Recently, we held the home version of a Big Dream Gathering™. At such a gathering, the audience takes time to imagine their big dreams, write them down on a sticky note, and share them with the world. Dreams shared have momentum. (If you’re not familiar with Mitch Matthews and the Big Dream Gathering, I highly recommend you check it out or at least give his podcast a listen.)
Being a Mitch Matthews devotee, I thought it’d be great to host one at home. I got out two poster boards, a variety of sticky note pads, and markers of all shapes, sizes, and colors.
On one poster board, we pasted our big dreams:
Iowa State football and basketball tickets
Annual family trips
Write a book
Learn how to teach kids science
It was quite enlightening. And exciting! Keeping our dreams to ourselves doesn’t get any action. Dreams need to be shared. The Universe wants to hear them. Your friends, family want to hear them. We’re all here for a purpose, and it’s a disservice to not chase that purpose. And, part of our purpose is to help others with their purpose. But, we can’t help if we don’t know. ...and now, there’s an app for that! (Sorry, one last plug: Dream Together app.)
On the other poster board, I asked this: “If money were no object, want would you want to be doing in 15 years? Or 10 years? Or even 5 years?” That’s different than “what do you want to do?” I got the idea from Laurence Lewars and his TedTalk. Check it out and be amazed!
Thinking about that idea this morning while reviewing the responses gave me time to pause. I remember a few years back: we had a subscription to Tinker Crate. Each month, we received a science kit in the mail. We built a trebuchet, created artificial snow, and put together a gear box. All pretty cool.
One of them was a model of a hand with strings pulled through eye-holes where the joints would be. The purpose was to show how the tendons and muscles interacted to curl and stretch the fingers. Gabe was really excited about it when we finished putting it together.
“This is what I want to do!” he said. I could tell it had been on his mind even before the Tinker Crate arrived.
“Oh, yeah?”
“Yeah! I want to make hands and things for kids.”
He’s always been excited and interested in science and mathematics. This was the first I’d heard about any application of STEM.
And I realized what he was saying was “In fifteen years, I’d like to be developing prosthetics for children that need them.”
That, my friends, are what dreams are made of. Not the end result, but the journey to get to the end result. Gabe’s vision may have changed in the past four years, and that’s okay. That’s how Life is. At least he’s thinking about the impact he wants to have.
So, I’m asking you now. Take time with yourself and your family. Ask them what their dreams are. Share your Dreams. And then ask “What do you want to be doing in 15 years?”
