Get real about your daydreams

For much of my life, I’ve been a dreamer. As a kid, I spent hours lying on the floor, staring at the ceiling, daydreaming. I dreamt about other worlds, about being famous, about living in cool apartments. Even as I got into high school and college, I held on to my daydreaming habit. It was a safe and exciting place to go. No one could take it from me. 

Daydreaming is harmless enough. But when it comes time to make things happen, daydreaming is detrimental. Beyond the sheer amount of time it wastes, daydreaming gives a sense of satisfaction before anything is accomplished. It sets our expectations for success way too high, especially early on. 

James Clear calls this “The Plateau of Latent Potential.” He says we expect our progress to be perfectly linear. One step forward, one step up. In reality, our progress is tedious at the beginning. We try to take a step forward, but we don’t know how. We try to advance, but our lack of knowledge leads to wasted time. 

“We often expect progress to be linear. At the very least, we hope it will come quickly,” Clear says “In reality, the results of our efforts are often delayed. It is not until months or years later that we realize the true value of the previous work we have done.” Those who persist through the valley of disappointment (while their reality doesn’t match their expectations) come out the other side with an appreciation for all the work they did. 

Being a dreamer isn’t bad. But when we allow our daydreams to flood our expectations, we create a recipe for demotivation and quitting. The goos news is, if we’re able to overcome some disappointment early on, we’ll soon discover that progress compounds on itself. We’ll soon create things we are really proud of.