Originally posted by Dave Thompson on work blog, July 26, 2012

So who watches Modern Family? I don’t on a regular basis but a friend of mine (who I introduced to creating a list of dreams) told me I had to watch the “Punkin Chunkin” epsiode. In this episode the families end up pitting the “dreamers” vs. the “Pritchetts” (“Pritchett” is a family name on this show). The dreamers see their dreams repeatedly squashed throughout this show by the “practical Pritchetts” which culminates in a bet about whether a pumpkin can be launched across a football field into the sunroof of a car. The dreamers initially fail but then the Pritchetts rally to revive the dream. There are some great quotes from this episode:

• “There are dreamers and there are realists in this world. You’d think the dreamers would find the dreamers and the realists would find the realists but more often than not the opposite is true. You see the dreamers need the realists to keep them from soaring too close to the sun. And the realists, well, without the dreamers, they might not ever get off the ground.“;
• “You squelch me right when I’m about to soar…Don’t let these negative nellies drag you down.”;
• “Here we have the skeptics, the dream squashers, the Pritchetts. Here we have the dreamers, the artists, the visionaries. Let’s settle this, Dreamers vs. Pritchetts.”;
• (while defending squashing other people’s dreams) “If we didn’t do this to them the world would.”

I don’t know that I would have chosen those exact words…but I think so much of this is true. I’m a Pritchett (with some Dreamer tendencies every so often). I squash my own dreams (too much money; too impractical; too much time focused on me). Can anyone relate? Or are any of you dreamers that struggle with how to move forward or stay focused? It was hard for me to list 100 dreams – and really hard for me to list the fun, impractical, “there’s no way I can ever do that” dreams. But it’s so key to create your list without filtering or censoring your dreams. If you think it, write it. Add it to your list. Don’t worry about money, time, etc – not yet. Tweak your list. Add to it. Tweak it. Repeat. See what bubbles to the top. And then (this is where you need a Pritchett to help you) choose steps (small steps are fine too) towards making those dreams happen.

The world needs the Dreamers and the Pritchetts. We feed off each other. It’s all of us working together and sharing our dreams and ideas that keeps the world fun and full of and energy and makes great things happen all around us. So…who wants to help me chunk some pumpkins later on?