April 17th, 2009 by Kevin Ngo

So why should you believe in others dreams? Have you ever told someone your dreams, ambitions, and goals only to have them laugh at you or ridicule you and brush you off as if you were just joking around? I certainly have and it’s definitely not the best feeling in the world.

I recently watched a clip from the show Britain’s Got Talent where a 47 year old lady, Susan Boyle, was on the show to perform her singing talent. If you haven’t watched the clip, watch it first before reading on.

If the video is no longer available, just search her name on Youtube and you’ll find it. Make sure you watch the 7 minute version and not the 2 minute version.

They Laughed at Her

Now that you’ve watched the clip, notice the expression on people’s faces when Mrs. Boyle said her talent was singing and she wanted to be as good as Elaine Paige, who played Eva Peron in the first production of the musical Evita. It’s safe to say that most of the audience, including the judges, wasn’t expecting much from this lady.

Let me ask you this. Have you ever had someone tell you their dreams and goals and the first thought that entered your mind was, “Yeah right!” Of course to think this way, you must have judged them by what kind of person they are up to this point, their character and actions.

Here’s another question. Have you ever looked in the mirror and thought the same way about yourself? Have you ever had a conversation with yourself in the mirror and said things like, “Who are you kidding? You’ve failed at everything in your life. What makes you think you can be successful now? No one even believes in you. You don’t even believe in you! Why bother dreaming when it’s just going to end up the way it has always ended up? Who are you to become successful and live the life of your dreams? You’re a nobody and maybe you should just stay that way.”

I don’t know if this sounds familiar to you but it sure does to me. I had a similar conversation with myself years ago. I remember being in a place where it felt like no matter what I set my mind out to do, I’d fail. I kept thinking I had the worst luck in the world. I had all this knowledge, yet failed over and over to make my life the way I wanted it to be.

When You Don’t Believe

What started to happen was I ceased to believe in others dreams as well. As I became more negative about other people’s dreams, I became even more negative about my own. I believe that what you put out is a reflection of who you are. If you are negative towards other people, chances are, you are negative about yourself.

I found out later on that the reason why I did this was because subconsciously, I wanted them to fail. Since I couldn’t achieve my own dreams, seeing others achieve theirs would make me feel even worse. So in contrast, if they failed, I wouldn’t feel as bad about my own failures.

Fortunately, once I figured out what was happening and what the consequences were if I continued to think that way, I stopped. I began to believe in others dreams again. My reasoning was, who they are today is just a small indicator of what’s possible for them in the future. People can literally transform every aspect of their lives in a year. They can get into the relationship they’ve always wanted, be in the best physical shape of their life, and start a career that they are totally passionate about.

Now, whenever people tell me their goals, I always make sure that I am supportive because no matter what kind of person they’ve been displaying up until now, that can completely change a year from now. Who am I to say what they can or can’t achieve?

Why You Should Believe

I’ve learned that each and every one of us has such endless possibilities and potential that it’d be stupid of me to not believe in others dreams. I’m sure you know someone who you’d say something like, “No, I know this one guy and believe me, that lazy bum will never succeed at anything.” I believe that given the right purpose and strategies, even the laziest people you know can completely shock and amaze you. They just haven’t found a purpose big enough to get them excited.

When you truly believe in others dreams and support them, you’ll find that you’ll have more energy and excitement towards your own dreams. Think of a sporting event. When you are cheering for your team, doesn’t your energy level sky rocket, especially if they’re winning? Now think of a time when your team was doing horrible and you just became disgusted with their performance. Where was your energy level?

You see, when you believe in others dreams, when you support and cheer people on, it puts you in a more positive mindset and will create feelings of stronger belief in yourself that you can accomplish your own goals. However, when you ridicule and react negatively towards other people’s dreams, you will create a belief that a person with certain qualities and past actions can never succeed. When you start believing that, you’ll find it harder to stand up after you are met with failures and setbacks yourself.

Will You Believe?

There are countless stories of people who became super successful even though the people around them laughed at their dreams all because they had one person who was willing to believe in them, supported them, and stuck by them even when their was no evidence that they would succeed.

In the song Susan Boyle sings, I Dreamed a Dream, it ends with the line, “life has killed the dream I dreamed.” Sadly for too many people, this is a reality.

It really makes me wonder how many people out there could’ve been great at something, could’ve made some sort of a difference in this world, could’ve been living a completely different life than the life they are living now, had they only had someone who believed in them.

For the sake of your own dreams and goals and the hopes of others, be supportive and believe in others dreams, because a dream is a terrible thing to waste.

Until next time…

Love Life. Do Good. Live Well.

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