I heard this today ‘Dream as Big as Your God.’ And I thought, whoa, that’s big. What a great statement. Because in general people think of God as well, pretty big. So I made that mean that dreams should be big, really big, maybe even bigger than I can imagine. I mean why not? Right?
Think about it, what’s the harm in dreaming BIG? Now, let’s qualify that dreaming should be based on the reality of you, not necessarily on reality itself. In other words, if I say my dream is to become and Olympic figure skating champion at the age of 43, well that likely doesn’t mesh well with my skills, talents and abilities. So, if you are going to dream BIG, base that dream on what you know you are good at or you can get good at. My opinion is that our job in life is to figure out what our gifts, talents and abilities are then put them to good use for the greater good of all. More to that I think that when you do that the money and the blessings come. I am not saying, nor do I believe that it will be easy, but it won’t be as hard as let’s say my attempting to perfect the double axel.
How many people don’t have dreams? How many people have dreams, achieve them, then don’t get a new one? Dreaming is part of living, you need a dream because you need a goal. So I ask you, what is your dream? For your life, for your business, for your team, for your career, for your family, for yourself? And if you are sitting there and immediately know what your dream is then almost as immediately say to yourself, ‘can’t do it’ I say why not? And is the reason you say ‘I can’t’, true? Or is it just that you are afraid? And if you are afraid what is that you are afraid of? Money? Failing? What people will say? It’s irresponsible? It’s crazy? It will never work?
Are those fears true? What if you use fear as a tool? A tool to keep you safe, a tool to guide your actions and a tool to make you move outside of your comfort box and a tool to make you dream.
If you are a leader, and remember I think we are all leaders in some fashion, is your team dreaming? And if they aren’t, why not? Dreaming has kind of a fluffy connotation, but isn’t it just a goal that might be construed as lofty? I say use the word dream, because it is fluffy and usually people don’t rebel at the idea of a dream but they might at a goal.
Dreaming breeds ideas and innovation and conversation. Dreaming encourages your imagination to wonder and to visualize what could be…
I hear the words “I can’t” all the time, even from my own lips. It’s a self-defeating proclamation that our fear blurts out before we even think it through. What if we started with I can, tried and found out that you can’t? Or found out that you could?
If more people had BIG dreams and actually tried to achieve BIG dreams what would our world look like? I say let’s throw the ‘I can’t’ out the window and start with I can. Let’s inspire people around us to dream by dreaming ourselves. And showing them what’s possible by going after our dreams.
If you think about a Canadian Olympic athlete who trains for decades, tries their very best on behalf of our Country, and doesn’t get gold, doesn’t even medal, but does finish with integrity through sheer grit and perseverance. I ask you, did they fail? And if you answer no, then I like you. Kidding, I do like you but I also think that’s a good answer because our best effort is winning, it is success.
I wish you all the gift of wonder when you look at the BIGness of your dreams. And maybe along the way you find a new or different dream. Or maybe you will find out that your dream just isn’t BIG enough?