“If you can dream – and not make dreams your master; If you can think – and not make thoughts your aim…”

Acta Non Verba. Deeds not words.

We could just end it there.

There is a harmony called for here, or so it seems. An interdependency; a complementarianism between thinking, dreaming and action.

To dream: to have direction, vision, frame.

To project forward; conjuring up visions of the world you want to create for yourself, your family, your team. To create in your mind, the world and reality that you want to live in. And not get stuck in the dream state, the fantasy; to not just settle for the “some day” or “one day I’d like to…”.

To think: to analyze, evaluate, plan.

To look into the minutia as well as take the 30,000 foot view. What is there, what is lacking? Decipher meaning and intention. Introducing new ideas to your mind for the sake of meeting that vision and growing. With growing, stretching your mental capacity, comprehending that some things are binary, some things are not; one can hold seemingly opposing views or thoughts simultaneously and not be in contradiction. Dichotomies exist and are everywhere. And there may not be one true path to get where you want to go.

And yet… not stopping there, just patting yourself on the back for being a “deep thinker”, and “intellectual”; knowing more and more about less and less.

Harmonize these two forces with action.

Using both to create the path of action you wish to take, to arrive at the destination you have envisioned.

Analogy wise: If dreams and thoughts were the timbers and sails of your ship, then let action be the wind that fills the sails. You will need all three at the right times, in harmony when the storms come, when shit hits the fan, so you can navigate successfully through and keep sailing your vessel. Do not huddle under the large canopy/blanket of the folded sail known as Dreams, or under its sibling Thoughts as the storm beats you into inaction.

Or, if you prefer it the other way, action can be the ship itself – the rudder, the sails, the oars (when the wind dies); and the wind itself being the thoughts and dreams that make it go. And when all is chaos, when the storms rage or when there is no wind at all, you have your destination set and you use what you have in place to keep moving towards the mark until the winds breathe life into the sails once more.

Either way, you choose, the analogy works.

Acta non verba.

Deeds not words.