You’ve probably heard the phrase “dream big” a lot. But what if we misinterpreted the actual meaning of it?

A couple of days ago, I came to realize, that lots of people do not dream right. You may think now, how can you dream wrong? Let me explain. People usually consider dreams to only be big and of high importance. Other aspirations they call “wishes”, “desires” or “cravings“. Yes, they are all synonyms, but I reckon that the word “dream” means sth much more essential to us, while the rest are less significant. That’s why people make only a few dreams for their whole lifetime, for instance: to get rich, to find a significant other and start a family, to buy a house/car, to become popular, to visit a country (or a few)… Indeed, these things are good, and they are important. But let’s agree, that these are a little harder to reach, meaning that they all take time, hard-work and effort to become true, right? Which in its turn means, that meanwhile people don’t live any dreams, they simply don’t have any in-between. Because their whole time, energy and concentration is focused on those big ones, which probably aren’t even their sincere dreams, more like goals. And mostly because other people want to get that, and that’s exactly why they want it too.

But what if we had numerous dreams, some a little bigger, some a little smaller? Wouldn’t our lives be more interesting and magical? Imagine, if we could have our dreams come true every month or a few months. That would give us so much motivation, inspiration and belief in good things. Because we would definitely know, that dreams do come true, that’s it’s not just a fairy tale or a cliché expression.

That’s how I now understand the phrase “dream big“. It doesn’t literally mean to have such huge dreams, that sometimes may even seem impossible. Quite the contrary, it means have the courage to have tonnes of dreams, with no limits. They can be anything: learn a new language, see a meteor shower or a sunflower field, get a pet, renovate your house, get a piercing or a tattoo, meet your favorite celebrity, learn to ride a bike or to swim, change your job… This list can go on and on. And who will tell you, that these aren’t dreams? Yes, some are a little more “serious and meaningful” than others, but it doesn’t make them less valuable. Sometimes the realization of the smallest dreams brings you the most happiness. While when a huge dream comes true, we can often feel depressed and empty afterwards, because we realize, it’s not something we truly wanted, and that it wasn’t a real dream after all, merely a goal, a need or necessity.

I have many dreams. Big ones, small ones, the ones, that would probably make others laugh and think that I’m too naive. But I could honestly care less, because that’s the real “fuel” of this life. Seeing your tiny dreams right in front of years. For instance, participating a lantern festival, seeing a field of red poppies and wild snowdrops, visiting a greenhouse (which was the source of inspiration for today’s post), studying journalism and becoming one, and so much more.

The moral of this post is, never be afraid to dream big. But don’t set only a couple of big dreams. Have as many of them as possible and never underestimate their power.