I want to believe

When I was little, I dreamed of working at Microsoft and being Fox Mulder from the X-Files. There are no words that can convey the way that both of these dreams defined my young life and vividly shaped my imagination.

Microsoft and technology broadly represented a creative life of expression through building, thinking and existing close to the future.

The X-Files and the power of belief represented the pursuit of truth, the relationship between faith and science and a love for unconventional thinking.

I’ve always believed in protecting your childhood passions and interests; to remember who you are deep, deep, deep inside. As Guy Kawasaki famously said, “Don’t let the bozos grind you down.” Hold fast to that which is deep inside you and let only your own words and hands shape the fires that light your way.

This is more challenging as you one ages. The bozos are everywhere. Life, it turns out, is hard. As our dreams break along the way, we must pick up the pieces and make new ones. Well, we musn’t…but we can.

It’s not easy work. Making new dreams means letting go of identities and opening your mind to new possibilites at the precise moment the mind wants to retrench and retreat into the familiar.

I always thought I was someone who would do that well. I am not. Like every other human being, I resist change. I live in old beliefs. As I get older, I rely less on curiosity and more on assumptions. This is a failure of imagination.

This post doesn’t have a profound insight. I’ve just been thinking a lot about my childhood dreams and how big my imagination was.

I think when you hit walls, a bigger imagination can help. It’s smart to look back and remember the wild curiosity and beliefs from childhood. Remember something old and ask it what’s next . Deep inside all of us, someone wants to believe in a new dream.