“A goal without action is just a dream.”
Well, count me among the dreamers.
I’ve had lots of dreams over the years. Great ideas that I never took action to bring to life. Or, didn’t act fast enough and saw others put them into practice before me.
Here are a few of the ideas I’ve had, all of which now exist:
- Color score board for baseball and football stadiums. Now they’re even in HD!
- Automatic equalizer for professional sound systems.
- Automatic feedback suppressor – an extension of the automatic equalizer.
- Solar-powered roof exhaust fan.
Some days I pine away for these dreams, wishing I had done something to bring them to life. “If only …”
Other days, I look back at these dreams, see the way others have implemented them and feel good that my dreams have been validated. Seeing that these devices exist gives me a sense of satisfaction, even if I was not the one who made the dreams come true.
As my career moved from software engineer to manager to director, more and more of my job became that of enabling others to bring dreams to life. Over time, I came to enjoy the role of enabler at least as much as I enjoyed that of doer.
Many times, sharing my dreams, my vision, with my staff was the spark they needed to take a project in a totally new direction, adding their ideas as well, and the project was better because of it.
Yes, we need goals. Yes, we need action plans. But, we also need dreams – those images of a better world that seem so far out there that we can’t yet fathom the path to get there.
Share your dreams. Celebrate when they come to life, regardless of who makes it happen.