When we initiate a plan, or, at least, are included in the plan, whether it be a company project or a personal/family project and we really buy into it, we become excited, and our labor will be more intense. The difference in the energy level of our labors when we are laboring with a vision, as opposed to laboring without a vision of the outcome or end product, is significant. We may be young boys building a go-cart or digging a hole to China or men building a dream home or rebuilding an old car, it doesn’t matter, as long as we start with a dream, a plan, a goal. Those are the exciting times, and speaking of time, time often becomes irrelevant. Projects, when bought into, whether for the company or for yourself, energize you and time flies. When a worker, works past quitting time without being aware of it, then you know they envisioned and bought into the assigned project, though it may have been another’s dream.
There is a story about two young boys who decided to dig a deep hole behind their house. As they were digging someone came by and asked them, “What are you doing?” “We are going to dig a hole all the way through the earth!” The boys were told that it was impossible to dig a hole through the earth. Then one of the boys picked up a jar full of spiders, worms, insects and interesting stones and said, “Even if we don’t dig all the way through the earth, look what we have found along the way. Our goals are often way too ambitious, but if they cause us to dig or move in the right direction, then the goal was beneficial.
Too often, when goals are reached and we have the finished project, it just becomes another object we own and our interest wanes. Life, energy, joy, and happiness are more often and more closely aligned to the ‘makin’ then to the have’n. An unknown writer stated that “Not every goal will be fully achieved. Not every job will end successfully. Not every relationship will endure. Not every hope will come to pass. Not every love will last. Not every endeavor will be completed. Not every dream will be realized. But when you fall short of your aim, perhaps you can say, ‘Yes, but look what I found along the way! Look at the wonderful things which have come into my life because I tried to do something!’”
Our lives are energized by our dreams and even if they do not materialize exactly the way we envisioned and we are temporarily disappointed, the memory of the way it made us feel, the energy we felt and the things we may have learned in our attempt will cause us to stand taller. There is a saying that “It is better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all!” That can be said about every attempt to fulfill our dreams. “It is better to have tried to achieve our goal (dream) and failed, than never to have tried at all. When we are not part of the dream, but are commanded to fulfill a task, our hearts are often not in it. The following scripture says it all: “For behold, it is not meet that I should command in all things; for he that is compelled in all things, the same is a slothful and not a wise servant;…men should be anxiously engaged in a good cause, and do many things of their own free will, and bring to pass much righteousness; For the power is in them, wherein they are agents unto themselves…But he that doeth not any- thing until he is commanded, and receiveth a commandment with doubtful heart, and keepeth it with slothfulness, the same is damned.” (D&C 58:26–29)
Everyone involved in a project should own the dream, otherwise they must be commanded and will be minimally involved, and only with a doubtful heart! The greatest leaders are those who can share the dream convincingly, and then everyone involved in the project will be anxiously engaged. It is in the makin’ and the digg’n’ that life is lived most abundantly. God bless us all to be anxiously engaged in good causes, to be a part of a dream! One of the greatest dreams we can dream is to one day be united with our loving family members in an eternal union that cannot be revoked.