"A Million Dreams"

An inspirational love letter to our dreams.

It’s a Sunday afternoon and while I do take Sundays off from social media, I’ve found that it’s the perfect opportunity to get caught up on my Substack inbox.

On this particular afternoon, I happened to be distracted by the sounds of the TV coming from the other room, so I put my earbuds in and brought up my favorite soundtrack on Spotify - The soundtrack to the movie Rudy. It’s entirely instrumental and oddly enough, the sounds of this doesn’t distract me from reading.
Once that was over, my Spotify account automatically took me to the Lion King Soundtrack and then switched over to a “shuffle” of Broadway Soundtrack songs.
I was making huge progress on reading through my inbox and restacking with notes as well as adding a few notes myself when once song halted my progress:

A Million Dreams from The Greatest Showman soundtrack.

I was immediately inspired to write this post when I heard the opening notes, most likely because I’ve also just been inspired by all the dreams of the people I subscribe to here. Reading through the newsletters, posts and notes will do that, right?

I will “die on the hill” that The Greatest Showman (TGS) is the best movie musical of all time - yes, even bumping my beloved Rudy to 2nd place and my all-time favorite, The Lion King to third place. Oh, and yes, let’s go ahead and round out my list with Wicked and The Wizard of Oz.

TGS is the ONLY movie I’ve seen in a theater that if hadn’t had an appointment after the movie was over, I would have bought a ticket for the next showing. I DID go see it again the very next day, bought the soundtrack and bought the movie on DVD when it was released. I’ve listened to the soundtrack hundreds of times. One time, it was the “pacing” for me running a 5K. Ok, yes, I ran/walk/ran it, but I knew where I had to be on my time/distance by the song track.

TGS soundtrack is on a CD in my car, and I listen to all or some of it at least once a week. It’s my go-to soundtrack when I need that quick pick me up and that reminder that “we can live in a world that we design”.

It is my greatest inspiration, my greatest motivator and my greatest source of HOPE that dreams really can come true.

I haven’t had a million dreams in my lifetime - just one really great, big, audacious one - to meet Elton John.
I’ve spent over 30 years pursuing the dream and have attended 62 concerts, and three times to see Tammy Faye (which sadly, closed shortly after opening). I’ve come really, really close to having the dream come true but not quite yet.
It’s still a dream in progress.

Oh yes, I’ve had other dreams less audacious that have come true:
*Get married
*Have kids
*Build a career I love: speaker, author, entrepreneur, writer.
*Become debt free
*Travel

But back to TGS - The entire soundtrack is HOPE.
A Million Dreams, in particular, is a love letter to our dreams - it’s the inspiration we need to DREAM BIG and create the life we want to live.
In the movie, it’s a song that represents a young boy dreaming of his future.

I close my eyes, and I can see, a world that’s waiting up for me
that I call my own.
Through the dark, through the door, through where no one’s been before
but it feels like home.
They can say, they can say it all sounds crazy
they can say, they can say I’ve lost my mind
I don’t care; I don’t care so call me crazy
We can live in a world that we design…

That last sentence of the first stanza - “We can live in a world that we design”
THAT has been the most inspirational line of a song for me since I first heard this and saw the movie and then continued to watch the movie and listen to the lyrics hundreds of times.

Maybe it’s because I was in my late 40’s when I saw the movie.
Maybe it’s because I believe in BIG, AUDACIOUS dreams and maybe,
just maybe I’m an eternal optimist.
Maybe it’s because on some level, I refuse to be jaded by all the negativity of the world, and by the people who flat out told me my dream would never come true.
Yes, quite possibly, it’s because I was told my dream too was “crazy”.
Maybe the storylines in TSG resonate with me.

Most likely, it’s because I believe in HOPE above all else.
It’s because I KNOW there’s a difference between just thinking about a dream and actually going after it.
It’s because I KNOW that it’s because we only get ONE life - ONE shot at dreaming big and pursuing that dream.
It’s because I BELIEVE that there’s really no such thing as “failure” - if we have failed it just means we figured out what doesn’t work.

But pursuing dreams takes more than inspiration and hope. It takes motivation to actually pursue them. There has to be a motivating factor -

In the title soundtrack, The Greatest Show, these lyrics motivate me -
It’s everything you ever want; it’s everything you ever need,
and it’s here right in front of you, this is where you want to be…
impossible comes true, it’s taking over you - this is The Greatest Show.

One thing I have learned in over thirty years of pursuing the dream to meet Elton John is that every opportunity to advance my dream forward WAS right in front of me. Everything I needed WAS there - I just had to go get it.
It hasn’t always been easy, but every step forward was worth it.
I’ve had seemingly impossible experiences come true.
So, I KNOW that what seems impossible CAN IN FACT come true.

Here’s the thing - we all get ONE life. ONE.
Your life IS The Greatest Show.
People are watching me live my life - they are watching you live your life.
I believe that when WE go after our dreams, it inspires other people to do that same.
I actually also know this to be true and it is the greatest honor to inspire others.

Do you believe the impossible can come true?
A Million Dreams is a love letter to our dreams.
If you’ve never heard it, or you’ve not listened to it in a while - go find it and listen.
Really listen to it - let the lyrics inspire and motivate you.

Your dream matters. Dream big. GO.