Betting On Our Dreams
Dreaming is a little bit like gambling. I love a good game of blackjack. I’m pretty lucky, and I’m not scared of spending money, which is also why I don’t go to casinos very often. But dreaming can give that same feeling. It’s looking at what could be, taking a pair of dice into our hands, and throwing them out hoping for the best (I know that’s more of a craps analogy than blackjack but I don’t really understand how craps works so I haven’t played it).
Everyone who circles up around the craps table is hoping for the right number to land on those dice so that they can go home with enough money to buy a steak dinner or send their kids to college. Gambling in itself isn’t all that much fun, but winning is. When it comes to our dreams, we are approaching the table with the hopes of something bigger, better, and grander for our lives.
Here I am again quoting Elizabeth Gilbert in Big Magic. “You must be willing to take risks if you want to live a creative existence. But if you’re going to gamble, know that you are gambling. Never roll the dice without being aware that you are holding a pair of dice in your hands. And make certain that you can actually cover your bets (both emotionally and financially).
Fortunately, I haven’t known anyone with a gambling addiction. My dad always treated it as a fun activity. He would set out how much he would spend that night, and hopefully, the money would last longer than 30 minutes. But once the money was out, he was out because making money was never the goal of the evening.
The beauty of gambling on our dreams is that we aren’t playing against the house; we are playing against ourselves. We have all heard the phrase “the house always wins,” and I think casinos have been around long enough to prove that point. We couldn’t have Oceans 11 if the house couldn’t cover their bets. But if we can approach our dreams like we are the house, what stops us from winning, and more importantly, what stops us from making the big bets? If we know we are going to win, we should be going all in.
We have to bet on ourselves when it comes to our dreams. We have to put the money, time, and/or energy out there before that dream can come to life. Sometimes, we have to put in a lot more than we expected, but we have to follow through on the work every time.
One of the more silly examples of this playing out is the streaker from the 2021 Super Bowl. There’s more to the story, but the basic gist is that this man placed a prop bet (a side bet that can be placed for any number of things happening at a sporting event) that there would be a streaker at the Super Bowl. He placed his bet and followed through to do the work to ensure that the bet paid out. He did make it onto the field during the game and was set out to win $374,000 for following through on his bet. I do not recommend this as a strategy because the gambling sites he made the bet on did not pay since he interfered and went on radio shows confessing to the betting scheme. But I love the story of someone betting on themselves and following through.
Today is our nanny’s first day. We hired someone part-time to work about 15 hours a week. I’m excited, a little bit nervous, and feeling lots of mom guilt about it. But it was the right time to take this step. My son is sixteen months old next week, which means he is a lot of fun and a lot of work. Now that he’s more active, he wants to play more, and I want to play with him more. The combination made it hard for me to get work done while I was home with him because he wanted my attention. And honestly, I hated having to stare at my computer when I was with him. I felt like I couldn’t be all in on either thing I was doing. My husband takes over when he gets home from work and on the weekends, but I also hate cutting out all of our family time together. I knew hiring a nanny would mean more productive time for me, more attention for my son, and more family time for us.
It was the right call, and choosing the nanny route was right for us. Daycare just didn’t work well with the hours and inconsistency we needed since I travel so much and usually bring my son. But hiring a nanny does cost money. It’s money that we could be spending somewhere else. It’s money that I may not be making up in income right away. It is placing a bet on myself.
So now I have to follow through and do the work. I bought myself 5 hours of uninterrupted work time today, so I need to make the most of it. This is not the time to scroll on Instagram or play whatever silly little game I am currently addicted to. This is the time to grind and focus in a way that I haven’t been able to before. This is the time to show up for my dream in every way that I have wanted to. After all, I am actively paying someone for a job that I am fully capable of and love doing. I better make sure it’s worth it.
I don’t know what bet you need to make on your dream. But I know, you know the next step you need to take. There is a gap between when you are and where you want to be. It’s going to require a leap of faith. We can place that faith in our beliefs, ourselves, and our dreams because if we get a running start, we will make the jump. We just can’t chicken out at the last second because that is how we fail to cover our bets, leaving us and our dream in a worse position than we started in.