Ep 89: Karen Cerulo and Janet Ruane | Dreaming big, and how life circumstances affect our ability to do so

Take a moment and think about the hopes and dreams you have for your life.

Beyond your goals for your career or your relationships. Not the planned out path that you might already be working on.

I’m talking about the irrational, blissful, pie-in-the-sky dreams that perhaps captured your attention back when you were younger and the world hadn’t caught up with your imagination yet.

Now, think about how your life has shaped the dreams you dream.

And perhaps more importantly for today’s conversation here on the show, how might your dreams be different had you grown up in different circumstances?

My guests this week here on the show are Janet Ruane and Karen Cerulo, each university professors and co-authors of the book Dreams of a Lifetime, how who we are shapes how we imagine our future.

You see, while we might intuitively know and believe that our dreams are shaped by the culture and situations we happen to inhabit, Janet and Karen actually have the research and the data to prove it to be true.

As Janet and Karen write in their book “Dreams represent the starting point of our perception of 'fit.' Where do we want to belong?”

And the question must be asked, if we each have different starting points, what effect does this have on our dreams, and what’s more, our ability to even dream itself.

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