Recently, I found myself standing in a hometown crowd watching my dear friend Wes Dearth do what he’s spent a lifetime pursuing. Wes, better known professionally as John Wesley, is a guitarist, songwriter, and one of rock’s most respected touring musicians. For the past several years, he has served as lead guitarist for Vertical Horizon, the popular 90s band known for hits such as Everything You Want, You’re a God, and Best I Ever Had.
Over the course of his career, Wes has released several solo albums, toured internationally with Porcupine Tree, opened hundreds of shows for Marillion, and shared the stage with artists including Sister Hazel. Yet as long as I’ve known him, he’s remained remarkably humble about his success. I’ll admit I’ve always been a bit of a fan girl, getting excited whenever he tells a story about a performer I’ve followed for years. Still, what struck me that evening wasn’t his résumé or the impressive career that led him there. It was the joy. Seeing him glance toward family and friends in the crowd, I saw someone fully present in a moment he had spent years working toward.
It got me thinking about pursuing our dreams, refusing to give up on them, and even more fundamentally, what are our dreams in the first place?
As a professional guitarist, it might be easy to assume that touring with a successful band is the pinnacle of a career. Yet in speaking with Wes over the years, I’m certain there is much more to it than that. And I’ve learned that touring is not nearly as glamorous as we might think! Success is rarely one destination. More often, it’s a collection of meaningful experiences along the way.
But what about the rest of us? Those of us who aren’t standing under stage lights or performing in front of thousands of people. What are our dreams?
Is it happiness and health? Raising children who become kind, capable adults? Building a successful business? Creating financial security? Contributing to our communities? Leaving things a little better than we found them?
Deep stuff.
Do we have to know exactly what our dreams are? Do they need to be lofty or life changing?
Can we pivot?
According to Angela Duckworth in her book, Grit, we absolutely should. In fact, she argues that perseverance is not about rigidly holding onto one specific goal forever. It’s about remaining committed to a larger purpose while being flexible about the path we take to get there. Sometimes the dream evolves because we evolve.
When I think about my own life, I realize that I never grew up dreaming of becoming an entrepreneur. Starting a business was never on my vision board. In fact, if you had asked me years ago what I wanted to be, “CEO” would not have made the list.
Yet somehow, that’s exactly where the journey led.
What I did dream about, though I may not have had the words for it at the time, was making a difference. I wanted meaningful work. I wanted to build something worthwhile. I wanted to surround myself with people who could grow, thrive, and become more than they thought possible.
Over the past twenty-plus years of building ReEmployAbility, I’ve discovered that entrepreneurship was not the dream itself. It was the vehicle that allowed me to pursue a larger vision.
A vision for myself. A vision for the people who choose to spend a significant portion of their lives working alongside me. A vision for an industry that serves people during some of the most vulnerable moments of their lives.
Workers’ compensation is often viewed as a business process, a claim, a transaction, or a cost. But behind every claim number is a person. Someone whose life was unexpectedly interrupted. Someone worried about their health, their family, their livelihood, and what comes next. Our industry’s responsibility extends far beyond managing claims. We have the opportunity to help people regain confidence, purpose, and a pathway forward.
That vision is what gets me excited.
Not because we’ve arrived, but because there is still so much opportunity to improve the experience of injured workers. To challenge conventional thinking. To create workplaces where employees feel valued and empowered. To leave our corner of the world better than we found it.
Looking back, I can see that my dream wasn’t a title, a company, or even a career. It was impact. The business simply became the platform through which that impact could happen.
And perhaps that’s true for many of us. Sometimes we spend so much time looking for a specific dream that we miss the larger purpose unfolding right in front of us. The destination may surprise us, but the values guiding us there often remain remarkably consistent.
This thought led me back to a book I was given years ago, Mother Teresa’s Prescription, where she talks about doing one small thing to make a difference.
One small thing.
Not changing the world overnight.
Not becoming famous.
Not accomplishing some grand achievement that earns applause.
Just one small thing.
I love that concept because it takes the pressure off. Sometimes we look at our dreams and think they have to be monumental. We think we need a five-year plan, a vision board, and a perfectly mapped-out strategy. Yet some of the most meaningful accomplishments in our lives begin with a conversation, a decision, a risk, or a simple act of kindness.
Perhaps our dreams are not always destinations. Perhaps they are directions.
A dream might start as becoming a musician and evolve into inspiring others through music. It might start as building a career and evolve into mentoring future leaders. It might start as wanting success and end up being about significance.
Looking back on my own life, many of the things that have brought me the greatest fulfillment were never part of a master plan. They emerged from opportunities I couldn’t have predicted and lessons I never would have chosen. Some dreams came true exactly as imagined. Others transformed into something entirely different, and better.
What I’ve learned is that dreams don’t have expiration dates. They don’t disappear because we reach a certain age, change careers, experience setbacks, or discover new passions. They simply adapt along with us.
Maybe the question isn’t, “Am I following my dream?”
Maybe the better question is, “Am I moving toward what matters most to me?”
Am I growing?
Am I contributing?
Am I becoming the person I want to be?
When I stood in that crowd and watched Wes on stage that evening, I wasn’t inspired solely by his success because I wasn’t witnessing a single successful moment. I was witnessing thousands of ordinary moments that came before it. I was inspired by the evidence of that long journey. Years of practice. Faith. Sacrifice. Persistence. Countless small decisions that led to that stage.
The same is true for each of us. Most dreams aren’t achieved in dramatic leaps. They’re built in ordinary days through consistent effort and small acts of courage.
Soif you’re not entirely sure what your dream is today, that’s okay.
If your dream has changed, that’s okay too.
And if you’re still figuring it out, perhaps start with Mother Teresa’s advice. Do one small thing. Take one step. Help one person. Learn one new skill. Say yes to one opportunity.
Those small things have a way of leading us exactly where we’re meant to go.
And who knows? One day you may look back and realize that what seemed like a series of small steps was actually your dream unfolding all along.
