Wishing, Dreaming, Doing

This week's quote consists of three injunctions: "Wish it, dream it, do it!"

According to my trusty Concise Oxford Dictionary, each of those verbs has a different meaning, and could be described as steps along a road. To wish is to "have a desire or aspiration" or "want with the kind of desire that affects the result". To dream is to "have visions", "believe possible", "contemplate the possibility of." To do is to "perform, carry out, effect, complete, bring to pass."

So wishing for something is the first step. Our desire or aspiration may be simple, "I wish I could lose ten pounds" or  "I wish I could finish writing my novel" or complicated, "I wish I could do something about climate change."

The next step is dreaming, when our mind begins to ruminate about how we might achieve our wish, whatever it is. This is when we contemplate various possibilities - the research phase, if you like. We might investigate different diets, think about joining a gym or going for a daily walk, or consider how we might carve out some time each day to write. Or we might start to follow news stories about people and agencies who are working to combat climate change, and learn about how we might (in whatever way) make a difference.

The final step is doing, when we move from the theoretical to the practical - we give up sugar, do some exercise, set our alarm an hour earlier so that we have time to write before work. Or we might join a climate activist group, go on a demonstration, lobby our MP, make a commitment to use only eco-friendly products in our home, recycle more, repair things instead of throwing them away.

Most of us need to go through this three-step process before we actually commit to "doing", the most important of the three steps. Yet the first two, "wishing" and "dreaming" are also important, as without them, we might never get to the "doing" phase. And the fire they have lit in our souls may keep us going in hard times, when the diet has plateaued, we're suffering from writer's block, and our governments are still not taking climate change seriously. Very few people have the motivation to carry on trying their best, without wishes and dreams to bolster them.

Footprints in the Sands of Time

The 19th century poet, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote, in A Psalm of Life, "Lives of great men all remind us /  we can make our lives sublime, / and departing, leave behind us / footprints on the sands of time." The 20th century American motivational speaker, Bob Moawad, coined a pithy variation on this: "You can't make footprints in the sands of time if you're sitting on your butt."

In other words, if we want to make a difference in the world, we need to get up and do something. There is no use sitting back and expecting other people to solve the problems of the world - we each need to do what we can, where we are, with the talents we have. Which may not be much, but to pinch a well-known supermarket's slogan, "Every little helps."

Yet it has to be considered action. It's no good just leaping up from our seats, rushing off, and doing the first thing which occurs to us. Or simply throwing money at a problem and hoping it will go away. No, we need to think hard and consult with others to find the best long-term solution to whatever the problem is.

Which may indeed involve "sitting on your butt" in meetings, and coming to a considered consensus. But then, it is time for action. It is no good agreeing to take action to make the world a better place, if we then drag our feet and wait for someone else to make the first move. The climate change crisis is a good example of this in action. The Paris Agreement in 2016 was excellent, in its way, but its  implementation has been slow, patchy, and inadequate.

Which is where individual activism comes in - those individual footprints on the sands of time which happen when ordinary people come together and work towards a better world, whether that is by protesting, or by making their own commitments to change the situation through their own actions. "Sitting on your butt" simply won't cut it, not any longer. If we want our children and grandchildren to inherit a sustainable planet, we need to act now.