The Practical Side of Playing Make Believe

Sometimes playing “make believe” is the most practical thing you can do.

Remember The Land of Make Believe, made famous by Mr. Rogers? Let’s go there for a quick trip: Pretend you just won the lottery. Power Ball. After paying taxes, you now have $150 million in the bank.

Sweet.

Now what? What would you do next? What’s your ideal life? How would you spend your days? Where would you spend them? And with whom?

Go ahead, don’t be shy or limited by what’s “practical.” Shoot for the moon. We’re in the Land of Make Believe, remember?

Would your life look any different than it does right now? For most people the answer is probably yes, at least a little bit.

Now, as much as I’d like to wave a magic wand and make all that fantasy a reality, there is some practicality in all this daydreaming.

You just put a pin in the map.

By identifying a destination, you can now see what direction you want to go. Yes, it might seem a million miles away. That’s ok. The important thing is that now you can start the real work of doing one thing every day to move in that direction.

As Lewis Carroll famously wrote, “If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.” It’s easy to experience analysis paralysis, either feeling overwhelmed by all the options or uncertain of where to begin. So begin in the Land of Make Believe.

What does your business look like when it’s running on all cylinders and is more successful than you’ve ever imagined it? What does your classroom look like when you’ve got every supply and resource you can possibly dream of and your students are 100% engaged? What does your marriage look like living in the Land of Make Believe?

Maybe you’ll never make it all the way there, but isn’t it better to be at least a little closer to that ideal vision than where you are right now?

Once you put a pin in a the map, you just set your direction. You know where you’re aiming.

Now take the first step.