The theme for the July issue of Brilliant Brainz children’s educational magazine is DREAMS. And one aspect of that theme involves what it’s like for kids to have a big dream, a vision, a goal, or some IDEAL that they would love to achieve, create, or build towards.

In the Brainz for Change section, we look at how dreams are good for the soul, but how for many people, they can only focus on survival goals — like having clean water to drink, food to eat, and a safe place to live in peace with no war.

The majority of our young readers are lucky enough to have those needs fulfilled already. Your children get to focus on additional things. Like having fun and learning skills. Creating art, making music, shooting videos, doing science experiments, building stuff, writing stories, taking part in sport, raising animals, gardening, playing, cooking, helping others, loving and being loved, or caring for the environment. We gently remind them to be grateful and to be aware that they may already be ‘living the dream’ of millions of people!

That said, kids today, who are blessed to be able to live beyond survival, have extraordinary opportunities to pursue their dreams, be they big or small. And here is a short guide to how they might do just that…

How to Achieve YOUR Dream

1. Be specific. Write it down in detail. A dream is just a fantasy until you begin to flesh out the details. As you get real about it, the dream gets real. It is like Minecraft or Lego, you build the vision you have with blocks
2. Learn everything you can about it. The better informed you are, the more likely you will know
3. Visualize having achieved it. Hold onto and relish that feeling. You hav eto start with the end in mind,
4. Working backwards from this end result, figure out what steps were/are needed to get there. (This is called ‘reverse engineering’.)
5. Make a plan. Break big steps down into smaller, more manageable tasks.
6. Take massive action. Do what you need to. Do what you can. Use your imagination!
7. Share your dream Ask for help. Explain your ‘why’. Inspire others to want to be involved!