Live your dream

“Live your dream” is a very popular slogan which you find in the internet/TV/radio and so on all the time. The meaning of this short sentence should be clear.
Many people around the world are trying to heed this advice. One popular example is the Dubstep violinist Lindsey Stirling. Her dream was to play violin and to make people happy with her music.

During the last years she released two very successful albums “Lindsey Stirling” (released 2013) and “Shatter Me” (released 2014). This summer (August 19th 2016) she will release her third album “Brave Enough” which you can preorder at Pledge, iTunes and so on. She also took part in several German telecasts like “Klein gegen Groß”, “Willkommen bei Carmen Nebel” or “Die Helene Fischer Show”. In the years 2014 and 2015 she won the German Music Award Echo in the category Crossover each time. Her songs were already used in German movie productions like “Terra X”.

Even if a few people around the world live their dreams, are you as an average person also able to live your dream or is this only a slogan?

If you watch news in TV, it's often difficult to believe that you should be able to live your dream. There are so many terrible things happening around the world. All these victims are certainly not living their dreams. But how could you live your dream? Is this possible?

Living your dream is possible and this is a very important aspect to attain happiness. But no one said that this will be easy. :-)

The first step is to understand yourself, to learn who you are.
All of you immediately will be able to answer the question “Who are you?”. Most of you probably will mention their name, title, job and so on. Of course all this is correct. But is this really you? Are you a name, a title or a job? I think “No!”. You're an individual person with a history, wishes, fears, hopes, interests and many more.

That's why I ask you once again: “Who are you?”.
You hopefully see that answering this question isn't so easy. Responding this question is very difficult and complex. I'm sure that some people never will be able to answer it completely.

But even if you take time and think about your answer, are you really sure that all the wishes, hopes, interests, etc. you mention, are aspects of your own personality? Or are you only repeating the wishes etc. from your friends, colleagues and so on?

All of us are part of a society and we have many relations to other people like family, friends and so on. And all these people are having an effect on us. For example your father hopes that you'll do the same job as he is doing. Even if your father doesn't try to affect you, you know that he is hoping this. That's why you perhaps decide to do his job. But is doing this job your own dream or your father's dream?

Now you perhaps see why it is so difficult to answer the question “Who are you?”. But although it is so difficult, it is absolutely necessary. How could you live your dream if you don't know who you are?

Many people never think about this question because either they don't have the idea to do it or they are too afraid what they perhaps will find out. That's why they are living a life which is controlled by others. Of course living such a live makes them unhappy. That's why they are dreaming that one day there will appear the Prince Charming and rescue them. But this usually doesn't happen because Prince Charming doesn't know that there is a princess living inside her crystal ball.
That's why it's so important to find out who you are.

When you finally know or at least have an idea who your are, you have to find out your interests. This step is usually very easy. If you shouldn't know what you want to do, try out as many things as possible. I'm sure you'll discover your interests very fast.

After you successfully mastered both steps there is still a problem. You have to begin to live your dream. That means you have to break free! You have to implement your thoughts. As I already wrote before, dreaming of Prince Charming won't help because he doesn't know that there is a princess living inside the crystal ball who is waiting for him.

Doing this step is risky and needs much courage because now you're responsible for your life and you have to make your own decisions. There is no one who is telling you what to do. But always remember that you aren't alone. You have family and friends who will be there for you. And of course God always will help you to find the right way. Trust in him.

After you break free you're able to begin to live your dream. But this doesn't mean that everything is easy from now on. When you begin to live your dream, you probably won't be very successful in the beginning. You have to learn much and you'll make lots of mistakes, till you are a master in what you're doing. But never loose hope. Always remember that you're just living your dream.

Also such a popular and talented person like Lindsey Stirling started on a shoestring. Her dream was to make violin music. That's why she had to learn how to play the violin correctly for years till she became a master in this one day. Learning the violin wasn't fun all the time but she kept up till she mastered it. For living your dream you have to work very hard. But it is worth it.

But even you are successfully living your dream there will be hard times. That's why it is necessary to have family and friends who help you. Family and friends are great but they are living their own dreams. It's important to find someone who will spend his/her life with you and who is living your dream together with you. Finding such a person is really very difficult. The only way to find the right one is living an open-hearted life. If you are living such a life, it's very easy for bad guys to hurt you, because you pulled down all your protective walls around your soul. And there always will be bad guys who will hurt you. But although your soul is bleeding, never give up. God knows your pain and he will help you to find the right person at the right time. Trust in him.

Some of you perhaps think that all this is theoretically right and that there are people who are living their dreams, but you never will be able to live your dream. If you're one of these guys then you're wrong. You are able to live every dream you want to live. There are no limits except the ones inside your mind. If you're able to imagine something you'll be able to do it. You only have to try it.

For example learning how to play a violin correctly isn't easy. But if you want to learn it, you are able to learn it. There is no reason why you shouldn't be able to master it. Of course there always will be people who are more talented than you. But this doesn't matter. You don't have to be the best  violinist around the world to live your dream. If you are doing your best this is absolutely enough.

But why are there so many people around the world who are believing that they won't be able to live their dream. One reason is that living your dream, that everything you do and that each decision you make have a price or you could say it has a consequence. If you want to learn playing a violin you have to work hard and to spend lots of time to master it. That's why other aspects of your life will disappear. For example you decided to become a musician and you are working hard to achieve your dream. That's why your musical skills will grow. But other skills will be reduced. This is a logical consequence. You can't be a master in everything. This is only one example for a price you have to pay for living your dream.
Especially if you only have little talent in doing something but it's your dream to do it, then you have to pay a very high price for reaching your goal. Of course if you want to live this dream, you always will be able to live it. But many people are bent on paying such a high price for reaching their goal.
Another reason why so many people are believing that they won't be able to live their dream is fear. They're not brave enough to answer the question “Who are you?” or to break free.

There's one last aspect I want to explain.
Even if you are living your dream successfully, there is one high risk to attain unhappiness. This risk is comparing your life with someone else's life. If you are comparing your life with the life from others, you will attain unhappiness because one day you will find someone who is living a more successful or more happy live than you. And most people don't like if someone else is living a better life than yourself.

There is a very interesting story in the Bible which is explaining this problem. It's called the “Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard”.
There is an owner of a vineyard and it's time to pick the grapes. But he has too few workers for this job. That's why he goes to the marketplace and asks some people if they would help him to pick the grapes. He would pay them a penny a day. They accepted his offer. During the day he went several times to the marketplace and hired more and more workers. He always promised to pay one penny.
After the work was done he payed the workers. Because he always promised one penny, everyone gets the same, no matter how long they worked. The workers who worked whole the day were angry because the workers who only worked a few hours got the same wage.

At the first moment you probably think that the owner of the vineyard was unfair and the early workers were right to be angry. But is this true?
The owner asked all the workers if they would work for a penny and they accepted it. If the early workers wouldn't have compared their wage with the wage from the late workers, everyone would be happy. But the second they compared they attained unhappiness.

Perhaps some of you still think that the early workers were right to be angry because the owner was unfair. But this is wrong. The payment was fair. The owner told them the conditions of the offer before and they accepted them. All the workers got their money the owner promised them.

Everyone always gets what he/she needs. In the parable all the workers needed money. But this doesn't mean that everyone always gets the same. If God or you also could say the Life gives you for example one talent, this is a gift. If someone else got many talents, God/Life is still fair. Firstly if someone else gets more gifts than you, you shouldn't be jealous or even angry about this. And second you don't know the reason why he/she got so many gifts. Perhaps he/she did a better job than you or he/she has a bigger family than you and needs more money. There are so many possible reasons why someone gets more than you. You never will know all these reasons. That's why you shouldn't be jealous. Be happy about the gifts you got.

Even if you think that life isn't fair, it's your own decision to be happy or not. If you only focus on the bad things in your life, you always will be unhappy. Of course you went through bad times and other people treated you bad. This is life. Everybody passed such bad times in life. But if you only focus on these bad memories, you won't be able to see all the good things which are currently happening in your life.

That's why always remember:
God gifted you everything you need to live your dream and attain happiness. But happiness is a decision. That's why make the right choice: Focus on the good things in your life and not on the bad memories.

I was inspired by Lindsey Stirling to write this blog post. She passed very bad times. But she didn't give up. She decided to go inside and found out who she is and what dream she wants to live. Then she did the very brave step to break free and to live her dream open-hearted.

This photo from Lindsey Stirling was taken by Lionel Bonizzardi at Paris, France.

Here you can watch Lindsey Stirling's latest original music video "The Arena":

Lindsey Stirling's new single “The Arena” is available at iTunes and Amazon.

This is the cover from Lindsey Stirling's new single "The Arena".

Lindsey Stirling's new album “Brave Enough” will be released August 19th 2016. You can preorder it at Pledge and iTunes.

This is the cover from Lindsey Stirling's new album "Brave Enough".

Here you can find Lindsey Stirling:
Website: http://www.lindseystirling.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lindseystirlingmusic/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/LindseyStirling
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lindseystirling/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/lindseystomp

Here you can find my fan page Lindsey Stirling GER:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LindseyStirlingGermany/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/LS_GER
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lindsey_stirling_ger/ 

Written by: Andreas S. Janke

The problem with the fanaticism

This time I want to write about the fanaticism.

There are many different forms of fanaticism. I don't want to write about the usual/daily one here. If you take a great interest in something for example playing video games or watching soccer then you are a fan. And a fan is the short form of fanatic. Being a fan is OK. This is no problem, except you are spending too much time for your hobby. In this case you disregard yourself, your family and friends and so on. This is a problem. Although this could be a great problem for some of you, I don't want to write about this aspect of fanaticism here. I want to focus on the narrow sense of the fanaticism, mainly on the religious fanaticism.

What is the religious fanaticism?

A simple answer is:
For the religious fanaticism you have to think that your faith/religion is the only one which is right and all the others are wrong. The humans all over the world have to believe the same like you.

I think several of you would have answered this question in a similar way. Of course this answer isn't wrong. It contains several right aspects. But it only explains the ramifications and not the reasons for it.

For all of you who are looking for a new hobby, here's a short guide how to become a religious fanatical: ;-)
To become a religious fanatical, you need a faith and a religion. If you don't find a religion which fit to your faith found your own one. To found a religion and to find members isn't easy, but if you want to become a religious fanatical, you need a very strong faith which gives you the strength to pass difficult times. In the case your faith isn't strong enough, you really should have choosing another hobby in contemplation. After you convinced a few persons to think the same way like you, finding new members who will follow you will become easier. In the case you meet someone who don't want to think the same like you, kill him/her. This is the fastest way to handle dissidents. If you are a very successful religious fanatical, every survivor of your proselytizing will believe the same like you and you will live in your own perfect but very boring and empty world. Isn't this the wish from all of us? ;-)

In the case you didn't understand the last chapter, this was only a joke. But is this really only a joke? If you take a look at several people around this world, you unfortunately will see that they are doing or at least trying to do something very similar.

Some of you perhaps think at the conflict between the Christianity and the Islam. Both religions are thinking that each of them is the only one which is right and the other one is wrong. That's why they are fighting since centuries and are still fighting today.

But is the different faith really the reason for this conflict?
It's right that both religions have a faith which is a little bit different from each other. But this doesn't cause the conflict. Both religions were leaded by humans who wanted to get more power, influence and so on. But of course the leaders never fight themselves. They need people who will fight for them. If they would have told the people to fight for them because the leaders want to have more power or influence, no one would have fought for them. That's why they told the people that the members of the other religion are unbelievers and they are doing bad things. And they told them that if you combat these foreign persons, you are a good person and that your sins will be forgiven. Unfortunately many people believed them and combat the foreigners. Many of the fighting people really believed and are still believing that they are doing something good and that they are fighting to protect their face.

What shall you say about these very stupid persons?
Like I wrote above, the fastest way to handle people who are thinking/believing something different than you, is killing them. But unfortunately many of these people who are thinking so, don't see, that you never will solve a problem with fighting. For each enemy/dissident who you kill, you creates many more. With fighting you always creates more enemies than you are able to kill. There is only one way to eliminate an enemy. Becoming friends! Of course this isn't easy or works fast, but only if an enemy becomes a friend, you eliminate the conflict. And the first and most important step on the way becoming friends is talking with each other and trying to see the problem from the point of view of the other one.

Today of course only a small minority of the Christians and Muslims are still combating each other. A huge part of these minorities are religion fanaticals.

But why are they doing these terrible things?
To find the answer you have to take a closer look. You have to take a look at the individual person and not at the whole conflict.

If you have a faith, of course you think that this is right. In the case you think it would be wrong, you wouldn't believe in it. :-)
And even you have a very strong faith and this faith is the most important part of your life or even from you, this is no problem. Everything is OK.

But when does a strong faith becomes a religious fanaticism?

As I wrote above you have to think that your faith is right. This is necessary. But you always should know that you perhaps misinterpreted some aspects of the Bible, the Koran or howsoever your religious book is called. You and also the leaders of each religion are only humans. And humans are making mistakes.
But if you are a religious fanatical, you think that your interpretations of the religion texts are completely correct, that you didn't make any mistakes. And this is the main problem. Persons who are thinking so, are too self-centered. They never would think that they are perhaps wrong. And this is the most stupid and most dangerous way of thinking. As long as these people are thinking this way, they aren't able to find or correct their mistakes. They aren't able to develop.

In the case you are thinking that your interpretations of the texts are perfect, the stringent conclusion is that all the persons who are thinking different are wrong. Even if you are a peaceable person and you don't do anything against the dissidents, you are a religious fanatical.

But if you are already thinking this way it's only a very small step trying to convince or even to combat the dissidents. Even if you are trying to convince the dissidents only with words, this is force. You never should try to convince someone else. The other person is an individual and free person like you. If he/she believes something else, this is OK and you have to accept this.

Don't misunderstand me. I don't want to say, that you shouldn't talk with others about your faith or religion. You really should do this. Without talking with others about your thoughts, you never will be able to find your mistakes and to develop. Talking with others is very important. But there is a big difference between talking with someone else about your faith or trying to convince him/her!

Perhaps some of you are asking now how you could accept all the different faiths/religions without thinking that your own one is better or more right than the other ones.
This is a problem and everyone has to find a way to handle this.

I like the following idea:
My own faith is good but not perfect. There are still certainly many mistakes. That's why I always continue thinking and talking with others about it to find these mistakes, to develop my faith and myself. And the members from all the other religions are doing the same. Everybody has his/her own incomplete faith, his/her own view. But in the end, if you found and corrected all your mistakes, developed your faith, you will see that everyone is right. Everyone is believing at the same God and is talking about exactly the same. The only reason why there are so many different faiths and religions, is that we are only humans. We aren't able to see the whole picture or to interpret all the details right. We are making mistakes all the time but we are always thinking that we are perfect and all the others are wrong. We finally should see that we are all the same. All of us are humans who are doing their best to interpret the details. Instead of combat the dissidents we should talk with them! Perhaps they see some details we didn't see till now? Only if we are working all together, we perhaps will be able to see the whole picture.

That's why always remember:
Having a strong faith is good and very important. But always remember that you aren't able to see the whole picture yourself. You need all the dissidents too. Only together you perhaps will be able to see the whole picture and to solve all the problems in our lifes.

I was inspired by Lindsey Stirling to write this blog post. She has a very strong faith which gives her the power to pass all the bad times she had to go through. But even she has such a strong faith, she accepts all the dissidents. She is always thinking about herself and is trying to become a better person.

This photo shows Lindsey Stirling and two of the main aspects of her life: Faith and Music.

Written by Andreas S. Janke