutes, write down your dreams as soon as possible. This will teach your brain to store dream information for longer and in greater detail.
Pay attention to the templates. Identify recurring thoughts in your dreams and daily life, such as: "I will not succeed" or "I am always behind - I will never catch up."

Look for general themes

“From here, look for topics that relate to your previous daytime experience,” Hafiz suggests, and remember that dream images can be literal, but they can refer to deeper emotions in a figurative way.

"For example, if you dreamed that you missed a form of transportation, you might ask yourself what opportunity you think you missed, especially in the 2 days before bedtime," she says.

If you dreamed of being naked, ask yourself if you felt vulnerable in public, especially if you didn't expect it. For example, you may be worried that your boss will call you out in front of your colleagues, or you want to talk to your relatives about a serious issue, but you're worried about exposing yourself to their contempt.

"Many psychotherapists and mental health professionals use dream work to understand deeper emotional states," adds Hafiz. Working with a therapist and talking about the predominant themes in your dreams can help with self-awareness and problem solving, and can also lead to deeper exploration of issues such as anxiety, control, and grief.

“While working with a professional can be helpful, remember that you are the expert,” says Hafiz.

"When it comes to your psyche, don't stop trusting your inner guide, your unconscious," she suggests. “Symbols have different meanings for different people. The key is to understand what this dream means to you. "

Best quotes on how to make your dreams come true

Interesting

Best Quotes on How to Make Your Dreams Come True

January 23, 2016 155 369 views

Irina Balmanji

Here are quotes from our books on how to achieve your dreams, completely change your life and become happier. Get inspired and inspire those around you!

Illustration from the book

It is important to believe in yourself and trust your inner feelings. You can't let social stereotypes limit your life. Everything is possible.

***

When there is a goal, you need to go to it without turning. If you choose a winding road, you can waste all your energy along the way.

***

Old age is a state of mind. If you are afraid of old age, prepare for its arrival, you will definitely grow old. Health and happiness is a personal choice for everyone.

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To be happy, one must develop. Never stop learning and learning new things.

***

It is believed that money is the key to all doors. Trust and love might as well be the key.

Illustration from the book

Look at your life from the outside and don't be afraid to realize your wildest fantasies.

***

Idleness is a form of suicide.

***

It is never too late to change the type of activity and start improving in a new business. No matter how late you start, you will still have enough time to achieve high skill.

***

Find something you enjoy doing anyway and learn how to get paid for it. This is your dream job.

***

You should only work with those with whom you feel good and comfortable. This is when you are twenty, you can tolerate an unpleasant person, justifying it by the fact that he is your boss. After fifty, you understand that life is short. Communicate only with those who respect you and whom you respect.

Illustration from the book

You can dream endlessly, it can be very pleasant and gives you strength. But if nothing is done, dreams will never lead to positive changes in life.

***

If you really want to fulfill your dream, it should be one of the highest priorities in your schedule.

***

To succeed, remember that everything is really quite simple: you just need to take a series of steps, one after the other, and together they will lead you to the goal.

***

If you are always busy with something, this does not mean that you are closer to your dream. To implement it, you need to work hard, but work smart to go in the right direction.

***

Difficulties are not a reason to give up and give up, but a sign that you are moving forward.

Source

Continuing to do what you have always done, you will receive what you have always received.

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Success is not magic. It's all about concentration!

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A brilliant idea without action is like Mark Maguire playing baseball without a bat.

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“I must” puts pressure on you, “I want” puts you in a position of strength. Choose wisely!

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The plains of hesitation are strewn with the bones of millions of those who, on the threshold of triumph, decided to wait a little - and died waiting.

Source

Judge your success by the things you had to give up to achieve it.

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A dead end is a very good place to turn around!

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“Not the right time” is the best time to start a change.

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The difference between successful people and those who struggle is not the number of failures. It lies in the willingness to take risks and what these people do when they fail.

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The more you make your desires a part of everyday life, the faster they turn into a habit that you don't have to think about all the time.

Illustration from the book

There are so many opportunities and things to do in the world that we don't have enough time or resources for everything. And although many of them seem interesting to us, only a few are really necessary.

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Learn to prioritize your life. Or someone else will do it for you.

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Saying "no" at the right time can change the course of history.

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There are three deep-seated postulates that we must overcome: "I have to", "it's all important" and "I can do both." We need to replace this false logic with three truths: "I choose", "only a few things matter" and "I can do anything, but not everything."

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Whatever decision you have to make, just ask yourself, “What is significant?” Drop everything else.

Source

To live a rich and fulfilling life, you need to look not for what is “right” in general, but for what is right for you.

***

As soon as you go after your dream, you will wake up and everything will make sense.

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As impractical as it may seem, finding out what you have the most heart for is the most practical thing in the world.

Learn more