Fantasy

Fantasy is a two-edged sword. On one side, fantasies are usually used in the respect of possible situations that are not likely to come to fruition. You can have good fantasies (I am going to workout this year) and bad fantasies (I am going to die a horrible death in a wood chipper if I do xyz)

I have come to understand the power and seduction of fantasies. It allows you to dream of things that are better than the current situation that you are in now, but it also paralyzes you if you immerse yourself in that fantasy too deeply. When you indulge too deeply, you lose contact with reality and the current situation you have and you no longer have a drive to deal with reality as it is easier to deal with fantasy where you are in control.

But on the other side, fantasy is where new ideas and new visions can come about. Some may say that what I am talking about is imagination, that these 2 ideas are different, but in my mind they are brothers in the same family. Fantasy is still necessary, because without fantasy, we would be limited by what is in reality and no new ideas or new actions can result from reality.

What does this have to do with me? I have realized that I have indulged in too many fantasies. I've dreamed about how fast my car would be, how many houses I would have, what kind of wife I would have, how good on the guitar I could be if I just practiced, how strong I would be if I worked out more regularly. But in dreaming about this, I am not DOING. Why? Because dreaming gives me pleasure. Probably not on the same level as actually accomplishing that which I dream of, but significant enough for me to be satiated with just the dream rather than the reality. This scares me. (if you see my previous blogs, you know a lot of things about myself scare me.) So do I quit dreaming? Do I choose a particular dream and discipline myself to do that one dream at the cost of others?