Where does your mind go when you daydream?
That big dream, that thing in your mind–the really big one. Yes, that one.
What’s your big, scary, hairy, crazy, totally unrealistic dream? The one you wish for fervently and find yourself thinking about on and off while wandering?
Have you thought about making it real? Making it actually, seriously, part of your life?
Taking a dream to reality is risky.
It requires the real risk of failure and discovering whether or not you’re capable of what you believe. Whether or not you can actually accomplish all of the steps towards making it real. Whether or not you’re willing to do the work and go through the (sometimes painful) process of getting it to real.
Attempting to make a dream come true is a reality check. The possibility if a different reality is painful. It is quite possible that along the way towards going after your dream, you find out that you won’t get there. It’s too late. The pieces didn’t work. You don’t make it.
Behind the course of taking a dream to life is a possibility of not getting there.
To protect ourselves, we cling to the dream. We stay behind, saying wistfully to ourselves and others the story of the dream, but we don’t chase the dream itself.
Our words start to sound familiar. We tell stories that sound like were going to so that or we could have done that…
To take steps towards your dream requires uncertainty courage, bravery. You might discover that your dream window has expired. You might discover that you’re no longer in love with the fantasy you created. You might discover that the person you were has changed.
Taking the journey will change you. Taking the journey is unpredictable, uncertain, and scary.
You will emerge a different person. Your solace is that the other side of this today is a new place, and we are creatures that require change to grow.
And what if it does work out? What if your wildest dreams actually could come true?
Would you have the courage to go free them?
Or are you enjoying the dream more?
Good morning, Sarah! Thank you for this particular post — I always enjoy reading what you write, but today’s message resonated powerfully with my circumstances. I am in the midst of pursuing a dream and it is distinctly possible my “dream window has expired.” But I’m going for it anyway! Thank you.
God bless you,
Melissa
This. So much this Sarah. Very often the idea of a goal isn’t just terrifying in what could go wrong, but horrifying in what could go right. It’s a reframe I touched on very briefly in my TEDx talk that you’ve given such an articulate voice to. It’s a bit confronting to me because I advocate for progress and movement but now, after reading this, I want to make sure that I don’t prioritize progress at the expense of achievement. I’m really bad at celebrating what I’ve done because I get stuck in the doing. Thanks for the necessary push my friend. :)
The question about where your mind goes when it wander is a very important and revelatory one. I often ask people: “What do you think about when you think about nothing at all?” It seems contradictory, but where our mind wanders may be to the very thing we ought to be doing.
And, I’d rather have the regret of trying and failing than the regret of not trying at all.
Ahh… yes. This post hit home, and it’s something I’ve been trying to work through this year. In my head I have always been a writer, only… I didn’t write. It was much easier to fantasise about the brilliant book I was going to write than to actually write it and be confronted with the very real possibility of failure (or worse – mediocrity!). I’ve bitten the bullet this year and started putting pen to paper, but it’s definitely hard!
Thanks for the great post.