“We are limited, not by our abilities, but by our vision.” -Unknown
Have you ever cut yourself off right in the middle of imagining a possibility? I did it to myself earlier today. As I wrote in my recent blog post about needing less money, I am happiest when I have enough, but don’t devote countless hours to the pursuit of abundance.
Today I was thinking about a world where I could take care of all of my needs through barter, when suddenly I stopped short and thought, “All is a little unrealistic.” I then started making a mental list of all the things I would still need money for, regardless of which items and services I could get in trade.
Suddenly I realized I had limited my ability to imagine what could be by immediately fixating on what I assumed couldn’t. By jumping to what didn’t sound realistic, I paralyzed myself before I had a chance to visualize a new reality.
I suspect a lot of us do this often. In the process, we snuff out our enthusiasm before we get to see how far it could take us.
Just because we envision something, that doesn’t mean it will manifest as we saw it–but it won’t even have a chance if we don’t let ourselves dream. Dreaming leads to planning leads to doing leads to creating. Why not dare to dream?
Today if you find yourself limiting your visions, ask yourself: What amazing possibilities could I create if I forgot about what sounds realistic?
Photo by @sahxic < twitter
About Lori Deschene
Lori Deschene is the founder of Tiny Buddha. She started the site after struggling with depression, bulimia, c-PTSD, and toxic shame so she could recycle her former pain into something useful and inspire others to do the same. You can find her books, including Tiny Buddha’s Gratitude Journal and Tiny Buddha’s Worry Journal, here and learn more about her eCourse, Recreate Your Life Story, if you’re ready to transform your life and become the person you want to be.
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Though I run this site, it is not mine. It's ours. It's not about me. It's about us. Your stories and your wisdom are just as meaningful as mine. 
We put to many limits on ourselves. Most of our beliefs come from other people. They come from people believing that they cant do things and therefore neither can we.
I have a friend who is really hung up on his age, he thinks he is to young to get any really good managerial position. He is great at his job and could be a CEO if he let himself believe.
He spreads this belief to others and if I listened to him I would now believe that it is impossible to become a CEO if you are under 35.
But that isn’t true!
My CEO is 33.
You can become successful as a young person, if you believe it.
Lori, this is a very astute observation. I’ll tell you something else. Over time, pulling the plug on dreams before they are born becomes so habitual that you aren’t aware you are doing so. As a result, the reality you manifest gets farther and farther away from what’s in your heart. I have spent what I feel in an inordinately long period of time simply noticing how often I stop myself in a reverie because it’s impractical or grandiose or I don’t want to set myself up for disappointment. Now I realize that permitting myself to dream – and dream big – is an important part of living well. If we can’t see it in our minds’ eye, we can’t be it. More importantly, just because we let our imagination reach for the stars doesn’t mean that our actions must follow it. Sometimes it’s enough just to let imagination play. xo Pam
[…] Deschene also notices that something important is lost to uswhen we don’t let ourselves dream. I suspect a lot of us do this often. In the process, we […]
There is a woman living (mostly) without money and there is a movie about it: http://livingwithoutmoney.org/
An important post on the importance of being unrealistic Lori…..the reason most people wallow in mediocrity is that they have a vision which doesn’t inspire them. People aren’t fundamentally lazy its just that they set goals which are too realistic and therefore impotent.
Great point Sunil. We need to be moved in order to move!
Wow that’s awesome. Thanks so much for the link!!
Beautifully written, Pamela. I’ve done this same thing many times before, as if it’s somehow harmful to dream about possibilities that seem far-fetched. I think dreaming is good for the spirit, even if you don’t act on everything you imagine. It’s like a muscle that gets stronger with use–and the stronger it gets, the clearer our visions get, and the stronger our ability to manifest them.
I always think of Tony Hsieh from Zappos. He had an enterpreneurial spirit from early in his childhood, and did amazing things because he believed he could. It’s like that Henry Ford quote, “Whether you think you or you can’t, you’re right.”