The Dream vs The Idea

What dream have you been holding onto for five, ten, twenty years? How many steps have you taken toward that goal? 

If your answer is “none”, I’d like to suggest that it’s possible you don’t want what you think you want. 

Growing up, my family talked a lot about camping. We purchased the tent, sleeping bags, and a host of other tools. To my recollection, we went camping a total of two times. We had one bad experience with a heavy rain and we never went back. 

I remember hearing about how amazing camping would be. But we never tried it again. Ultimately, we held an affection for the idea of camping, but not the reality. 

How many times in life is the dream sweeter than the reality? I guess that depends on how you dream. 

Every single vacation, birthday, and special event I’ve ever attended was somehow less than what I imagined it would be. The idea of a party looks perfect in my imagination. The lighting is perfect, the music is on point, and everyone is in a good mood the whole time. But when does that ever happen in real life? 

I don’t want to beat you down. This is a challenge to reexamine your dreams. Whatever dream you’ve been holding onto but not acting on, ask yourself whether it’s really something you want to do, or if it’s something you want to imagine. Is 

Being a writer isn’t about having hundreds of adoring fans lining up to get a signed copy of your latest bestseller. If that’s your daydream, that could explain why you’ve never written more than two chapters. 

The work of being a writer, a painter, a sculptor, a coder, an architect, a public speaker requires exponentially more day-to-day grind than anyone dreams about. We tend to dream about receiving the accolades of having completed something. But how often do we dream about doing the hard work every single day to get there? 

It’s good to know what you really want. You’ll know by what you’re willing to do.