Itch.

Scratch.

Satisfaction.

You need to scratch your itches because there’s this thing we all love to do called drifting into Dreamland. Dreamland is great. Everything is perfect in Dreamland, and that’s precisely the problem.

Our minds have this uncanny ability to keep us hopeful and optimistic about the future by creating images of perfection. Dreams. And if you’re anything like me, you have more dreams than you’d like to admit. You’re also convinced that if these dreams were to just come true, your life will be better.

That’s when you need to scratch your itches.

Why?

1. Because you’re going to do it anyway, so you might as well do it now.

2. If you don’t, you’re going to be wasting a lot of time and energy drifting into Dreamland instead of facing reality.

3. By scratching your itches, you find out through first-hand experience whether or not you actually want to make these dreams come true

Dreams treat us very nicely. A little too nicely.

When we’re dreaming, we only envision the good parts. It’s like watching a movie and skipping straight to the end and reaping the fruits of your labor ... without the actual labor. We don’t dream about the hard work we must endure, the sleepless nights, or the moments of doubt we often encounter. Pain and struggle simply do not exist in our dreams, making them dangerous because they neglect the reality of the work needed in order to turn dreams into reality.

When deciding on what to pursue for a future in love, work or just life in general, it can be incredibly paralyzing. How in the world are you supposed to know without trying? You can surely imagine how great your life could be when drifting into Dreamland, but by actually trying it out, you get a sneak peak at your dreams in a more realistic light.

1 of 2 things will happen when you scratch your itches:

1. You realize it’s not worth the hard work and learn to appreciate reality.

2. You realize that you love the hard work and continue down this road. Congrats!

Either way, you win.

This is not to say to stop dreaming, or that dreams cannot come true. In fact, many of the greatest innovations in today’s world came from the ability to dream up the impossible. Instead, be a realistic dreamer. Take into consideration the often overlooked, yet incredibly necessary hard work that is required of each and every single one of us when turning dreams into reality.

Start thinking of dreams and reality as a couple. While you may not necessarily like reality, it is here to stay. The only way to deal with reality is to change the way you feel about it, and thus, change the way you work with reality. By accepting the fact that reality is never going away, you can finally allow yourself enough discipline to go through with doing things that are, well… difficult.

by Jason Lam