People love fantasy; children especially. When we were younger, my brother and I had a large collection of mage staffs, templar swords, and lightsabers, which, to the untrained eye, appeared to be simple sticks. Fantasy is a playground for the creative mind to explore any possibility or impossibility imaginable. Children can be anything they want, living in a magical world superimposed over the boring dirt that adults tread.
As people age, their fantasies change with them. Wealth replaces magic powers, mystic creatures are discarded for imaginary lovers, and the creative sandbox devolves into a laughable mockery of the modern world, one that exists only to gratify the so-called “dreamer.”
Every person needs a dream to work towards. The key word there is work. The best way to ensure that a dream never materializes is to just keep dreaming about it. Close your eyes and embrace the sweet nectar of fantasy, in which you can have anything at no cost. It certainly seems much more appealing than actually working and waiting for your reality to change.
In the days following my finals, I found myself in this very trap. I began to lie in bed for an hour, two hours every day, just imagining things that I would do, or will do, or want to do, in any number of situations: some realistic, others unlikely, and many downright fictional. And then, each afternoon, I would mourn the hours of daylight I had lost doing nothing.
So, why not choose fantasy over reality, if fantasy offers everything without cost? The truth is, reality and fantasy both require a sacrifice. Reality demands your sweat, blood, and tears, but fantasy craves your potential. While reality sets you free, fantasy enslaves you, tightening your chains until you could not fix your reality even if you wanted to. To top it off, fantasy no longer delivers the satisfaction that it used to. The painful truth of reality makes sure of that.
The final boss to overcome is the productive fantasy. This is where you spend countless hours devising meticulous but useless plans for every minute detail and contingency. Though essential, the planning phase does not accomplish anything on its own; you eventually need to act.
Endless planning lets you feel as though you are moving forward and improving, but the truth is, you aren’t actually doing anything, only preparing to do something. Planning lets you imagine the outcome of your hard work without even working. It is the ace up fantasy’s sleeve, the final trick to distract you from the goal. Patton offers sage counsel on this.
To conquer the future, you must cast aside shallow fantasies and put in the work… now.
Go forth and conquer!