10 Dangers of Small Dreams and Aspirations in Life
Are you dreaming big enough? Bigger dreams lead to bigger results while smaller dreams lead to smaller results.
Pursuing your own dreams in life can result in living a fulfilling and purposeful life, inspiring others, and developing new skills. It may take a long time and hard work for your dreams to be achieved but the end goal will certainly be worth it when you enjoy much success.
There are different types of dreams one can have. They can be big, small, professional, or life dreams. Each has an important role but I’d like to encourage you to have big dreams.
Small dreams are an essential piece to the larger vision, but they are not a substitute for a big dream. They help keep us on track and break the process down into milestones along the way.
But there is a negative effect in only having small dreams. Let’s explore 10 Dangers of Small Dreams and Aspirations in Life. We will look into the importance of dreaming big and achieving your full potential.
10 Dangers of Small Dreams and Aspirations in Life
For the general population, daily life is all about being in survival mode. There’s no time to dream, have a long-term vision, and think beyond the immediate.
Smaller dreams motivate the short-term vision and enable us to continue moving forward and making progress but I believe that we should dream a dream that is just out of our reach so we have to rely on God to help us complete it.
Even though they seem impossible to us, they are simple to Him. He loves getting us to a place where we can’t because it’s in that place that He can. Don’t be scared of a larger dream because it means it’s no longer just about you. These are the 10 Dangers of Small Dreams and Aspirations in Life.
Small dreams leave you unfulfilled
Great accomplishments lead to a happy life where you become fulfilled and satisfied. You can still have a simple life and enjoy the simple things yet be happy because your dreams have come true.
A small dream isn’t motivating to complete
“Only when I felt the roars of my BIG BOLD DREAMS did I grow a real parent and mentor within to hold myself accountable (no more excuses, no more messing about).”
— Lisy Butterfly
The first step to achieving a big dream is knowing your “why” which is the reason behind your dream. It’s harder to come up with a real reason or a “why” when our dream is small.
It is a less passionate goal without a great “why” attached, and where there isn’t a burning “why” there is complacency. Comfortability can set in, and we can feel as though we don’t need to begin right away.
Procrastination can stem out of a small dream because we know it is easily attainable, so we can take our time or press pause because we can get it done. The problem with that thought process is that most of the time it will never get done because we will continue to push it off for tomorrow.
Small dreams can have a negative impact on your motivation. When you set small, uninspiring goals, you may lack the drive and enthusiasm needed to pursue them with passion and determination. This can lead to a lack of progress and a feeling of unfulfillment.
You limit your potential
The best thing about a big goal is it helps you discover your true self. You push yourself and discover new abilities, new strengths, and capabilities that you didn’t even know you had. When you dream small you don’t live up to your potential.
You don’t grow when you dream small
Deep down you know you’re not mediocre and could do more, achieve more, and be more. When you set small dreams, you limit your growth in life, as well as your personal and professional growth.
A bigger goal makes you acquire new knowledge and develop new skills. It brings new opportunities to meet new people and grows you. The truth is, when you dream too small, you limit yourself and miss out on opportunities to achieve great things.
Big dreams often require us to develop a growth mindset. When we do hard things we may fail along the way but we get more comfortable with failure. Failure may never really feel good, but with practice, we can stop being so afraid of it and learn from it instead.
Small dreams leave you in your comfort zone
When you have small goals, you don’t experience new things. You miss out on exciting opportunities to follow a new path and you don’t push yourself.
Settling for less has a negative effect on you and can even lead to mental health conditions. Giving up on big dreams can result in feelings of frustration, inadequacy, unhappiness, depression, stress and even regret in the future.
A small dream does not challenge you
The lack of a challenging goal makes us think we don’t need to start now. Just like a small dream isn’t motivating, when it also doesn’t challenge you, it leads to procrastination.
A weak “why” allows us to take our time and get it done whenever. There is no sense of urgency because there is no challenge.
It’s a good thing to have a challenging dream because it will take us out of our comfort zone, and cause us to change. But if we dream small, we’ll begin to make excuses about not seeing it through. The dream doesn’t seem like a big deal to us because it won’t make a huge difference in our lives.
You don’t pull resources to achieve a small dream
When you have bigger dreams, for the first time in your life you may realize that you don’t have the resources to complete them. You may not have enough money, the right skills, or the capacity to achieve it.
The potential side effect of that is it pushes you to think outside the box and come up with new ideas and strategies to achieve your end goal.
A small dream can be completed entirely on your own, which means you rely on your own ability and discipline. That doesn’t have to be a bad thing, but there’s something about having a dream that’s bigger than you that can inspire others along the way.
There is more drive to get in the fight and bring others along with you when your dream is not easily completed by yourself.
When you have big dreams, you are holding yourself more accountable when you take others along, and you now have something to complete that will directly affect others if you don’t. If we rely on our own strength and ability, there is no need for anyone else.
“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”
— Former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt
You lack focus when you dream small
When college students are about to write the final exam that stands between them and their graduation, they become focused. They’re willing to decrease social time or face sleep deprivation to study more and get the results they desire.
In the same way, when you have a big goal, you have direction and focus. It gives you a good reason to work hard toward your target.
You have a sense of direction and even if you have to miss out on good sleep quality for a little while, you do what you need to and keep going until you achieve your end goal.
Dreaming small doesn’t teach you time management
When you have a big dream there is so much to do and not much time to do it in. Working on a big goal is the best way to learn to manage your time and become intentional about how you spend your days.
This means you’ll be able to spend less time on things like social media, TV shows, or Netflix which rob you of this precious and limited resource that you could use to work on your goals.
Dreaming small doesn’t help you overcome fear
There’s a good chance that you’ve set small dreams because of fear. The fear is real. A lot of people have a fear of failure. They’re scared that they won’t have what it takes to achieve a big goal.
For others, it’s fear of the unknown. We don’t know the next step to take or what the future will bring and if we will achieve positive outcomes when we follow our dreams but we must still push on and keep going.
Then there’s fear of success. You may be scared that achieving your dreams will make you stand out among your friends and family or that they’ll resent your success.
Big dreams are scary and you wonder how you’ll achieve them. But all the great people who you may admire who’ve achieved amazing things have fear as one of their common themes. They were probably scared of their dreams but took action toward reaching their goal despite the fear.
Fear leads to stressful experiences and negative emotions. The good news is fear is normal and there are strategies to overcome fear, be bold, and take action. When you dream big, you act even when you’re scared, and become confident and resilient.
How do you know if your dreams are small?
You can wake up the next day and achieve a small dream. It doesn’t take much effort. Big dreams are extraordinary and don’t feel like something that can happen in real life.
Small dreams are comfortable. They’re not scary, inspiring, or exciting. You won’t learn anything new or grow when you achieve a small dream.
Small dreams don’t need the SMART framework to achieve them. SMART goals motivate you and inspire you to grow. It’s an acronym for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-specific. When your dreams are big, you need to use the SMART method to achieve them.
Books to encourage you to dream Big
Are you having trouble finding that dream that gets you out the door every day? I encourage you to pick up a copy of “The Magic of Thinking Big” by David J. Schwartz. I know it will expand your vision, motivate you, and inspire you to achieve great accomplishments.
Another Great Book is “The Prosperity Principles: How to Think and Act Like a Millionaire” by Joel Fotinos. Each prosperity principle is time-tested, and life-changing, and has been used by real-life billionaires and millionaires. It’s compact, powerful, and practical and will help you discover new ideas, and make fresh starts on your road to dreaming big and achieving more.
Do you have a dream? Are you working to develop one? I encourage you to dream larger. Find that dream that will motivate you, challenge you, and bring others along. Make it a dream that kind of scares you. A dream needs to be large enough that it’s worth fighting for.
Now, don’t get me wrong, small dreams ARE good if they lead to a larger dream. Think of the smaller dreams as goals that are stepping stones to a greater vision.
But there are Dangers of Small Dreams and Aspirations in Life. They don’t challenge you, demotivate you, or leave you unfulfilled, scared, without focus or direction.
But stretch yourself to dream huge and find something that is bigger than yourself that you can pour your passions into! It’s always worth it!
My first book, Mind Over Marathon: Overcoming mental Barriers in the Race of Life, is on sale now! It is about discovering your dreams and taking them from inception to a flourishing finish.
If you’re looking to ignite passion and purpose in your life, clarify your unique game plan, and build confidence in who you are, this book will take you there! Get Mind Over Marathon here
