In yesterday’s essay on 10 Life Lessons from Two of the Scariest Men on Earth, we mentioned being a dreamer.
Being a dreamer is not easy. Partially because of the lack of support you will receive and partly because of how overwhelming having high expectations of yourself can be. Still, I hope that most people reading my work are dreamers.
I cannot help you when it comes to receiving support from your closest ones. As a fellow dreamer, all I can do is tell you not to judge them for their lack of support. Sometimes, even you don’t believe in yourself. And now, you expect them not to be worried about you wanting to pursue something that they never saw anyone around them achieve? You expect them not to be afraid that you will fail? It’s all coming from a place of love. Don’t judge them. But don’t let them hold you back either.
Maybe there is something more I could do for you as a fellow dreamer. I would like to make it less overwhelming for you. I believe I can do that.
And for those reading this who don’t consider themselves dreamers, I’m writing this one for you as well. I would hope that all of my writing so far has inspired you to dream more and dream bigger. But if it hasn’t, I will try to do it with this text. And if this one doesn’t work, I will try again. So, if you are highly determined to never become a dreamer, I suggest you unfollow, unsubscribe, and stop reading.
Around 3 years ago, I was feeling overwhelmed by the vast distance between my dreams and where I was on my journey to them. I knew there was no realistic way to speed up my journey or skip parts of it. And the alternative, making my dreams smaller and closer, was unacceptable for me. So I came up with a concept that would help me not feel (so) overwhelmed by my dreams and how unattainable they seem. When I say I came up with it, I don’t really think I created something revolutionary that no one has thought of before me. It’s just that I personally didn’t come across it expressed in this way.
Macro dreamer, micro realist
Dream big. Why not? Life is too short and unpredictable. Even when you dream small, if that could even be called dreaming, things rarely go according to plan. If that’s the case, why not dream big? Because deciding not to dream big is all about trying to play it safe. But there is no such thing as "safe." No matter how carefully you plan things out, your journey will have numerous twists, turns, and detours, and it is likely that your destination will change over time. So why not dream big? If your journey is bound to be unpredictable, and there is no way for you to make it safe and certain, why not give it the potential to be an epic journey?
You've heard it countless times that you should shoot for the moon, and even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars. But what if you land on another moon, one that you didn’t know about? There isn’t just one moon, we know that much. But other than that, you know almost nothing about outer space. How could you, when you still haven’t explored it? And how will you ever find out which moon is the right one for you, how will you ever find out if you can reach it if you don’t launch yourself and start exploring, if you don’t dream big?
Now let’s get realistic for a moment. Let’s drop the poetic and romantic view of your journey that I love so much.
You cannot wake up every day counting how much closer to your dream did you get. The movement forward is often so small that it’s unrecognizable.
If you try to measure your progress every day by using your end goal as the reference, you will only get discouraged. As much of a dreamer as you are when it comes to the big picture, be equally as much of a realist on the small scale. Make your short-term goals so realistic and attainable that they don’t seem like goals. Then go out and achieve them, one by one. You will create momentum, and momentum creates consistency. And although there is nothing that can guarantee you achieving your dream, a lack of consistency guarantees that you won’t achieve it.
Don't worry about your short-term goals being too small. You can always start taking bigger steps. Maybe you even start running at some point. But the idea is that you start walking first.
Be a macro dreamer and a micro realist. Will that ensure that you reach your dreams? No. Will it help you move faster on your journey towards them? I don’t know. But it will help you move toward them rather than give up on them, I can tell you that much. That’s what it did for me. It helped me not be intimidated and overwhelmed by my dreams. It helped me take things one day at a time. It helped me be satisfied with putting one foot in front of the other and seeing how far I get, instead of looking so far ahead that I start thinking there is really no point in these small steps I’m making. I hope being a macro dreamer and a micro realist can do some of those same things for you too.
Thank you for reading.
If you like my work and get some value from it, there is zero-cost support in the form of subscribing, liking this post, commenting if you have any thoughts on it, and of course sharing this with anyone who would find it interesting.
Or you can consider becoming a paid supporter of Existential Espresso for 5$ per month. By doing this you would be helping me to keep investing time into researching and writing all the content on the daily basis.
What you get by becoming a paid supporter is access to the locked essays (such as “Why Having a Price on My Head Didn’t Upset Me”or “Why Living With a Bulletproof Vest is The Best Thing to Ever Happen to Me”), as well as an opportunity to recommend topics for future essays.
However, even taking the time out of your day to read what I have to share with you means more to me than you can imagine. Thank you.
This is probably that one push I needed and many others did. Amazing.
Thank you again, I think this is super important “If life is unpredictable why would you play it safe?”