Kanisa George
HAVING A dream and the testicular fortitude to go after it is not only a desirable quality, but a rare force characterised by an overwhelming air of gumption.
We are repeatedly encouraged to go after our dreams and, in response, we strategically alter our reality to reflect what we want to accomplish. As much as we laud the idea of reaching the pinnacle of our desires, dreams are funny business. Dreams can be a mercurial, fickle, untameable beast that erodes our expectations and tramples our plans for our future.
When our future lives hinge on the realisation of our dreams, we can sometimes stand to lose far more than we'd hoped if our dreams don’t come to pass.
Following the "keep your eyes on the prize" maxim, only to be faced with the harsh reality of not claiming the fruit, may result in the proverbial fish-out-of-water scenario that can throw one for a loop.
It's not that our dreams were too big or unattainable; sometimes life and all its exigencies may position you on a path away from the one you intended to traverse.
Strip away the fear, mistakes and all the other factors that fight tooth and nail against our dreams. When we get to the nub of things, some aspirations unfortunately remain in the realm of our desires.
In a perfect world, our dreams dance like a million fireflies in our realities, and the line that separates us from them is a non-existent figment of our imagination. But in an invariably unpredictable world where what we can achieve and how far we can go to achieve them are tainted by the unexpected, should we place all our bets on the dreams that spark within us and an other-worldly incandescent light, or should we adopt a more practical approach and place some of our stakes on a backup plan?
Should our dreams fail to come to light, is the backup plan our most faithful ally?
Depending on who's using it, a backup plan might be a game plan directed at achieving the same goal, only using a different medium. As the saying goes, all roads lead to Rome, and even if the road you're on might be closed, a backup plan can act as a detour to get you to where you need to be.
Occasionally, an entirely new plan might be required, and having a backup plan in the woodwork that takes you on a new journey, bound for a new dream altogether, can help you still accomplish an overall fulfilling life.
For some, successfully taking life by the horns turns on how well you handle plan B. It's all about adaptability. When a well thought-out plan is fixed in place as a contingency, rather than the knee-jerk reaction of running around trying to decode unsuccessful situations, the odds of quickly getting back on track might be in our favour. Maybe the thing that sets us apart when failure makes its acquaintance is how we cope with plan B rather than how we manage plan A.
Those of us who wholeheartedly believe in the value of our dreams might be tempted to think that any thought of a backup plan might impact the vigour and potency of our dream's worth. The mere fact that we have a saf
