Dreams to wishes, then to dust.

We start with ambitions and aspirations. Then we have dreams and hopes, coupled with a fast-growing passion. Next? We end up with wishes. And before you know it, you only have time left to regret.

It is a common complaint that as we move along in life's journey, we find our hands filled with things we do not wish to do. Things that do not interest us, but are required of by us. And we move through life trying to find an objective (irony: recall that you have aspirations?) while juggling all the extra unwanted materials that land in our palms, hoping that we can one day free our hands for the piano, baking tray, or the cocktail beside your hammock.

So what happened in the process of going through life? Did we loose sight of our childhood dreams, or did we simply out-grow them. A lost in interest? Or is it that we simply become blinded by the practicality of it all that drives us all down another path towards "financial stability"?

It might just be a mix of both, but I tend to believe that the blinding abilities of over-emphasized capitalism plays a larger role in this. And because of that, we often find ourselves turning our passions into motivation to making money - "I want to be rich so I can spend time writing music", et cetra. What happens is that our aspirations take a back seat, becoming a secondary objective. And do try to recall what happens to secondary objectives. "What? I had one?"

It is understandable that people exposed to the world today - one where job security is no more than a thing of the past - one cannot help but fear for their survivability. We no longer fear the lions or tigers that lurks outside the caves, but of the bulls and bears that stalks you down Wall Street. It is under these circumstances that we realise that being rich lets you pursue your dreams, but pursuing your dreams brings no guaranteed riches - and once again, our primeval instincts kick-in, forcing us up the "corporate ladder" towards a "higher income bracket" so that we may enjoy "financial abundance" and be "debt free". Look at how our lives have been decorated with all these terms - how unsightly.

I cannot emphasize more on how our outlook on life has been warped by the green shades we put on. Everything you see, you see in a tint of green. Greed now manifests itself in a million other forms, from pleasant-sounding terms like "financial security" to empowering terms like "financial abundance". Granted, a little bit of greed is healthy, but we ought to take caution that we do not get disillusioned and become slaves of money, for money.

If you don't quite get what I have been saying, let me try to make things a little clearer. I'm just telling you that if you could take a step back and worry less about starving - there are hundreds of thousands of others in Africa who deserve to worry about it more than you do (and that's another story altogether) - you give yourself room to take a step towards your childhood dreams, your dreams, your passions. So stop wishing you had money to do this and that, because you know that chances are, it won't happen overnight. Also, by the time your account balance looks healthy enough, you probably won't be yourself.

You must be an ass to tell an old, dying man what good he could have achieved in his life by pursuing of his dreams and passions, but you would be a total ass to NOT tell a youthful, energetic person to pursue his greatest passion.