"The poor man is not he who is without a cent, but he who is without a dream." ~ Harry Kemp 

Why is it important to have a dream? These are the dreams we have during the day, not the ones when we are sleeping. Dreams give us hope, something to strive toward. They can lift us out of a rut and get us focused when our thoughts stray. Some may say however that they are simply delusions or unrealistic fantasy, and they can be.

John C. Maxwell describes a 'good' dream like this: 'a good dream is an inspiring picture of the future that energizes your mind, will, and emotions, empowering you to do everything you can to achieve it.' That last part is a critical difference versus unrealistic fantasy. He goes on to say that, 'a dream worth pursuing is a picture and blueprint of a person's purpose and potential.'

Does your dream fit this description? For example dreaming that one day you might win lottery probably does not fit the bill even though you can have a strategy to play every week, buy a certain amount of tickets from a particular location etc. The bottom line is that it is not within your control, winning is more about chance then strategy and action.

If you have a dream are you doing what you need to do to bring it closer to reality? Does the dream compel you to take action? Do you have plans to move you closer to your dream? Are you motivated by every action you take that moves you closer to your dream? Are you depending on things that are within your control (skills you have or can get, planning, taking action, enlisting the help of others, etc.) to achieve your dream?

If the answer to any of those questions is no then either your dream is not really your dream, it's not a dream you really want to become a reality or you are not doing what you need to do to keep it alive. Which is it for you? What are you going to do about it?

"The Dream is not what you see in sleep, dream is which does not let you sleep." ~ Abdul Kalam