This is my personal theory on how dreams, inspiration, community and the collective experience of the world are related.

I told a friend recently that I don’t believe people change. I think our experiences are varied in life, and the way we perceive them can be different, but every person experiencing life is a product of an early time in their life where their minds were a sponge. As a child we soak up so much. What we see, where we’re from, what we hear, who we come in contact with. The good, the bad, and the gray along the way. And once we are of age, whichever age that is for the individual, our personalities become mostly mapped out. Who we are is partially a result of the values instilled in us and the rest, well that’s a mystery – both to the individual and the world. My point is we don’t ever truly know ourselves fully. And so, when I say we don’t change, it’s not to say I believe that we are only coded by our early experiences, but that we are on a constant journey of discovery of what we have learned and will learn about ourselves in life. This is what I consider the fixed and flexible elements of who we are as people. My Aunt always says that humans are messy by nature – and it’s true, we are.

What does this have to do with dreams? At first, I wondered the same thing. But ultimately it has everything to do with how inspiration works, or at least how I consider its importance to discovering who we all are, but also how it aids in building new ideas, dreams, and goals. I wrote this quote to myself a while ago. I was in college and used to journal a lot, and only now are some of those writings making sense to me. “As we shape ourselves, we shape each other.” We never truly know the impact of our lived experience on others. What we say in the presence of others, how we treat those around us and even how we treat ourselves. We set and reset examples daily. Which is why I again reiterate that we as messy humans don’t change our core personalities, but on any given day, depending on which side of the bed we wake up on, we might respond differently to circumstances, both within and outside of our control. It’s just the way it is, I guess. As I said, we are a product of our environments, the people around us and the lived experiences we have cultivated.

But while we are who we are fundamentally, we can learn how to manage our responses to what life throws our way. And in that lies a solid truth. That we aren’t always in control of what we learn and experience in this world, but we are in control of who we become as we discover our deepest and darkest depths. Everyday hopefully is an improvement on the last, but it’s not always.

Back to dreams.

So if we are busy being influenced by everything and everyone around us, then that makes it even more important to share your dreams with others—both to manifest them, but also to inspire others to go after their dreams. Community matters more than ever. Sharing openly with others, sharpens our own journeys. That’s fundamentally why Hypervivid exists. It’s that reminder that we all have greatness in us just beneath the surface of who we are. I do believe that all our lived experience adds up to some hidden superpower. Talent is subjective, but experience is earned and shared over time. And experience in this lifetime can make a world of difference between a struggling idea vs a fully realized dream.

We make real progress on our dreams when we are true to ourselves, but also honest with what we don’t know. And that’s hard, we don’t know what we don’t know until we try something new, or when we see someone out there taking risks to build their dreams. Which is why I am a stern believer that going after the things you want in life can inspire generations.

Dreams work like ripples. Their effects when realized or even whispered to another, can spark something special and divine in the collective experience of the world. Dreams have power and impact beyond what we know, and when we share them, we all get closer to discovering deeper truths not only about ourselves, but also each other.

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