Imagination and motivation are powerful things, and with them on your side, you have all the reason in the world to achieve your grandest dreams. Need proof? Take the story of how the first bridge over the Niagara River near Niagara Falls was built in 1847….
You see, to build a bridge over the giant gorge, the builders first had to get a line over the canyon, from one side to the other—from the United States to Canada with roaring rapids underneath. Except the engineers couldn’t cross the river in a boat because it would go over the falls, the airplane hadn’t been invented yet, and the distance was way beyond bow-and-arrow range.
The designing engineer, Charles Ellet, pondered the dilemma until he came up with a revolutionary idea: to sponsor a kite flying contest. A $5 prize (a small lottery back then!) would go to the person who could fly a kite across the gorge and let it go low enough to the ground for someone on the other side to grab the string. It was successful—a young American boy won the contest on his second attempt.
The kite string, fastened to a tree, was used to pull a cord across, then a line, then a rope. Next came an iron-wire cable and then steel cables, until a structure strong enough to build a suspension bridge was in place. The bridge opened on August 1, 1848. And it all began with an idea and one thin kite string.
That string is like a single thought. The more vivid and clear the thought, and the more you come back to it, the stronger it becomes—like the string to the rope to the cable. Each time you rethink it, dwell on it or layer it with other thoughts, you are strengthening the structure on which to build your idea, like building a bridge over Niagara Falls.
But unlike a kite, there is no string attached to how high and how far your goals may take you. They are limited only by the power of your imagination and the strength of your desire.
A lot of us never see our dreams come true. Why? There are 5 reasons.