{Series Part 1}–The Ant and the Elephant: Learning How to Chase Your Dream

Have you ever seen the movie “SING”? It’s a story of a bunch of animals who have a dream to sing and perform. The animals want something (singing on stage); they struggle to get it (no family support, relationship struggles, lack of confidence, etc); then achieve success (putting on a great show). It’s the perfect example of Dream, Struggle, Victory.

I’ve always struggled with the concept of having a dream. It seemed so abstract. I’ve heard a lot of people talk about the importance of chasing a dream, but I couldn’t wrap my head around it. What is a dream? How do you chase it? Why should you have one?

I had a mentor once tell me that we HAVE to dream! A dream pushes us to be better. It puts us on a journey of growing and serving—all the things that we should be doing—to reach a higher potential. It all starts with the dream.

She also said that the bigger the dream, the bigger the struggle; but the bigger the struggle, the bigger the victory. Then she counseled to not quit in the middle of the struggle. That is when we are most emotional. Don’t let the struggle be the end of your story. The struggle is not the defining part. Let the victory be the defining moment.

The word dream has several definitions—a cherished aspiration, ambition, ideal; an unrealistic or self-deluding fantasy; a strongly desired goal or purpose; something that fully satisfies a wish. A dream can be almost anything that you want—a goal to lose weight or look a certain way, a vacation to an exotic island or a mountain cabin, a book on the best seller list or an album recorded, or a bigger house or fancier car. A dream can even be a desire to change the world, run for office, receive an award, be the best mom, control your anger, or graduate from college.

I started understanding what dreams are and why we should have them, but I still struggled with knowing how. I eventually came across a book called The Ant and the Elephant; Leadership for the Self by Vince Poscente which helped me get a better grasp on the process of pursuing a dream.

The book is a story of an elephant named Elgo, Adir the ant, and an owl called Brio. The book opens with Adir finding himself on the back of an elephant. No matter how hard he tries to walk toward his desired destination, the Oasis, if the elephant is going the opposite direction, the ant is too.

The author compares our brains to the ant and the elephant. Our brain is separated into the conscious and subconscious. The ant is the overly conscious hero in charge of our critical and analytical thinking. The elephant is the stubborn and instinctual subconscious partner that houses emotions and memories and automation. The elephant, being the “bigger and stronger” part of the brain controls what we do, preventing us from reaching our dreams. . . unless we can align our ant and our elephant. The goal of the book is to “demonstrate how we can unite the powerful forces of conscious and subconscious thought to reach our peak performance levels as individuals.”

Adir is blessed to meet Brio who explains that Adir has the gift and ability of being able to speak to the elephant. Brio then teaches him 5 steps to get the elephant to do what he wants. Over the next 5 weeks, I will share the 5 steps that Brio taught the ant that helped him align his dreams with the elephant’s. I hope you are excited to join me as we learn how to chase our dreams.

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