Let’s talk about dreams
People often say that you should dream big. They do so not because it’s empirically true but because it’s a good enough method to continue living. Without a totem worth holding on to, life becomes—maybe you wanted to read ‘meaningless’ here but booyah; life is always more meaningful than our lameass vocabulary can ever match — just another excuse for procrastinating death. Dreams, whatever they are, hang us above the surface. Look around you and you’ll notice some symbols of achievement. What do you want to be like? Steve Jobs? Great. Well, what did Steve Jobs want to be like? Anyway, we should be thankful to those who aspire us to make the most of our breaths. These selective individuals are the reason why kids have someone to look up to and why adults have somebody to look forward to.
There’s a tiny glitch in this setup though.
Those at the forefront of the stage often don’t tell you everything. They allude to abstract notions, very repetitive in nature, using a lot of words like focused, heart, work hard, don’t give up, chase, success comes after failure, soul, etc. And of course, dream. The interview isn’t complete without the D-word. It has to be there anyhow. They made it big, and in some cases, so big that these words pale in comparison. They’ve come so far that they don’t precisely remember all the early corners they had to cut. Besides, you can’t blame them. A struggle is a struggle.
Now, here’s the bigger question: If everything is inspired by everything else and everybody have someone to gain inspiration from, then aren’t we cloning the very idea of success? Take any field and there are going to be a handful of unrivaled personalities in it, who by their sheer accomplishments, nurture the upcoming generations. No complaints as such with this cardiac commitment to bowing to the past. Just that it makes you wonder whether we’ll ever break out from this loop. Given the scenario where everyone is trying to emulate others with the secret promise to outrank them eventually, what is going on is basically a life-size version of a hamster trying to spin the wheel faster than his predecessors.
To add insult to perjury, these individuals rarely reveal the angst of being what they were: an instrument of their supposed dream. At what point do they break out their zombie mode and tell the kids that it’s messed up to follow others’ design thinking that you are following your dream? Especially when the so-called dream was planted into your innocent mind without anybody acknowledging the pattern in the media.
OK.
In conclusion, dreaming is not the problem. The size of what you wish to build with it is.
