The Reason You Need To Dream Bigger Than You Think

Why the people who keep growing have mastered one simple skill: imagining good outcomes even when they can't see the path. A quick dive into building confidence through possibility.

Between raising my son and my apparent life's work of deliberately throwing myself into uncertainty - moving countries, leaving long-term jobs, doing a master's degree - I've become intimately familiar with that "I have no idea what I'm doing" feeling. Somehow I keep volunteering for advanced courses in discomfort.

Some people look at uncertainty and see exciting possibility. (I'm still building my tolerance for it 😂.) But when I allow myself to dream, to be playful with it, I see uncertainty as this wild canvas for creating something new, imagining good outcomes even when I can't see the path.

This episode is part of my self-belief series, and it's about hope - one of the core capacities for building real confidence. It's the part of you that imagines something different, that lets you believe change is possible and that you might have a hand in creating it. Hope comes before confidence - it’s the first imagining of possibility that gets you moving. Below I’ll share why this matters for confidence and how to cultivate it.

Let me be clear about what I mean when I say "hope" - I'm talking about the active, creative kind that's really about dreaming and imagination. It's your brain's ability to look beyond what currently exists and ask "what if?"

You're going to imagine something anyway - your brain is always creating stories about the future. So you might as well choose to imagine one where you grow, succeed, and become more confident rather than one where you stay stuck forever.

It's like: if you're going to spend mental energy envisioning the future (which you will, whether you realize it or not), why not use that same energy to imagine outcomes that actually serve you?

Both take the same amount of mental energy. Both feel equally "real" to your brain when you're imagining them. But only one creates neural pathways toward growth and possibility.

Why You Can't Build Confidence Without This

Here's what I've discovered in my years of coaching: You cannot build genuine confidence if you don't believe change is possible.

Without this belief, you won't take the risks that build confidence. You'll stay quiet in meetings because "nothing will change anyway." You'll avoid challenging projects because "I'll just fail." Your brain literally stops looking for solutions.

But the fascinating thing is, when you vividly imagine a positive future, your brain lights up the same regions as when you receive money! Your brain treats imagined possibility like a reward that's already happening, creating neural pathways to that future version of yourself.

This is what manifestation actually is - not magic, but your brain doing what it's designed to do. When you imagine something vividly enough, your brain starts treating it as possible and creates pathways to make it happen.

For example:

• If you can imagine yourself speaking confidently in meetings, you'll actually speak up

• When you speak up and it goes okay, you have evidence that you CAN do it

• That evidence builds confidence to speak up again

• Each time gets easier, confidence grows

But if you can't imagine yourself ever being confident in meetings:

• You won't speak up (why bother?)

• You never get evidence that you could succeed

• Confidence stays stuck at zero

• The cycle never begins

So possibility/hope is like the ignition key for confidence - it gets the engine started. Without it, you're just sitting in a car that won't turn on, no matter how many confidence techniques you learn.

This is why you literally cannot build confidence without believing change is possible. The imagination of "better" is what motivates the actions that create the evidence that builds the confidence.

It all starts with being able to see yourself succeeding, even just a little bit.

The Real-World Impact

Think about someone trying to build confidence in leadership:

Without active hope: "I'm just not leadership material. I'll never be good at managing people."

• Result: They avoid leadership opportunities, never develop skills, confidence stays stuck.

With active hope: "I can imagine myself leading with confidence. I can see myself having those difficult conversations, making decisions that matter."

• Result: They start taking on small leadership roles, practice grows, confidence builds through evidence.

How to Cultivate This Superpower

Start with this question: What would I do if I truly believed change was available to me?

Get specific. Don't just think "better relationship" - imagine: How do you and your partner communicate differently? What does Sunday morning feel like? How do you handle disagreements?

My practice: I literally imagine my dream house room by room - the colours, the light, the feeling of walking through each space. If I didn't allow myself to imagine it, there would be no pathway for it to become real. This is also deeply fun 🤩

For work situations: Before that big presentation, don't just hope it goes well. Imagine yourself speaking clearly, see the audience engaged, feel the confidence in your voice. Your brain starts building pathways to make it happen.

This post is a companion to my podcast - the 10 Minute Shift - where I explore a perspective shift in 10 mins or less. Subscribe for weekly posts!

The Magic Moment

The moment you imagine something different, you've already started moving toward it. You've opened the door to possibility!

If you allow yourself to imagine a better outcome - and see yourself as someone who can affect that - then over time, you're reinforcing a sense of self that includes:

• creativity ("I can imagine new paths")

• agency ("I can do something about it")

• optimism grounded in participation ("I don’t know if it’ll work, but I’m in the game")

That identity becomes a subtle, accumulative shift:
from "I can’t" → "maybe I could" → "I’m trying" → "I’m becoming someone who can."

Your Next Step

So here's my question for you: What would you hope for if you really, truly believed it was possible?

What future version of yourself can you imagine?

You don't need to have it all figured out to start growing - you just need to be able to imagine the outcome clearly enough that it feels possible. Then you’re on your way.

If this resonated with you, you'll love hearing the complete breakdown in this episode of The 10 Minute Shift. And once you've mastered hope? There are 6 more episodes in the series, each covering another essential capacity for building lasting self-belief. 10 minutes at a time, you'll transform how you show up in the world. Check the rest out here.

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