“Have great hopes and dare to go all out for them. Have great dreams and dare to live them. Have tremendous expectations and believe in them.”
Norman Vincent Peale
Do you remember your younger days, when you can be a teacher one day, the next day a policeman and then an astronaut another day? You could live in the jungle or at the sea bottom. And your imagination was vivid and limitless…
Did you imagine back then your own life in 10, 20 or even more years? Do you live now what you dreamed when you were a kid? If not, do you wish you would? I read it somewhere that close to 70% of the people are not satisfied at their jobs. I am sure that a large number of them wish they would follow their childhood dreams instead that of others.
But first of all one must know what he or she wants. How could he otherwise follow his dreams if he doesn’t know what they are?
What can you as a parent do to help your children find what they really want? How can you help them discover their dreams?
A good idea to start is role-playing games, where your kid can dress up in another person. Encourage different outfit and make up and even different accent. Playing as many different roles as possible is giving your child opportunity to learn about different jobs, vocations and personalities.
Especially when you act along or respond to his playing, you are teaching him of different situations and he should get a good idea what it would be like in that person’s shoes.
Of course it is not only a person that your child can imitate. He can be an animal and he can impersonate the animal’s characteristics. She can be a cartoon or movie character. She can create a character of her own, too.
Now, let the imagination take over. Help him describe the life of that character.
Where he lives? What country and city?
How would he describe his family?
How many children will have?
Friends?
What kind of house or apartment he lives in?
What things he will have?
What kind of a car?
Maybe a yacht?
You can always talk about different possibilities, even without outfit and make up. Visualizing and fantasizing about different places, situations and examples can be as much fun. It’s great activity when you are driving or waiting somewhere.
The most important thing a parent can do is to encourage kids to DREAM BIG. Be excited about his future and always ask for more details. Make sure to ask open questions (how, why, what, where…) and support long descriptions and especially unusual or creative thinking. If he wants to fly to the Mars, let him. It’s the imagination that drives the future.
Listen carefully and pay attention, maybe even record your child’s descriptions or let him draw it. Let your child know that every dream is worth living.
But be careful not to judge, put them down or even mock. First of all, it’s their dreams, not yours and so they should not be limited with your perception and your experiences. Secondly, always remember that your child should not live your dreams. Sometimes parents push the children to do something what they themselves failed to accomplish. It’s OK to support your child if he wants the same thing as you but NEVER try to put your own wishes before your child’s. It’s their life and their dreams and they are theirs for the reason.
*photo by Mehmut Goren, Turkey
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