Dream Responsibly

A line from Ambition, the title track of rapper Wale’s sophomore album reads, “Easy to dream a dream, though it’s harder to live it.”

The man could not be more right.

Our outlook on life hardly starts off bleak. Quite early, we tend to picture ourselves in desirable positions. Then, fuelled by hope, ambition and #motivation posts, we set out on a journey to live those dreams.

Somewhere along the way, we are forced to come to terms with the fact that our expectations are often beyond our means. At this point, we usually have three options: break down our dreams into manageable sizes, carry on stubbornly or give up entirely and mope.

But what if we could begin our journey more logically? What if we could dream responsibly, firmly grounded in reality?

When we have reasonable expectations of ourselves, those that are not based on fantasies, we are better able to take practical steps toward where we want to be in life. We are also less afraid of failure because being practical means we have more control and can retrace our steps to fix things. Life is easier this way.

Excerpted from Issue 18 of relea:se, my bimonthly newsletter. Join the mailing list.