By: Nomfundo Xolo

Fulfilling a dream is not for the slightest of hearts. It takes dedication and open minds. The best thing about dreams is that they are free and forever in our grasps.  They ignite and remind us why we’re here and what we intend to leave behind; untraceable prints or presence that will last a lifetime.

Sleeping and dreaming, waking up and dying … what a waste of potential! Dreaming and waking up yearning for change, that’s realistic dreaming. You know how badly you want to escape from that gutter, to finally find your voice and unleashing it. The voice that’s constantly reminding you each day that you could be doing something better, yet most of you still ignore and deny it. How we let our dreams die.

It’s no lie. Life often kicks us, throws us around and we end up landing where we would rather not be. But, taking on the journey in search for achievement is the ultimate ingredient for a dare dreamer. Having the capability to offer your dreams, no matter how big, small, unbelievable or unreachable they may seem, a chance and opportunity to become real. That justifies your existence.

It enables you to colour your imagination by exploring new things, allowing the opportunity to pursue the dreams you let slip under the carpet and got buried by poverty.

S’bonisile Nyembe (38) is a mother of two, works the average jobs and earns a salary enough for survival for her and her two daughters. All her life she has been striving to survive, make a living, keep her husband and family together and happy. “All my life I wanted, wondered and waited to exercise my dream I kept putting it on hold and that was my mistake. My marriage wasn’t going anywhere. Sometimes in order for success to take its course, you have to let some things go, sometimes that’s how life works,” she said. S’bonisile has been divorced for four years. “After my divorce, I started to look at life at a different perspective, a challenge I am ready to take on,” she further said. Planning to fulfill your dream, another critical ingredient is to have strategy.  “Strategy is your big-picture. Every step you have taken in your big picture requires goals in order to be achieved. “By setting goals you are defining the journey you will be taking in achieving your dream,” said Dina Marais, a life coach and member of the Meta Coach Foundation.

“I did not want to settle for less, my life had not ended but in fact it had begun. After an unhappy marriage and dreams put on hold, it was time for me to prove myself and make my children and I proud. I was already a runner. I woke up everyday and trained even when I was married, but I wasn’t going anywhere with that, without encouragement a lot can stay on pause. Now I’m competing on races and I am actually winning. My greatest accomplishment was running the 90 km race I had feared all my life, the Comrades Marathon. I made it in the top 100 and to me that’s just a beginning. Bottom line is, day by day I’m living my life and with my dream next to me,” S’bonisile explained.

Zamani Ngcaleka (25) has been writing a book since 2008, A Flower That Grew Without Water. “Finishing and publishing my book is just a step away. I have an offer from a United Kingdom Publisher. Never in my life had I imagined something like that would happen to me. But, I never gave up in myself, I kept my dream alive. I am a writer and that is what I came to leave behind on this earth, my artistic work. Letting our dreams die is the worst thing we can do, because if you let them die then what do you have to live for?”

Dare dreaming allows you to identify yourself, be a little less out of the ordinary, create a picture that never fades. It’s a picture that is filled with colour from your imagination, drawn to the last detail by strategic planning, painted with linger and anticipation, framed with endless possibilities. And, if you can sell it to yourself, taking on the world is a door-step ahead.