Thursday, May 7, 2020

THE POWER OF DREAMS




Do you have dreams? I’ll give you 3 seconds to think of your dreams. Ready? 3,2,1. Times up!

What was that dream that you just wrote down? Did you write down anything at all?

If you can write down your dream in three seconds- that means that that is truly your dream, coming from the bottom of your heart. You didn’t even have to think about it. But if you still had to sit and consider, maybe that isn’t really your dream after all.
What is a dream anyway? Why do people always talk about achieving their dreams? A dream is basically a glimpse of your future that exists in your imagination. The question is, do you really truly believe 100% in your dreams? Or do you allow the judgments and critics of others to make you reconsider your dreams?

I recently heard this quote which I found to be really meaningful. It says that you have to be passionate about your dreams, or else your dreams will be cold towards you. Protect your dreams like you’re protecting a loved one. Imagine if today someone insulted your parent or your partner, what would you do? You would definitely defend them right? But why is it when people make fun of our dreams, we don’t protect them? Why do we allow ourselves to get hurt? This is a really serious question that I want you to consider.

I know that it can be tough. Especially when it seems like the whole universe is conspiring against you. Your friends tease you about it, your parents don’t support you, people talk bad about you behind your back. Different sorts of obstacles pop up along the way that makes you doubt yourself. You constantly ponder, “Is my dream really that worthwhile for me to go through all these suffering?” “What was I even thinking?” “Am I just wasting my time?” It’s only natural to feel that way. If you’re positive 100% of the time I’m seriously starting to doubt if you’re human at all. My point is- for how long are you going to allow these setbacks to weigh you down? Think about it, when you achieve your dreams one day, would all these even matter? They are simply just a part of the process to mold you into who you are and yet to become.

This is a very serious topic and it cannot be finished discussing in one post. But after this, I just want you to take some time and really think about what you want to achieve in life. Not for others, but for you yourself. You don’t want to live till you’re 80 and look back and think “Where the heck did all the years go?” “Why did I not listen to my heart?” 80-year-old you would never forgive the current you.

Today I want to show you the power of your dreams. (No, this article was not sponsored by Honda. In case you don’t get it, Honda’s slogan is ‘The Power of Dreams’) I want to share with you something that happened in my life recently that inspired me to write this article, and hopefully let you see the power of your dreams.



I have always had a crazy dream of being recognized in the volleyball world. But I never thought that it was possible because Malaysia is not very well known for volleyball and it’s tough to appear in major tournaments. Even though my logical brain knew all of these, I always had a glimmer of hope in my heart. Just one day, maybe I could…

But of course I never told anyone this. I kept it all to myself because 1) it might seem very weird to them 2) I didn’t want to get laughed at.

I specifically recalled one day during a tournament and I was scrolling through the official FIVB volleyball webpage. I told myself, “One day, I MUST make it onto this page.” Of course I knew that meant that I had to achieve something significant before any article about me could be published. So I made a promise to myself that day.

Then covid-19 happened lol.

Everyone was not allowed to train or play. Even the much anticipated Olympics got postponed to next year. I was so restless. I cannot even imagine what the athletes who are preparing for the Olympics are going through- it must be even tougher for them.

In every bad thing that happens there is always a silver lining. What’s the good about this quarantine? Due to boredom everyone became super creative and started to think outside of the box to keep themselves entertained. Hence, many crazy challenges started circulating around the internet.

I am an eccentric person. I like to try new things and do crazy stuff. One day I was scrolling through Instagram and saw that the Beach Volley Vikings had posted up a challenge. Basically you have to dig a ball while wearing/ removing your shirt. If you can’t picture it in your mind, just click on these links.

In case you didn’t know, the Beach Volley Vikings are the number one team in the world. (You can check out their Instagram!)  I wanted to be a part of the challenge as well because I thought it would be such an honor to be able to appear on their page. It’s not an easy challenge- so it took me a few days to get it right. But finally I managed to do it and I added a little twist to it by riding a wave board and completing the challenge. In the end my story got reposted by the Beach Volley Vikings and I was on cloud nine.



I thought that was the end of the story.


BUT THEN I woke one morning to see that they had posted a story and tagged me. Burning with curiosity I quickly opened it and found out that I had won the challenge! (Although it was a lucky draw, but still) I was so confused. The best part wasn’t that I had won. The best part was that I had won a contest I didn’t even know I was taking part in. When I saw the challenge I just thought it’d be something fun to try out. So you could imagine my shock when I found out that I had won it! I just kept asking myself, “How am I so lucky?”

The End.


WAIT! There’s more. I don’t know how or why, but I think lady luck smiled upon me that day.
I received a message by the OFFICIAL FIVB Volleyball World account asking me if they could repost my challenge. My mind was blown. What?! This was a moment that I had always been dreaming about and it was happening right before my eyes! It was really crazy. I just kept thinking to myself how truly lucky I was.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B_iFiSEHDDy/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link (Here’s the link if you’d like to check it out! 😉)





A few days later, FIVB posted an article on their webpage.



My name was on the title of the article! I was dizzy with delight. My dream had come true, in the weirdest and most beautiful way possible. It was truly insane. I could not help but just think that this was because I had believed so hard in my dream and somehow the universe had aligned to make this happen. https://www.fivb.com/en/about/news/tasha-mae-aces-t-shirt-challenge--we?id=90779 (Here is the link of the article in case you’d like to check it out!)

Now I know that you might think this is just something small and unofficial, not like my name appeared on the webpage because I had achieved something significant. But to me, it felt like the beginning of something truly amazing. It made me truly convinced in the power of my dreams. Some of you might even think this “law of attraction” is just BS. But I’m just sharing with you what I feel and this is evidence of it.


If there’s one thing that you could take away from reading this blog, is that I really, truly, sincerely hope that you don’t give up on your dreams just because of the people around you saying negative things or not believing in you. The world out there is full of doubters and naysayers, but if you let them dictate your course in life, are you truly living YOUR LIFE?

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