After a long day, we find refuge in sleep. Life is challenging, frightening, hurtful, and flat out unfair, and it’s often absurd to think otherwise. Sleep is peaceful because your brain is quiet from thinking and your heart is calm after a long day. As your head hits the pillow, your lungs exhale, releasing all of the negative energy that was generated inside of you throughout the past 12 hours. Sometimes, when you close your eyes, your dreams exceed your reality. The following morning, you wake up, already exhausted from the day to come. And that, in itself, is exhausting.

So why do we keep going? If our dreams exceed our reality, why do we throw the covers off, and swing our legs off the bed to conquer the next day?

We do it for our dreams. We find solace in sleep because of our dreams, and we find solace in the day because of our dreams.

Your dream could be to find your soul mate, starting a family, and living in your hometown. Your dream could be traveling the world, immersing yourself in every culture, and throwing yourself in new adventures. Your dream could be creating the next technological innovation that will change the world. Your dream could be changing someone’s life.

Whatever that dream is for you, run with it. Each day is an opportunity to get closer to this dream becoming a reality. However, the key with dreams is that they are never just given to you. You have to work, and work hard. You have to prioritize your time and your tasks to make this dream a reality.

After all the heartbreaks, obstacles, challenges in my life, there is one thing that has remained constant for me. I have always known that I want to change the world through my writing. From being a foreign policy correspondent for a major news program, to continuing to write about the human condition itself, I know that I want my writing to change lives.

And I’m the only one who has the power to make this dream a reality.

When you think about it, it’s beautiful how it all hurts but we never give up. It all hurts: rejection, loneliness, loss, love. It all hurts, but we keep going. For me, I keep going because I want people to be inspired by my writing. Why do you keep going? Each day, when your dreams exceed your reality, remember that you have the power to make your reality into your dream. You are the only one who can. The question is not a matter of if your reality will exceed your dreams, but when?