To imagine ourselves on a path that can stretch ahead for decades.
As far as we know, humans are the only animals on earth capable of making a wish, then planning what it will take to fulfill it, then acting in the direction of that plan. There are so many things constantly happening around us, outside of us, or to us that it’s remarkable that anyone gets anything done that requires long-term dedication. But we see it all the time: in poets and doctors and business owners and a hundred other examples of people becoming something long after they set out to do so. That dedication and the focus required to sustain it across long periods of time has to come from somewhere. That’s the dream.
So what’s in a dream? A dream carries both the emotion of a wish and the beginnings of a story on how to make it true.
A wish without a plan, or a plan without a wish, won’t stick. But the wish and the plan combined help us do something that’s almost magical: work hard for many days, months, years, and sometimes decades for something specific and meaningful to us.
When we dream, we feel something deeply; we drench our minds with anticipation; we make a promise to a specific future among all possible futures. This fuels us to work with relentless motion towards what we want.
Always have someone to look forward to and someone to look chase!
Until next time,
