As a teenager, I had a big dream. I dreamt that I stood in front of thousands of people as they listened to me. They wanted to hear what I had to say because I was the expert. They laughed at my jokes. They responded thoughtfully to my deep sayings…
I had influence.
I don’t know of many people who haven’t had a dream like that. We all have a goal that we want to see happen. We all have a vision for our life that includes some sort of influence. But getting there is the hard part.
If I had to give one bit of advice to dreamers, it would be this: Be prepared to make thousands of adjustments as you pursue your dream.
My dream—as vivid as it seemed—was very incomplete. I had no idea what I wanted to be an expert about. I had no idea what my particular voice would be. I just had a framework. The rest of the details had to come slowly. I changed from wanting to be an actor, to a musician, to a worship leader, to stage design expert, to a you name it.
With each new adjustment I’m getting closer to the real manifestation of the dream. But I’m still not there.
And even if I had known exactly what I wanted my dream to look like, there’s no way I could have made the perfect plan. Because unlike my brain, the world isn’t a controlled environment. Things change. People change. Opportunities crop up seemingly randomly.
It’s not in our dreams or talents that we reach our dreams. It’s in adapting and adjusting to the things around us. It’s learning from mistakes. It’s learning from successes. It’s listening to external wisdom and to the Nudger living inside you.
Be willing to change. The road to your dream isn’t a straight path. It’s filled with tiny adjustments. Be prepared to make them.
I agree, if there’s one thing I’ve learned from following a dream is that everything is consistently inconsistent. That’s the journey of the creative or entrepreneurial mind, ever changing, being like a tree planted by a stream, affected by the flow and bearing fruit in time.