When we’re little kids, they ask us, “what you want to be when you grow up?”

When we’re in high school they ask us, “what do you want to study in college?”

When we’re in college they ask, “what are your plans are after you graduate?”

And when we graduate, we go do what we’ve answered this whole time. We’ve gotten trained in that question, and live lives that are simply an answer to that questions. And Thoreau was right, wasn’t he? Most men and women do live lives of quiet desperation.

The only difference between the highly engaged and the massively disengaged people is very simple. The highly engaged people believe that their future is bigger and brighter than their past, and that they have a say in it. Disengaged people do not believe that, and live lives of quiet desperation. The most successful people in the world, are driven by a cause, a reason, or a life-long passion. This means that we have to start asking different questions. Perhaps start asking questions like these:

“What do you want out of this life?”

“What do you feel is your purpose in life?”

“What do you think is your calling?”

“What are your dreams?”

Earlier this month, I heard Ivan Moralez say that the most important gift we can give our children is to teach them how to dream. If you’re reading this, you’re probably not a child, but take the time to figure out what are your dreams and what are you doing about them?