I was introduced to this quote via Kurt Elling’s first album, where he sings it during the solo of “Never, Never Land.”
“If a little day-dreaming is dangerous, the cure for it is not to dream less but to dream more, dream all the time.”
Marcel Proust
The quote is from the second book of Proust’s masterwork In Search of Lost Time, and I think about it all the time.
It doesn’t apply only to daydreaming – it applies to so many pursuits. Sometimes when you try something new and it isn’t working, you think it won’t work and you stop. But often the right answer is to do it, and do it more.
We can take the wrong lesson from early failures, or failures caused by too little time or too little commitment. The lesson shouldn’t be to quit, but to commit.
Daydream more. Make art more. Write more, read more, trust more, sleep more, meditate more. Those are all things I’ve tried where doing a little felt like failure. But doing a lot leads to success.
Do what brings you joy. Do it all the time.