BIG

The dream of "hitting it BIG!"

"Here's what I would do if I won $200 million dollars..."

Investing in the next Facebook. Buying the winning lottery ticket. These dreams, if that's what we want to call them, tap into an emotion that must be overwhelming in all of its ways. The reason I know this, is because I see the blinding effects of it in each of these pursuits.

Emotionally hooked. Being hooked emotionally is when we can't see with wisdom, because we stare so closely and hold on so intently onto something, like the dream of hitting it BIG.

Yesterday, I had this really enlightening conversation. Is hope, even false hope, a good thing? These are deep waters to be sure, but let's just put on a snorkel and skim the surface without the intent of touching the bottom below.

Hope is good, hope is tremendous. The lie of it bothers me. My gut is telling me this can't be right, that the truth is better, that believing in a false reality is not ultimately helpful to our lives.

And then my immediate next thought is all of the people throughout history who believed what was ultimately to be true and not reality yet, they were certainly dreamers...flight, space travel, the great explorers, the entrepreneurs, people like Shackleton, Disney, Jobs, Armstrong, Galileo, Carnegie...

But, let us separate those who are dreaming based upon a commitment to a life's work or stretching to achieve an apparently impossible goal, versus those who are falling into a pattern of ignorance. The ignorance is buying the lottery ticket (not making a judgment of right and wrong on this, just bad math). It's been said that the lottery is a tax on people who are bad a math.

'The Pain of truth is better than the bliss of ignorance.'

Another difference, dreaming tied to a lie, is not helpful if it prevents us from doing the necessary work. All of the people listed above, set out to create a new reality and their dream, tied their impossible task to an insane work ethic. Their dream was directly connected to effort and diligence.

The other significant problem is that the mis-placed dreams distract us from dreams tied to our purpose and our calling. The question is not whether to have hope. Let's be bearers of hope, carry that torch with us everywhere. Let's fan that flame in others, in our cities, in our households.

I was just thinking, if I were king...I'd encourage my country to be a country of dreamers, risk takers, and ... hard workers. Imagine a nation filled with dreams tied to dig-in and "make it happen" kind of people.

Foolishness costs us something. It may be a relationship, money, physical harm, spiritual erosion. So, let's dream, hope, and work. Let's not fall prey to the disaster awaiting the simple and ignorant. May we chase wisdom in our learning and try to avoid the destructive patterns that keep many people locked in a false reality.