Why Big Dreams Aren't Necessarily Better Dreams

Oh well, good, it’s a question. That means I have an answer.

Hey, it’s Marie Forleo and you are watching Marie TV, the place to be if you want to create a business and life you love and I bet you, you do. Today’s question, it comes from Julia and she writes, “Hi Marie. I don’t dream really big about my company development. I don’t want a Porsche or to hire people or to be the chief general manager person. I’m interested in the life with a really good, steady income, bit of a paradox when having a company and doing what I like to do on my own while still having enough time for people I care about. So in general, is not having a plan for a big business with 20 plus workers, a really bad thing? Regards from Poland. Smiley face, Julia.”

Julia, I absolutely love this question because it gives me a chance to talk about something I don’t get a chance to talk about nearly enough. Not given a flying fudge about what other people think about how you should live your life or build your business, nor should you be spending any of your precious life energy trying to conform to some made up standard about how big you should dream. Now, back in the day we were all taught that we should get a good job. We should get a family, a house, have some security and play it safe. That was the old American dream, really the old should. But these days it’s really starting to feel like dreaming big is the new should. That somehow, if you’re not dreaming big, you probably have small dream shame. That if you don’t dream really, really huge, somehow you’re not ambitious enough, you’re not smart enough, and you’re not valuable enough in this world.

This idea is totally and absolutely not true. Small dream shame is total BS and for so many people, dreaming big is actually crushing their soul. You want to know who’s not a victim of small dream shame? My parents. My parents moved out to Vegas from New Jersey and I recently went out there for a weekend visit. Now, their Vegas is not the Vegas that most people think of. They’re not living in some penthouse in the Mandalay Bay. They would never ever want that. They live in a quiet little residential neighborhood. Their house is so simple, their life is so simple and they absolutely love it that way. They have no desire to eat at fancy places like Nobu. You want to know their favorite place in Vegas? It’s a tiny little casino that has an amazing buffet and three people can eat for 20 bucks. Yes, 20 bucks. And they told me this probably about six times. It got them so excited and it got me excited for them.

Now, world travel, traveling around the world, no interest at all. They do not want to be high rollers. They don’t even gamble. You want to hear this one? They got themselves their own slot machine and they filled it up with their own change so they can win what they already have. Now, some people may say, “Oh, that sounds crazy.” I think it sounds amazing. They are so happy. They’re not living small, they’re living large and it’s so inspiring to me. I’m also inspired by this even if it sounds a little morbid. In the Top Five Regrets of the Dying, author Bronnie Ware discovered this: “The #1 regret of the dying is wishing they had the courage to live the life they wanted to live, not the one others had expected of them.” The bottom line is that we have to think and dream independently. Each of us comes to earth with our own unique assignment and each of our dreams, no matter the size or scope, is valuable and perfect exactly as is.

Let’s land this plane on a tweetable. “Your dream doesn’t have to be big to be perfect.” That was my [inaudible 00:03:50]. Hope it helps. Now, I would love to hear from you. This is an awesome opportunity to let your dream freak flag fly. I don’t care what size you got, I want to hear about it. Whether your dreams are like tiny is small or whether you kind of got average sized dreams or whether you have huge dreams, size doesn’t matter. It’s all about how you use it.

Step one in making any dream come true is you’ve got to articulate what that dream is. You’ve got to name it to claim it. And I want you to start naming and claiming your dream in the comments below. Now, as always, the best discussions happen after the episode over at marieforleo.com, so go there, whip out your dream and tell me about it right now.

Did you like this video? If so, subscribe to our channel and of course share it with all your friends. Why would you not do that? And if you want even more awesome resources to create a business and life that you love, plus some personal insights from me that I only talk about in email, come on over to marieforleo.com and sign up for email updates. Stay on your game and keep going for your dreams because the world does need that special gift that only you have. Thank you so much for watching and I’ll catch you next time on Marie TV. And I recently. Like a summer peach. It’s called clown biscuits. Do I look like a psychedelic snake? Ooh, I heard that.