We all have dreams. Dreams inspire us. Dreams show us a glimpse of what is possible. Dreams reveal a flicker of the greatness that God has planted inside of each one of us. And whatever the dream, the “reality” of it has the potential to be far greater. We need dreams to focus us. We need dreams to shake off whatever cobwebs may be on our minds. We need dreams to remind us what everything we have been through has prepared us for where we are now.
Okay… Maybe not where we are right this instant. I mean… I’m typing this in my garage office six months since having seen my last paycheck. The Pandemic is still raging completely unchecked outside. Performing live music means potentially exposing my family – and particularly my 77-year-old mother that I care for – to a virus that for all intents and purposes really has no treatment. Pretty sure I was prepared for more than this.
In any case… We have a tendency to let the world beat our dreams out of us.
“Oh that’s not possible.”
“Oh… That’s not realistic…”
“No one will ever go along with that…”
Bull-fucking-shit.
It’s possible, otherwise it would have never been a dream. “Realistic” is just bullshit people say to keep you from getting too big for your breeches. And as far as “No one” going along for the ride? Fine. Find other people. Small-minded “realistic” people kill dreams faster than anything else.
The thing with dreams worth having is that they require work. They require you to step outside the bounds of what is comfortable or considered “safe.” They require you to begin long before you have set the resources into place, provided that you even know what you need to make them happen. Dreams require you to get familiar with the unknown and reach out to people who may either be excited and raring to go or may otherwise be chomping at the bit to tell you how impossible or unlikely they are.
Dreams test your sureness in yourself, your abilities, your vision, and your commitment to that vision.
And you know what else? Dreams should be fucking scary. No… Not because you plan to hunt werewolves. (Though if you do, have fun with that.) Dreams should intimidate you down to your core and challenge you, not because you can’t do it, but because you know that you absolutely positively can. In fact, dreams should remind you that you can do something a hell of a lot greater than even the dream itself.
Dreams scream in your face that you can live and perform at a level much higher than you’re at right now, but that you have traded it for comfort and false certainty.
And you know what? Dreams are plural for a reason. Chances are that it isn’t just one big idea you are sitting on, but many of them.
There are people out there that live for killing dreams. Don’t waste your time with them for two reasons.
- They may not believe you can do it because they don’t respect you or your skills.
- They may know without a doubt that you can pull it off and it will challenge how they view themselves in relation to you.
Remember that where you are concerned, some people are personally invested in simply being in a superior position to you. People like that would rather see you cut off from everything – even if you already built it – than admit to themselves that their sense of identity is threatened by the possibility of your success.
Dream on. Dream BIG. And start making it happen.