Are You Valiantly Pursuing Your Career Dreams?   

Where does your mind go when you see that question? Do you immediately default to lyrics from The Man of La Mancha with Don Quixote singing the classic, “The Impossible Dream”? It’s words are resolute and inspiring – – here’s the first verse:

To dream the impossible dream
To fight the unbeatable foe
To bear with unbearable sorrow
To run where the brave dare not go

Or perhaps you can better relate to Fantine, from Les Miserables, as she mourns the path her life has gone in the song, “I Dreamed A Dream”:

I had a dream my life would be
So different from this hell I’m living,
So different now from what it seemed…
Now life has killed the dream I dreamed…

Or perhaps you land on neither end of this spectrum with this little tune from the Everly Brothers called “All I Have To Do Is Dream,” a bit lighter in depth and flow. I’ll spare you the lyrics as they repeat, “Dream, dream, dream” over and over again. 🙂

Why Many People Stop Pursuing Their Career Dreams

OR. Does your heart sink with no song coming to mind because you torpedoed your dreams years ago when it came to your career. After all, you didn’t see a clear way to pursue that dream for a host of reasons. Perhaps it was one of these:

• Can’t seem to make a living doing it
• Too difficult and time consuming to pursue
• Afraid of not having the requisite innate talent to succeed
• Other people thought your dream was _______  (negative words – your choice!)
• You had to make a living to support others, so you rationalized it away

Hmmm, if you’re like most adults, we rarely go back to the dreams we had when we were children of “What will you be when you grow up?” Life has far more pressing issues and areas to address than reverting back to what might be characterized as “silly” dreams. But wait! Maybe that’s part of the real issue. Are we not allowing ourselves the opportunity to reflect on a vision for our life, whether it’s from when we were eight years old or a new dream that came last month?

Rediscovering the Dreams You Once Had for Your Career

Whether you’re unfulfilled or unemployed, knowing who you are, in all of your own individual complexities, is a worthwhile journey when seeking to discover where you’ll fit best for that next step in your career crossings. Back on 1/27/26, we outlined 17 personal topics for you to explore (click here to read), so you can more effectively evaluate YOUR fit with an organization (or vocation) with whom you’re considering working. This week we’re diving deeper into another one of those 17 topics: dreams. We’ve discussed what to look for on the organizational side in an earlier 8-part series (click here to read the first post in the series).

How Perseverance Can Help You Pursue Your Career Dreams

A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to hear Darren LaCroix speak at a conference. Darren is a World Champion of Public Speaking (yep, he literally won the contest!), and is the author of a best-selling book entitled, “17 Minutes To Your Dream: How To Get The Breakthroughs You Need.” In his talk, he shared that he had a dream when he was young to be a stand-up comedian. The problem was, in his own words, “I wasn’t funny at all.” Yet through years of pursuing this dream, he accomplished it and more! Now he not only speaks professionally (and yes, he’s absolutely funny!), he also helps others achieve their dreams. https://17minutestoyourdream.com/

“A Goal Without a Plan is Only a Dream”

In his talk, he quoted Brian Tracy, the renowned author and motivational speaker who said, “Your life only gets better when you get better,” and “A goal without a plan is only a dream.” In Darren’s book, he stated, “I decided to start focusing on my dream for at least 17 minutes a day. What will you do in that 17 minutes? Get a book, take a course, do some research, ask people questions who have accomplished the dream you desire. Do something!”

So there’s the first practical tip for you, and shared from a guy who overcame incredible odds to accomplish his dream.  

What the Bible Says About Dreams, Calling, and Direction

Before we hit some other practical tips for you, let’s pause for a moment and see what the Scriptures have to say about dreams. When I think of dreams in Scriptures, I initially think of Joseph interpreting dreams for pharaoh, Daniel interpreting Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, and Joseph, Mary’s husband being told in a dream to flee to Egypt with Mary and Jesus.  

When I put a few filtering lens’ in place, to try to find a place where God is instructing us on our own dreams, I come to Ecclesiastes 5:7 which says, “Much dreams and many words are meaningless. Therefore fear God.” And again with Job 33:14-18, “For God does speak – now one way, now another – though no one perceives it. In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls on people as they slumber in their beds, He may speak in their ears and terrify them with warnings, to turn them from wrongdoing and keep them from pride, to preserve them from the pit, their lives from perishing by the sword.”

Why it’s Important to Seek God’s Direction for Your Career Dreams

I also ventured into what God might be doing with implanting dreams, visions, or burdens on people’s hearts to pursue what they believe has been given to them by God to fulfill His purposes through them. Nehemiah is one such Biblical example. From “The Theology of Work” about Nehemiah, they state, “Nehemiah heard that the walls of Jerusalem were still broken down more than a half-century after the completion of the rebuilding of the temple, he “sat down and wept,” fasting and praying before God (Nehemiah 1:4). Implicitly, he was formulating a plan to remedy the situation in Jerusalem.” Note that he fasted and prayed about his burden for Jerusalem. See his prayer in Nehemiah 1:5-11.

Like many career topics, I didn’t find any clear descriptions of “career dreams” in the Bible. But Nehemiah’s example, along with many other Biblical characters, followed God’s / the Holy Spirit’s prompting to follow God’s call on their life. I believe we can use the same principles of seeking God’s face through prayer and fasting, along with Godly counsel from trusted advisors, to discern what career aspirations and dreams to pursue.  

Use Google’s Career Dreamer for Insight on New Potential Career Paths

One useful tool to help in that discernment is through Google’s Career Dreamer. Their description summarized my experience with it very well:

“Discover your dream career with Career Dreamer. An AI-powered tool to help you uncover career potential and analyze your skills to suggest new career paths!

Career Dreamer is fast and free, and it can help you learn about interesting career paths that you might not even know about. It’s a great way to generate ideas for thinking about your next step.”

Why Networking and Wise Counsel Matter in Pursuing Your Dream

Another useful process to find trusted advisors about your dream is networking. You never know where your exploratory path might take you, but inevitable successful pursuit of your dream is aided by others who can help you. Darren LaCroix mentions several people along his path toward becoming a World Champion of Public Speaking who networked, supported, mentored, counseled, and taught him, along with giving him constructive feedback.  

No Matter What Your Feedback Is, You Always Need to be Discerning

I want to highlight that he still had to discern the feedback he received. As I’ve often shared with my kids, “All feedback is useful. Whether it’s accurate or not is a fair question.” Darren had to filter the criticism to aid in his growth without letting it crush his dream. Final point. Remember when we were young, we were often asked, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” That’s often what we default to when we think about career dreams.  

BUT, let’s not lose sight of: “WHO do you want to be when you grow up?” There is a big difference. Who we are is not summarized by what we do. And God is much more concerned about our hearts and who we are before He gets concerned about what we do. Particularly for a living (assumption being our vocation isn’t dishonest).

I’ve often heard Bob Goff, the noted author of “Love Does” and “Everybody Always” say:

“Take away what you are known for, and whatever is left, is who you are.”   

Questions to Help You Clarify Your Career Dream

What is your career dream? Are you able to unleash childlike curiosity to explore what you would like to do? Do you feel boxed in by adult logic? Do you feel called by God to pursue something? What are your identity, giftings, strengths, core values, life purpose and calling? Is that factored into your dream? Are you stuck in some way with your dream – still fervent in your belief, but your actions aren’t taking you closer to achieving it? Here at Crossroads Career, we have a workbook called, “Hear God Calling You”, for you to explore those questions. In addition, I’d encourage you to reach out HERE to set up an opportunity to gain the ear of a trusted resource with one of our Crossroads Guides.

Your dream shouldn’t become a nightmare or a hallucination. Pursue career dreams with the filters of God’s Word and Godly counsel to achieve it! Blessings!

---

Dave Sparkman currently serves as the volunteer Crossroads Career board chair and local ministry leader. He is also the founder and managing director of Spark Your Culture, a corporate culture consulting firm. Prior to that he worked at UnitedHealth Group, a Fortune #5 public company, serving in the role of Chief Culture Officer. His unemployment experience came from the implosion of Arthur Andersen, where he served as the West Region Managing Partner, People.