It used to be that every American child would spend time thinking about the great things they would do or invent when they got older. It was the American dream. After all, they were always told stories of the people before them who had done the same. When we were taught history in school, there was a lot of emphasis on these great men and women who so improved our lives. I guess that same emphasis isn’t there now. There is too much history for children to learn, so these great people have lost their importance.
Maybe that’s why we’ve forgotten how to dream big dreams and act on our ideas.
It used to be that we knew that if we worked hard and spent time thinking about our futures that we knew we could be someone. Then came the megagiants like Bill Gates and Warren Buffet and we thought that big success was only for very special, larger than life people who sacrificed their childhoods to become who they are. Most of us didn’t want to start working on our futures when we were kids. So we decided that super kind of success wasn’t for us, and that was okay, we could be good enough just working a day job and still have material wealth. At best we would turn out to be mediocre, but that was okay. After all, we weren’t as good as Warren or Bill. It was a compromise.
Maybe that’s why we’ve forgotten how to work toward doing big things and to dream big dreams.
It used to be that we knew that we had to make our own way in the world. We knew that it was our job to get up every day and work hard so we could take pride in whom we were. Then big companies came along and we got lost in the shuffle. It didn’t seem to matter what we did. The guy next to us did a bare minimum and he got paid the same as you did, so why did it matter? Might as well coast. After all, the big corporations would keep you for life. They had to. We had good labor laws and they wanted to seem like nice guys so we didn’t need to worry about losing our jobs
Maybe THAT’s why we decided that what we do for a living doesn’t matter and that the little guy can’t make a difference.
It used to be that we spent time thinking about ways that we could improve on systems or inventions that were already in place. We knew we could “build a better mousetrap” and so when we had an idea, we would find a way to implement it. Unfortunately, there are so many new ideas, that now it is difficult to be heard above the noise of the crowd, all screaming about their great new ideas, trying to generate interest so they can decide whether or not they want to pursue it before they “waste their time”. Unfortunately, millions of new ideas die on the vine because the dreamer doesn’t believe enough in his own dream to pursue it, and gives up too easily.
Maybe that’s why so many of us just can’t live the old fashioned American dream of making ourselves really successful without the help of big companies anymore. We’ve lost confidence in our own abilities. We don’t believe we have anything to offer. We’re used to following the status quo. We don’t even recognize that we still HAVE ideas anymore
It used to be that we had parents who encouraged us to be our best and communities who knew us. When kids were raised in a small town where the neighbors all knew them, then everyone tended to be on their best behavior when they knew someone was watching. When kids talked about what they were going to do, there was a parent there listening and encouraging as only moms can. Moms were home when the kids got home every day, and there was family dinner and not a lot of television. Kids could go outside to play and we didn’t have to worry about them getting kidnapped. Children were given time to dream, and quiet space to hear themselves think.
Maybe at least for now, the days of easy wealth are past, and we can spend time dreaming again instead of worrying about having as much as our neighbors. Maybe now there isn’t any shame in admitting that we can’t afford what the neighbor has or we just want to be cautious and not spend the way we have been the last five years.
Maybe if we can go back to simple pleasures we can find time to dream big dreams and think big thoughts and recognize them as great ideas. Maybe we can block out the noise and listen to ourselves – really listen – and understand that we DO have wonderful worthwhile ideas that we need to act on and dreams that we buried years ago that we now have time to follow. What a wonderful time this is in our lives! Enjoy it and thank fate, God, our whoever you see as your higher power, that this time has been given to you. I look forward to hearing that you’ve done big things. I’m doing them. You can, too.