Tiny Dreams, Tired Life
Driving down the back roads in rural Upstate New York opened my eyes to a lesson I'll never forget. A slow drive through the beautiful farmland and small towns displays a variety of properties. 100-acre farms that are pristine, with ponds, and elegant farmhouses, dilapidated single wide mobile homes with overgrown lawns with roof tarps blowing in the wind, and of course everything in between.
Assuming both property owners started kindergarten as carefree, happy kids, and assuming both came from households with supportive parents and equal from a socioeconomic standpoint. (Yes, these are large assumptions, but we are taking the average here) At what point in one's journey do they stop dreaming big? 5th grade? 12th grade? At what point do they settle for mediocrity or worse poverty? What's the difference in expectations from property owner 1 versus property owner 2?
Spending time, money and energy on building a beautiful home in a swamp is futile. At the end of the project, it is still a home built in a swamp. It takes the same amount of effort to dream big as it does to dream small. The difference is the result.
Time and effort not spent on high priority items will be filled with low priority items. 100% of the time. Unfortunately, many spend their lives on low priority items. Fortunately, that does not have to be you.
Bigger dreams, bigger visions, bigger expectations lead to bigger opportunities. For some of you this will mean a new peer group, upgrading how you speak and dress, taking risk, and being ok with failing. Would you rather come up short on a big dream or succeed on a small one?
Is the effort you are putting forth resulting in a castle on top of a mountain or a cabin in a swamp? Have you stopped dreaming and visualizing a bigger and better life for yourself and your family? You can change that today.
Knowing we are all going to die, why not shoot for the moon, and go all in? The worst that will happen is you end up right where you are today but with more knowledge and battle scars. I can promise you no one will care or judge you if you fail, they are only concerned about their own lives, not yours.
You have nothing to lose. Go for it.