Treat your dreams as starting places, not destinations

Dreams in and of themselves are meaningful, but only to the extent that we know why we have them in the first.

That’s the cleanest and truest fuel that drives us to move our story forward. Without it, we’re just postponing our happiness until some imagined moment in the future when everything is just right.

Except that time never comes. Just when we get there, there disappears.

Think about how many people have seen their dreams come true, only to discover that it wasn’t what they envisioned.

Think about how many people have accomplished their goal, only to realize that it didn’t live up to their hopes and hypes.

All of a sudden, their heart is broken for no apparent reason.

If we want to insure against the inevitable and crushing disappointment of being human, we have to treat our dreams more as starting places, not destinations. Because it is the system we follow along the dreaming path that secures our fulfillment. Not some item we wrote down on a list we keep in our wallet.

That’s the only thing guaranteed to evoke the gravity and joy of life right now.

Looking back to the young age of seven, my only goal was to become a writer. Not a famous writer, not a successful writer, not a paid professional writer, not even a good writer.

Just a writer. Somebody who made things. This was my special talent. It was highly useful to myself and others. Regardless of the whims and wills and ways of the world, if my ideas were being put on paper, then fulfillment was not far away.

If this gift was being used to make a difference in every part of my life, then the destination was irrelevant. And so was the vehicle that carried me there.

Who cares where we’re going? Can we make stuff along the way? Awesome. Sign me up.

What started out as my dream turned into my scheme. A system that guaranteed feelings of fulfillment and satisfaction anytime it was running. As opposed to sitting around with my thumb up my ass, waiting for happiness to drop from the sky.

If you find yourself just barely outrunning hopelessness each day, find out what energies are behind your dream. Use them as fuel to get your system up to operating temperature.

And every single day, instead of restricting your satisfaction to one specific dream, organize your life in a way that you become satisfied anytime your machine is running.

How could you structure your time to let go of whether or not your dreams came true?