Most people condemn daydreaming as a pastime of the lazy bones, who have never tasted success in any venture in their lifetime and perhaps never will. The more charitable call it a defense mechanism of the indolent laggards.

We often hear the popular exhortation of the motivators: Dare to dream ?-- meaning that you should set high goals for your life and also have the courage to achieve them. There are people who put in all the hard work needed to realize their dreams and also succeed.

But there are many who fail to realize their dreams. Should they stop dreaming- even wishful daydreaming?

What is the true nature of dream?

Dream, by its very nature, is a picturesque activity. You create pictures, visions of what you want to be; where you want to be; how you would look like; what kind of people would by around you; what kind of praise you will get, how happy you would feel and so on. All this is, of course, wishful. Once you are charmed by your dream, you try your best to realize it.

But then, there are hordes of people who only wishfully dream and dream and do nothing to achieve them, probably because they made some efforts, but did not have the will-power, patience, perseverance and dedication to continue and gave up.

Obviously, they are disappointed.

But acute disappointment and frustration too has adverse psychological impact on the person and wishful, empty day dreaming comes in as a great relief, a handy defense mechanism in psychological parlance.

So why not build castles in the air, see the lady of your dreams, who refused to cast a casual look on your face-- your existence-- walk up to you to take you within her arms or fall into yours?

Or, imagine that you are driving a car and people are casting admiring glances exclaiming what an achievement!

Or, you are making a wonderful speech before a mesmerized audience!

How else are the diffident duds going to pass their life if they are denied or ridiculed for creating wishful dreams or living in fool’s paradise?

And I think there can be no end to wishful day dreaming even for those who succeed in realizing their dreams. Because even those who reach enviable, dizzy heights of success may lose the excitement after having ‘done’ it.

How long can you stay on a plateau located along the spectacular  mountains with inviting  peaks? How long can you   keep watching and admiring the trophy you have won!

And a time comes when you only conjure up new dreams knowing full well you cannot achieve them. Your age is past.

The truth is that the hands may lose the energy, legs may refuse to walk and the eyes may lose the vision, but the human heart never tires of creating dreams. Life would become difficult, if you could not conjure up visions without the constraints of time and space.

Even though wishful, airy and empty, wishful dreams allow you to pass at least some moments in the kind of world that pleases you most. You forget your worries and stop ruminating at least for the time you are lost in your dreams.

Think, how life would be if every failed and frustrated person would have to keep crying over their failures for whatever reasons!

Wishful day dreaming is a blessing in disguise of tom-foolery.

Day dreaming is one of several life-sustaining, even rejuvenating gifts of God and we should be grateful even though we know we are fooling ourselves.

Haven’t we seen people building castles of sand on sea shores?

Wishful dreaming can also be a creative activity.

Listen to what Robert Bridges once said:

I too will something make

      And joy in the making;

Altho’ to-morrow it seem

Like the empty words of a dream

      Remembered on waking.

It should be interesting to note that several prestigious works of art and literature are based on wishful day dreaming.

Here are three quotes:

“Daydreaming does not enjoy tremendous prestige in our culture, which tends to regard it as unproductive thought. Writers perhaps appreciate its importance better than most, since a fair amount of what they call work consists of little more than daydreaming edited. Yet anyone who reads for pleasure should prize it too, for what is reading a good book but a daydream at second hand? Unlike any other form of thought, daydreaming is its own reward.” 
― Michael Pollan, A Place of My Own: The Education of an Amateur Builder

“She was always daydreaming. She never wanted to live in the real world…. breaking rules, and only following what her heart told her was right.” 

 Shannon A. Thompson, November Snow

“He raised a hand in response and tossed the ear of corn into the wagon. Then he returned to his fantasy, imagining himself running the livery instead of working there, making the decisions, placing orders, selecting new horses, agreeing to board others, and hiring a boy to muck out the stalls and pitch hay. In his daydream, he no longer lived in the back room. ….And his wife, Catherine’s hair was as golden as the ear of corn he tossed into the wagon and her and her eyes as blue as the cloudless sky overhead.” ― Bonnie Dee, A Hearing Heart

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