THINK ,DREAM & DO IT

One of the things I love to do is dream about the future. Just lay in bed, or stand in the shower, and imagine answers to the great what if?

Dreaming big is one of the ways I keep myself motivated during the day-to-day. It gives me goals to focus on and a standard on which to judge what I do on a daily basis. Am I being who I want to become? Or am I just going through the motions of life?

If you don’t spend some time each day dreaming ahead, you really ought to.

(Colin Wright of Exile Lifestyle suggests something similar called 20 Minutes of Awesome. Give it a try!)

On the other hand, just dreaming big never actually got anyone anywhere. Sometimes dreams suck up energy and attention from the actual work of moving forward, leading to a kind of paralysis.

And sometimes, big dreams lead to guilt. Like during those long, unproductive nights, where you’re inspired, but somehow unable to make progress. Or after a day of goofing off, when you realize that you’re one day older and no closer to where your dreams are hiding. Times like that, when all you hear is the Focus. Get things done. Stop wasting time. Hustle. refrain in your head, and you start feeling horribly guilty for every wasted second.

I dunno. This self-improvement thing really sucks sometimes, doesn’t it?

Guilt has its uses, I suppose. It keeps us honest, for those times when we really are squandering our resources. But guilt, like curare, is only beneficial in very small amounts. Most of the time, it’s better to just let it go and move on.

For example, one of my lifelong dreams is to write a bestselling book. And not just a bestseller … a classic. A book to which legions of high school students will be subjected via summer reading lists and timed essays. So far, I’ve made several attempts at it, but I haven’t gotten anywhere.

Some days, I can’t help comparing myself to the big dreams in my head. “What am I missing?” I ask myself. “What’s wrong with me? Do I really want this?” Thinking like this, I’ve noticed, tends to kill my motivation pretty fast.