What to Prepare Before Your Dreams

To keep living even after your dreams come true...

Yesterday, I taught a sleep class at a junior high school.
I will be teaching sleep classes with them for one year.

During the class,
When I asked,
“Please tell me your dreams,”

one girl

replied,

“I want to be a school teacher.”

Looking into her straight gaze at that moment,
I suddenly thought,

that being able to have a dream
is actually a very happy thing.



I am 48 years old.

I am a mother of two children.

And now,

I am working on the dream of spreading sleep education in Ibaraki Prefecture.

I teach sleep classes at schools and give lectures on sleep and nutrition.
Little by little,

my dream is starting to take shape.
But in truth,



chasing a dream

is not all glitz and glamour.
There is anxiety.

There are days when things don't go as planned.

There are days when you work hard but see no results.

There were days when I was supported,

and days when I was not understood.
Lately, I often think,



that perhaps the power to keep holding onto a dream

is much more difficult

than the power to make it come true.
When people get tired,


their strength to look forward weakens.

When you become sleep-deprived,

you lose motivation,

your emotions become unstable,
and you tend to think about things in a negative way.
You become unable to demonstrate

the potential you originally possess.
That is why I believe


that sleep is not just for health.

Sleep is

something necessary to not give up on your dreams.

Something necessary to keep believing in yourself.

Something necessary to keep walking through life.

When building a house,



no matter how magnificent the house is,

if the foundation is weak, it will collapse.
Life is the same.

Dreams are the same.

Sleep,

nutrition,
and connections with people,
are all foundations.

If my dream comes true, I will be happy.



There was a time I thought that.

But now it is a little different.

Life continues even after a dream comes true.

New challenges will appear again.

New walls will appear again.

That is why what is needed is

not the power to make a dream come true,

but the power to keep walking even after that.

I am still in the middle of my own challenge.



Honestly,

there are days when I feel like I might break.
Even so, the reason I can look forward


is because I regulate my sleep,

regulate my diet,
and cherish my own heart and body.

And,

because there are people who support me.

When that junior high student from that day



achieves her dream of becoming a teacher,

I want her to keep walking through the life that follows,

smiling and full of energy.

That is why I will continue to share this today.

Sleep

is not just about sleeping.

It is the foundation that supports your life.

To make your dreams come true.

And,

to live happily even after your dreams come true.