What the President Taught Me 9: A Map to Making Dreams Come True

*This story is half-fiction. It has no relation to any real people or organizations.

There is an original planner distributed at the Future Creation Studio.
It includes a page for 'writing down 100 dreams,' but my planner remained blank.
This was because I had a resistance to writing down dreams.
My past of giving up on my dreams during my band days. The pain of chasing dreams had etched the thought that 'dreams never come true' into my heart.

One day, Shota Ishida called out to me.
'Koizumi-san, are you writing your dreams in your planner?'
Ishida's planner had 100 dreams written in it, and he said many of them had already come true.
'What kind of dreams came true?'
When Koizumi asked, Ishida opened his planner, looking a little embarrassed.

'I want to work in the HR department, I want to be involved in hiring, I want to take my parents out for a meal, I want to go to an amusement park with my girlfriend... these are all dreams. And when I look back at last year's planner, more than 30 of my dreams came true!'

While listening to Ishida's passionate story, I felt conflicted.
'Going to an amusement park with your girlfriend... is that really a dream?'

That night, in my quiet room, I opened my planner.
The white pages spread out, and the emptiness felt like it was reflecting my past self who had given up on dreams.
'It's pointless after all...' I let out a sigh.
However, Ishida's enthusiastic words crossed my mind.

I decided to try writing just one thing.

'Raise Ishida to be a capable professional'

Just one line emerged.
And as I stared at those words, along with Ishida's charming smile, small goals began to emerge one after another.
'Introduce Ishida to a recommended book every month'
'Get the employee training plan that Ishida said he wanted to do approved'
'Invite him to lunch once a week'
And since he said he liked ramen, 'Go eat ramen together'

While writing my dreams, I realized that the act of 'writing 100 dreams' is a process of breaking down the abstract concept of a 'dream' into realistic steps.

Suddenly, my former band activities crossed my mind.
'My dream of becoming a pro didn't come true.' That bitter memory remained.
Even so, these dreams, broken down into such detail, seemed achievable as small goals one by one.
With this, I feel like I can move forward.
'So this was the meaning of writing down dreams...' I felt I had quietly discovered a new step that I had been overlooking all along.

The next day, I called out to Ishida.
'Ishida, do you want to go eat ramen today? You taught me something good, so it's my treat.'
Ishida was surprised and said, 'In that case, why don't we go there? It's always got a line, though.'

I smiled to myself.

One dream had come true.

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