Why You Should Always Dream Big

If anyone tells you your dreams are too big, don’t listen to them.

So often in life we are told to be realistic, to manage expectations, and to play it small. Isn’t it interesting that this sort of guidance exists? As if the natural tendency and desire of human beings is to imagine, dream big, and create. I have always been a big dreamer, getting swept away in my imagination, tuning out monotonous or negative experiences to imagine a different reality for myself.

From a young age I felt I was meant to experience something bigger and better than my current reality. I enjoyed a fairly comfortable childhood — my parents did their best to nourish, shelter, and provide opportunities — but I wasn’t particularly happy at home or in school. I would escape through my imagination to new places that felt warm, expansive, and comforting. I felt the deep and undeniable power of optimism emanating from my inner world. It burned like a flame that could sometimes be dimmed but never put out. That deep inner knowing became a compass which has guided me through nearly all of my choices in life.

I later learned that my inner compass was guiding me towards my big dreams. I dared to have big dreams because I believed I deserved it. Even when my big dreams were discouraged or others tried to project theirs onto me, I resisted because I knew deep down where I wanted to go. I’m grateful for having followed my intuition. Everything I have ever wanted, I have attained or I am on my way. I’m grateful for my big dreams because they have helped me to get to where I am today. In case you feel any more doubt about whether or not it’s worth your while, I want to share with you why it’s so important to have big dreams:

1. You need a direction for your actions.

Big dreams are not meant to be achieved. So what’s the point? The first value of a big dream is it gives you direction; a big dream sets a clear direction for all the actions you take in life. Every choice you make in the direction of your dream is a vote towards that outcome in your life. It is progress, the kind that you can enjoy for a very long time. When you take small actions every day, as often as you can, over weeks, months, or years, your efforts amount to a world of difference. The bigger the dream, the more actions you can take and the more progress you can make.

One of my big dreams is to give a TED Talk on the art of human connection and building community. I may give the talk at TED or a different summit. I may not even give a talk at all. Which detail actually happens is less important than all that I will gain and enjoy from working towards this vision. Every action that I take towards this dream is a step towards fulfilling the deep desire I have to understand the human condition. I may become the best speaker at TED in this subject, or I may not, but every day that I am working towards my big dream is a job well done. I am already on the path, and that is better than not taking the journey at all.

Set your sights bigger and higher so that you can go further than you ever will by playing it small or not playing at all. Let your big dream be a compass guiding you in the direction you want to go. Enjoy all the progress that you make along the way.

2. Your subconscious is always eavesdropping on your dreams.

When your dream is big, it is aspirational. And aspiration is a product of the growth mindset. A growth mindset is one that is open to possibilities, especially in your own abilities. It is observant, flexible, and adaptable. A growth mindset compels you to accomplish more than you would if you practiced a fixed mindset, which is inherently limiting. All the limiting beliefs we have around “I can’t do this” or “I should aim for something more realistic” are narratives that make us fall short of our deepest dreams. It’s the automatic negative talk that has become habit over years of reinforcement. We may have been conditioned by others to think and speak this way, and from there we perpetuate the habit ourselves. Fortunately, just as we can condition our minds to think negatively in the first place, we can condition our minds to quiet these limiting beliefs by thinking and believing more positively, more often.

The most important step in conditioning our minds is to repeat your big dream regularly. Write it down, say it out loud. Do so with the belief that your dream is possible and worthwhile. I’m a big believer in the power of writing, because putting pen to paper has a sort of permanence. Putting your big dream on paper is similar to writing a contract with yourself. It’s a deliberate choice to fill a blank space with a description of the thing you want to manifest. Your choice to write your dream is an action that your subconscious will remember long after you have forgotten. In your daily life — in your work, your rest, your interactions with other people — your subconscious mind will continue to look out for opportunities for you to take action towards your dream. You will pay attention, even if you don’t realize you are paying attention. You will attract into your life the experiences, the ideas, and the people who will help bring you closer to your dream.

3. Knowing your dreams means knowing yourself.

So much of current media and culture celebrates achieving success through achieving your goals. But dreams are not the same as goals. Dreams represent the abundant and infinite possibilities in your life — they are inherently open-ended in nature, open to interpretation and evolution. Goals, on the other hand, are defined and discrete. Goals are born from dreams. And dreams are the ultimate, intrinsic motivation for everything that we do in life. Dreams motivate us to create and set goals. So to have big dreams and to know what they are is to know what you most deeply desire. To know your dreams is to be in connection with your authentic self.

You cannot get to know someone from their goals, but you can get to know someone from their dreams. Depending on where you are in your journey, it may not be clear to you what your dreams are, or how they could be a representation of your authentic self. Trust that you have a deep and rich inner world. Trust that you have dreams. It may just take a little more time until you can articulate what they are. There is no shame in being at the beginning of your journey…everyone has to start somewhere.

Keeping the Dream Alive

While on a continuous quest towards your big dream, it’s important to take regular inventory of all the progress you have made. Sit back and look at the bigger picture of how far you have come. Celebrate the progress. Relish in it. Feel good about your progress so that you will be motivated to continue the good work.

We have all heard before “It’s about the journey, not the destination”. The danger of focusing only on the destination is that we expect every step we take to immediately take us there. If we repeat this enough times, we collapse under the pressure. We are not here for perfection, we are here for progress. So stay in the present moment while being connected to the bigger picture, and enjoy the journey while you are on it.