“What are your dreams?” is a usual question to ask a young person or a person in transition. But dreams are incomplete glimpses into lives and poor compasses for existence. Dreams lack grounding not in reality but in time. They naturally lack a beginning and an end. I want to be financially successful or write a novel or do something important lacks the grounding of “how?” Missing from those simple statements is the clear path of what kind of hard work will be required, what kind of transformation will be demanded. And they lack an end. What if you succeed? What then? No wonder we see depression after super bowls and many other smaller milestones.
The wise among us turn dreams into mission. Why is Dave Ramsey so wildly popular and successful? He puts the dream of financial success into the frame of the how and the strength of the what then. How? Get out of debt and save. What then? Build a legacy of generosity. If we want to draw a crowd of dreamers to our dream, we should brace ourselves for the disappointment and disillusionment such a limited vision will inevitably create. But mission. Mission lasts generations and creates greatness both individually and collectively.
