Ideas on pursuing our individual dreams, not The Dream. Learning to hear our inner voice to guide us toward them while filtering out the noise of modern society’s dream pushers.
Hi,
It’s been a minute since the last issue. Each year it seems to take me a bit of time to get back in the swing of things after the holidays.
As always, thanks for being along for the ride!
I’ve been thinking about how much chasing The Dream costs. I’ve also been thinking about how much NOT chasing The Dream costs.
Chasing The Dream costs us dearly. It costs us our true self.
We may be well-compensated financially for complying with The Dream. Yet we pay dearly from a human perspective.
We rob ourselves of the opportunity to realize our full potential.
This feels like a huge price to pay for The Dream. So from this perspective, chasing The Dream is VERY, VERY expensive.
Yet we fool ourselves into believing that chasing The Dream is rewarding us. We use the financial gain The Dream provides to trick ourselves into believing this delusion. We numb ourselves to The Dream Chasing opportunity cost.
We do this by taking expensive vacations, consuming The Dream’s status symbols that the Dream Pushers convince us we need.
Maybe we use the money to buy increasingly expensive booze. That way we can consume increasing quantities of it. Then convince ourselves it’s OK to do so, since it’s “fine” wine or liquor, consumed with expensive meals in socially acceptable places. That's what I did for a long time.
It’s this opportunity cost that’s tragic, though. We sell ourselves, our wellbeing, our souls, when we chase The Dream.
The Dream is so embedded in our society that NOT pursuing it feels risky. It can be expensive from a financial perspective. We wonder how we’ll survive financially by not playing the game.
I lived this. I still am to some extent.
My income took a big hit when I got off The Dream train. I didn’t do it completely willingly.
It took an uncomfortable push for me to get off that train. I had to invest earnings from living The Dream into Just Rolling with It to pursue my dreams. It was an uncomfortable and scary time.
Income has started recovering over the past couple years. I feel grateful for this.
Yet I still don’t feel “in the clear” or that I’ve “made it” by any means. Income on The Dream’s path can and often is unpredictable. It still feels scary at times.
As our son gets older, I sometimes till wonder if I should have “sucked it up” and lived The Dream for our family’s future. Wouldn't that have been the "responsible" thing to do?
Yet I’ve also learned the other side of pursuing my dreams, not The Dream. I feel hopeful, optimistic and excited.
I’m able to show up as a better version of me for my family each day. I’ve relearned how valuable human connection and the interconnection it fosters is.
To me this is priceless. The Dream could never pay me enough to buy this. Not experiencing these things was my Dream chasing opportunity cost.
How about you? What’s your Dream chasing opportunity cost?
Let me know by replying to this email. I respond to every reply.
Catch you next week,
Chris
P.S. - Need a refresher on what The Dream’s all about. Here’s a good place to start.
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Current Reading List
Cryptography: A Very Short Introduction by Fred C. Piper
The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World by Dalai Lama XIV, Desmond Tutu, Douglas Carlton Abrams
Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke
Current Playlist
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