Audacious Dreaming: 3 Reasons To Look Beyond Our Plans

Sometimes we need to throw away our plans and forget our goals in order to dream.

That hurt a bit even to write because I’m such a compulsive goal setter. I love having checklists and then crossing things off when I’m done. (Anyone else out there with me??)

After all, goals are great! Goals are important! They tell us where we want to go and give us a plan on how to get there. I like how they help us break problems down into manageable pieces and give us deadlines to keep us from procrastinating. Studies have shown how having goals helps to increase productivity. My perfectionist nature does well with having orderly lists that tell me what to do next.

But sometimes life isn’t orderly.

And while goals can be enormously helpful, they can also have a dangerous side.

1. When we’re focused on our pre-made plans we can overlook exciting new possibilities and opportunities.

It can be incredibly useful to have tunnel vision in regards to our plans at times. I just need to write 50 more words, finish this draft, fix these five problems. This focus can help us to be productive in the midst of distractions. (And if you’re anything like me, your life has plenty of distractions in it 😉 )

But there are times when having this tunnel vision can be a problem.

Sometimes there are great opportunities that arise that look nothing like our preconceived plan. Maybe you’re invited to a writing group before you feel quite ready to share. Perhaps you get asked to be a guest writer or contribute to someone else’s project. We could get tapped to volunteer teaching others or to lead a group. Maybe you get connected with an agent or publisher but it’s not the one you had planned to approach.

It can be easy for these opportunities to be nothing more than an inconvenience to be brushed off. But what if there’s more to it?

Sometimes the strangest of possibilities can end up being something great. Maybe it would be helpful to share with that writing group or volunteer with that class. Maybe by taking these chances we’ll learn and grow more than we could have following our original plan.

New things can be scary and intimidating. But sometimes these chances are just what we need to push our writing to improve or gain connections that will lead to a publishing deal.

Now, just a caveat here: I’m not at all saying we should accept every invitation that gets sent our way. That is a one way ticket to burnout. Setting boundaries for ourselves is important.

But in our focus on our goals we want to remember to be open minded about other options and opportunities that we are presented with. Who knows? They may be just what we need. And don’t worry, we can always make a new To Do list… 😉

2. When we’re focused on definable goals, sometimes we can miss out on things that are too big and great to be easily defined.

Sometimes I can be intimidated by (ok maybe even flat out afraid of) things that I don’t understand. The unknown is scary! It’s much easier when we can define our terms and know what comes next.

If only life were that simple, right? 😉

The fact is, sometimes things are complicated. While it may be tempting to set up our writing plans to simplify everything into quantifiable terms, we have to be careful that we aren’t limiting our options. Sometimes what we want isn’t so simple.

Some goals aren’t easy to define.

Maybe we want to accomplish something no one has ever done before. After all, someone needs to be first, right?

Maybe we’re not even sure what it is we want. It’s good to examine the motivations behind our writing. Our life plans and desires can be complicated and unknown at times so it’s important to look beyond our concrete goals such as “write a book” to examine what it is we really want. Do we desire recognition? Fame? Money? To make our parents proud?

Keeping these desires in mind and thinking about how our plans may influence other aspects of our lives is important. It can impact how we choose to achieve our goals or what goals are worth pursuing at all.

After all, goals aren’t all created equal. Checking off To Do lists may feel satisfying but it isn’t inherently valuable in and of itself. Being busy doesn’t always mean we’re getting anywhere. Sometimes we can be too busy working on our plans and we forget that we have bigger dreams and deeper desires beyond our To Do list. 

Let’s not let our little goals distract us from our big dreams.

3. If we’re focused on creating achievable and completable checklists, we may be too afraid to reach for our ambitious (and awesome!) dreams.

Sometimes it’s scary to dream big. After all, if we dream big we might not actually succeed. I dislike not being able to check things off my To Do list. I hate failing at anything. In fact, sometimes I will go to great lengths in order to avoid anything even resembling failure. 

Because of this fear of failure, sometimes our dreams stay small.

I might be afraid to dream of someday publishing a book.

It could be too scary to claim I want to get paid for my writing.

And wouldn’t it be crazy to dream of writing a bestseller? 

I’m here to say that it’s not crazy. We can do it. *You* can do it.

Whether we want to see our books on the bestseller list, get asked for our autograph by a fan, speak at a conference, make a significant yearly income from our writing- let’s not be afraid to dream big!

Let’s not hold ourselves back by trying to be content with less. We should be aiming as high as we can! 

Sometimes we need to dream bigger. “Shoot for the stars,” as they say.

So let’s set aside our day planners and To Do lists for a moment and look at the stars. We’ll pull our goals back out tomorrow, but for now there are no rules and no limits. Do you feel the possibility in the air? 

Let’s think of what makes us feel alive inside and what makes us excited to write. I want us to be bold and audacious and not afraid. Let’s remember what it means to dream impossible dreams.

After all, we’re writers. We are the queens and kings of dreams. And there is nothing we can’t do.

Are you more of a dreamer or a planner? Do you have any impossible dreams?