Tony Williamson -Dollar for your thoughts

"Hold fast to your dreams, for if dreams die, then life is like a broken-winged bird that cannot fly."

- Langston Hughes

Every great achievement you see today was once an impossible dream. Imagination is one of the most powerful things on earth. The song, To Dream the Impossible Dream, is a song we should always have in our hearts. Dream big things, impossible things. Don't tread the same old, worn-out path. Go instead where there is no path and cut a swathe where others may follow.

There is no difference between neurological energy expended to think small thoughts as there is in thinking big thoughts. The bigger the dream, the greater the possibility. Dr Martin Luther King Jr had a dream that one day, blacks would be judged not by the colour of their skin, but by the content of their character. He pronounced his famous 'I Have a Dream' speech at a time when the darkness of segregation covered the American landscape. If he could see what is happening with Barack Obama today, he would be smiling with pride.

Every great achievement was once impossible until someone made it a reality. The V-8 engine was 'impossible' until Henry Ford lived his impossible dream. Heavier-than-air machines should not be able to fly, but the jumbo jet flies today because the Wright brothers dreamed the impossible dream.

BELIEVE THE IMPOSSIBLE

Lewis Carroll's masterpiece, Through the Looking Glass, has a section in it that exemplifies the need to dream the impossible dream. It appears in a conversation between the queen and Alice, and it goes like this:

"I can't believe that," said Alice.

"Can't you?," the queen said pitifully. "Try again, draw a long breath, and shut your eyes."

Alice chuckled. "There's no use trying," she said. "One can't believe impossible things."

"I dare say you haven't had much practice," the queen responded. "When I was your age, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast."

TRY IT FOR HALF AN HOUR

It is said that every day there is at least one thought, one idea that passes through our mind which, if acted upon, could make us multimillionaires and fabulously successful. But we dismiss these thoughts and forget them. Here's my suggestion:

Get up earlier, or find a quiet place where you may think and dream undisturbed. Take with you pen and paper, and write down the thoughts that come to your mind about success. How might you acquire financial wealth? Write it down. How can you secure a home? Write down the thoughts that come to your mind. See yourself as eminently successful, driving the type of car you want. If you want to be wealthy, dream of fabulous wealth. As they told us at the Million Dollar Round Table, "Dare to dream, and then become your dream."

USE YOUR IMAGINATION

Albert Einstein spoke of the imagination as one of the greatest gifts to man. He saw himself riding on a beam of light and soon he wrote the world-shattering theory of relativity. When the great inventor Thomas Alva Edison was asked how he explained his prolific inventiveness he replied, "It is because I never think in words; I think in pictures."

You can achieve phenomenal success if you visualise your dreams. Hold on to them. If you want something badly enough, see yourself in possession of the thing NOW, and it will be yours. There is a section of your brain known as the reticular activating system (RAS) that research has shown to be a force that drives you relentlessly to achieve that which you think of constantly.

Anything that is thought about repeatedly passes to your subconscious and you are driven, for good or ill, to achieve that thing. Your thought life affects your physical body and your life in general. Dream big dreams and you will achieve big things. Dream little things, and you become your dream. And remember the timeless words of Napoleon Hill: "Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve."

Tony Williamson is an international motivational speaker, sales trainer, author and lifestyle consultant. Email tonywilliamson_57@yahoo.com.