S-T-C TUESDAY: On Purpose Dreaming
March 7, 2023
“Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.” (Matthew 6:34)
“In your wildest dreams, what would your life look like?”
Some of the best life and leadership conversations I have with leaders comes back to this question. Most of the time the answers tend to go to two extremes.
On one extreme the leader doesn’t have an answer. No real vision for where they would like to see things go. Career, family, purpose. Coming up empty on any and all fronts.
On the other extreme the leader rattles off outcome after outcome or destination after destination they want to see happen in their life. Better pay, larger platform, less obligations, warm weather residence, traveling, more time.
The truth is our motivations drift to these extremes all the time.
Drift is why we see such a broad range of experiences around dreaming.
Some think about their dream every day. Obsess over every detail. Live unfulfilled until the dream arrives. It’s as if we wait to start living until the dream is actually realized. Our daily motivation has drifted.
The engine is red-lining.
Others have given up on dreaming. Why dream? It just leads to disappointment. “Don’t really want to get my hopes up anymore.” Can I really affect that kind of thing in my life? Their motivation has drifted.
The tank is on empty.
These extremes are where drift thrives. Motivation drift loves to push us outside the boundaries of living intentionally in a day-to-day fashion. Obsessing over outcomes well outside of our control. Remaining stuck in apathy and languishing due to a lack of exertion.
There has to be another way. An on purpose way.
It’s rare to find a dream centered around who we’re becoming. A dream around becoming the type of person that sees an increase in transformational characteristics on the inside:
Contentment
Healthy Ambition
Pure Motives
Character
Resilience
Trust in God
Rest
Joy
That’s the power of on purpose dreaming. It brings purpose to the present moment and to the thousands of moments in front of us. It’s not that we shouldn’t pursue outcomes, it’s just that we must always remember the most important outcome is what’s developing on the inside.
Who you’re becoming is more important than where you’re going.