Dream Bigger.

“What do you wanna be when you grow up?”

That question feels like a distant memory. I think the most related question anyone’s asked me in recent years is, “What are you doing with your life?”

The former elicits hopeful imagination. The latter elicits defensive rationalization.

Upon reflection, it’s amazing to me how much of adult life is spent in defensive rationalization. Why did you do this? Why did you buy that? So many people these days ask questions to affirm their own life choices rather than out of sheer curiosity. Apparently, “Because I want to be an astronaut!” isn’t a good enough answer anymore… unless you’re Elon Musk.

Dreaming big is a creative exercise. It flexes your imagination muscles and enlarges your world. New possibilities are born. And just like a newborn, you have to keep it alive. Babies, sadly, don’t just care for themselves. They need nurturing (or so I hear).

The first type of nurturing your dreams need comes from you in the form of faith. Faith is a two-way street. It’s a relationship with your dream. It requires action. Faith without work is just wishing.

With faith, you believe in the very core of your soul that this dream of yours is inevitable IF you do the work, stay open, and don’t dilute the dream.

The second type of nurturing your dreams need comes from those around you. Raising a child on your own is a very new concept. Historically, entire villages would take on the responsibility of raising their children. You didn’t have a single parent, you had dozens.

Your dreams are no different. They need other people to nurture them in order to grow up, which means we have to share them. We have to tell other people about our big dreams.

The fastest way to know if someone (1) believes in you, and (2) shares your perspective on life is to tell them about the crazy big dream you have for your life. That’s why it’s so scary to do. We don’t tell those closest to us our biggest dreams because we don’t wanna know the truth. What do we do if it turns out they don’t believe in us or don’t share our perspective on life?

So we stay quiet. Silently toiling away at our dreams.

Well, I’m done being quiet.

Today I begin building a movement for those who want dreaming bigger to be their normal. For those who want to spend time nurturing their dreams and learning the skills necessary to actually achieve them.

Today I launch Spartan Artists.

If you resonate with this post, go to the site and take the quiz. Then take the 4-Day Challenge. We need each other. Let’s #dreambigger.