Let’s say you have a dream. Let’s also say it is important to you, a special dream that you have shared with nobody or only a few trusted friends. If you are brave or foolhardy you may have shared it everywhere. Either way, the dream has such a tight grip on your heart that not achieving it is going to hurt.
So what?
Yes that’s my only question. Chasing dreams always involves a double-edged sword. You either know what you are doing now to bring it about (so what is the next action?) or you are abandoning the dream to its fate (so what? I don’t care).
The Double Edged Sword of Execution
Remember these dreams hurt either way. It’s the unbearable burden of longing or the pain of failure. You choose. Nobody else defined the dream. Nobody else can deliver it. You either act or you walk away (sometimes pretending you still care). The sword of execution bites either way. So what do you choose?
Let’s get the list out of the way:
- The dream is unlikely. Yes, so what can you do to change the odds?
- Realising dreams isn’t easy. Yes, so what is the next step?
- The system is stacked against you. Yes, if it was your dream fulfilment system, you’d have made it that way. So what are you going to do?
- Others have advantages. Yes, always, so what does that change in your actions?
- Others are better, further ahead, or more likely to succeed. Yes, that will stay the case until you start. So what can you do to better them?
- There’s a better time or place to start. Always seems like it but when you get there it still seems like it. So what will you do to start now?
- It’s not fair. Never. Justice is blind. Makes her impartial but that’s not always fairness and also can make for very odd outcomes when she starts swinging her sword. So what can you do to take it out of her hands?
- I could have more help. Often, though magical friends are rare. So what are you going to do to get some?
- I might change my mind. Always. So what did you learn?
I’ll say it again, ‘So what?’
So what are you going to do? So what are you going to surrender? So what pain will you bear to realise your dreams? So what hopes are you willing to lose? So what matters most now?
Our imaginations are incredibly powerful. We can imagine worlds so far beyond our own current circumstances. We dream of better people, better things and better places. As long as those things remain in our heads we remain stumped by the question, ‘so what?’
Imagination is powerful, but execution is where the double-edged sword starts to bite. Swing it yourself. Don’t leave it to blind fates. If you need to hackup the system to make changes to realise a dream then do so or fail trying.
As the old line goes
‘Vision without execution is delusion’
So, what is next?
