Say It Out Loud: Naming Your Dream

Your life won’t change until you name what you’re building. 
In this opening episode of The Dream Blueprint, Katherine Craddock breaks down the courage it takes to say your dream out loud — and why clarity is the first act of creation. You’ll learn how naming your dream shifts your identity, redirects your choices, and moves you from drifting to designing.

If you’ve been carrying something unspoken — a hope, a shift, a calling — this episode gives you the language that unlocks momentum.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Hi, I'm Catherine Craddock, and this is The Dream Blueprint, the show where we build the structure behind the life God is calling you to create. This isn't hyper. This isn't manifesting. It's not big inspiration. This is architecture. This is clarity, calling, and the practical spiritual structured work behind a meaningful life. Today we're starting at the beginning, where dreams actually come from and why naming your dream is the first step in building it. You know, I'm a Christian and so I come from a Christian worldview. And in the Bible, it says in 1 Corinthians 14, 33 that God is not a God of confusion, but of peace. So today we're going to take some of those thoughts that swirl in your head that you think about in quiet times that you cry to yourself in the car. We're going to take those swirling thoughts and we're going to add peace to the dream that God has planted in your heart. You know, I grew up in Northern Virginia. I was born and raised here. And this is a high-paced, fast-paced environment. There's a lot of high expectations. You know, it's sort of like be perfect or die. Everything is super competitive. And yet, even within all that velocity and all that high standards and perfectionism and responsibilities, you know, I'm the oldest of nine kids. I was a pastor's daughter. There's a lot of expectations placed on me. I still had my own quiet dreams in my heart. And I often kind of keep them to myself. And, you know, God planted these unique dreams in my heart really early as a child. I can think back to origins of some of my dreams, you know, from when I'm four years old or five years old. There's another time it's six or 13 or 19 or whatever. And I can, I know the exact moment when these dreams were in my heart, but a lot of times the dreams didn't match my environment. They didn't match what um circumstances I found myself in. And I always said, how can I do this thing? It's it's bothering me to my core that I can't um bring this idea, this story to life. You know, these dreams that God gives us, if they're a true calling in our lives, they're stubborn, they're they're persistent, they're strangely specific. And sometimes you'll be out in in the world and God will send you people that will come to you and say, Hey, have you worked on this part of your dream in a while? You go, oh, oh my goodness, and you're so convicted. Sometimes we even cry, right? Because we it's these reminders that God sends us that says, Hey, I have something for you to do, and it's bigger than what you're doing right now. And so, you know, God plants these dreams in our hearts long before we understand how this makes sense. I don't see how A plus B can ever equal C. And these aren't hobbies, these aren't random, these are assignments for our life that that God will equip us with the ability to carry out and see if it's part of his dream as well. It just doesn't become real because we feel it when you know we're six years old and dreaming in the backyard and praying, dear God, send me a horse right now. You know, these are dreams that become real when we give them a voice over time. In Ephesians 2.10, it says, We are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. These dreams are from him, and if we trust him with the structuring and the diligence, they will bear fruit. There's oftentimes there's you know a big gap between the dream that you have and the life that you're living. For years I lived in that gap, the space between the dream I felt and the dream I was living. I had a full life, I had a beautiful life, and I but just because I was doing and living this wonderful life and this dream, this sort of plan A, there was a there was a grittiness inside my heart and nagging inside my heart that said, this isn't exactly your dream. This is somebody else's dream for you, right? So having a full life and a wonderful life and a beautiful life, it's not the same thing, a comfortable life. It's not the same thing as being aligned with who God has called you or your children or your loved ones to be. So this is the truth that I learned. You know, I was the oldest of nine kids. Now I have six kids, you know, I have multiple businesses. These things can suck and you can do laundry forever. And even when you pass away, the laundry is still gonna be there, the dishes are still gonna be there, the taxes are still gonna need to be paid, right? So being busy is not the enemy, but being undecided, being uncommitted, and being unstructured is that's the enemy to your dream. It's not the expectations that we have, it's you having that expectation of yourself to say, it is time. It is time for me to take the first steps towards my dream. So, you know, responsibilities don't kill dreams, silence does. And so that's why, you know, sometimes that gap between what we what we're dreaming about and um our actual life and what we're what we feel capable of, like I'm drowning. How am I ever going to, you know, be a Hollywood red carpet star? Like, I'm drowning, how am I ever going to um get my athletic body back, right? All these kinds of things, um it's it doesn't mean your dream is impossible, this gap time, this like paddling around time. It just oftentimes it means that the dream needs structure. And the other thing it can also mean is that God lets dreams mature in these hidden seasons. You know, sometimes we don't have a piece to the story because the timing of the story isn't ready yet. You're not prepared to receive the next step. So delay and waiting, that waiting period, that delay, the like, I thought you said this. Why has this hasn't this come true? It's not a denial, it's part of developing your character like a like a caterpillar and a cocoon, right? And so, you know, in Habakkuk 2, uh verses two through three, it says, write the vision, make it plain. And the other really interesting thing that it says in this Old Testament prophet, it says, the vision awaits an appointed time. If it seems slow, wait for it. It will surely come. You were placed here on this earth with a purpose, and some people have glamorous purposes, and some people have like these subtle, beautiful, poetic purposes, and we'll go into that. Um, but everything has a time and a season and the right time for that dream to bloom. And you can't force the dream, but you can structure it and you can do your part to um move forward into that dream. And sort of the one of the very first steps is to give that dream clarity, is to give it a voice. You know, for me, it's the moment that I say the dream out loud. I carry these dreams deep, deep inside myself. I hate sharing them, I hate letting people know because I don't want the criticism. I don't want people to kind of like give me negativity, more negativity than I give myself, which is plenty of negativity, to stop my dream process. So a lot of times I just like hold it really, really quietly, you know. But I can end up holding on to a dream for 10, 20 years or more, and it's a dream that I could have taken steps forward in. So, you know, for me, the the moment that I actually accomplished some of these um big dreams that I'm about to, you know, take you on a journey on is the moment that I said out loud, I really have a story I need to write. Or this sounds crazy, but I want horses one day. Or um, hey, I know we just met, we're going on this run together, we're we're special friends, casually dating, whatever it is. But you should just know that I really I'm I want to have at least five kids. You should know that about me. You know, it's when I put a voice to those dreams and said them out loud, someday, or when things slow down, become, you know, what when the kids are older, you know, I'm gonna do this. Um it just stops and it becomes hey, I don't know how this is gonna be accomplished, but this is what God put in my heart to do. And when I finally get the courage, because it takes a lot of courage, when I get the courage to name the dream, to say it out loud, it changes everything. Because again, God is a God of um peace, not confusion, not chaos. He blesses clarity, he blesses obedience, he blesses stewardship. And once you name your dream, then you can start to build around it. And you can start to ask the questions, not before, but you can start to ask the questions. Once you name your dream, you can say, okay, this is my dream. When will I work on this? You know, how will I protect this? Um what do I need to give up to accomplish this? And what will I stop making excuses for or apologizing for? Um, how how am I gonna take, how am I gonna gather the courage to take the next bold step? So dreams don't need inspiration. You you already have that. It's already in your heart. They need infrastructure. Um, this is gonna borrow from business. I'm not as good at remembering business quotes as my um husband is. Um, but um, you know, I remember riding in the car, and we were the whole cars full of I don't know how many kids we had, five, six kids. We're coming back from a uh retreat that we had planned with a bunch of college students, and we were listening to business concepts in the car, and and Peter Thiel came up, and the concept was if you have a 10-year plan, ask yourself, why can't you do it in six months? Not because you will, but because the question exposes what's possible when you remove excuses. Okay, if it's really important to me, this dream that I have, uh why does it gotta take 10 years? How can it take six months? How can I, how can it, if I win the lottery, can it be done tomorrow? What do I need to shift and change in my life to actually make this dream possible? You know, and to make it a little bit more spiritual, if you look at Proverbs 16, 3, it says, commit to the Lord whatever you do, and he will establish your plans. If if it's a good dream, if it's a dream that's morally correct, that that's come from this deep, cosmic, universal space where you're like, this is what I was made and born to do, then God himself, he's the one that gave you the dream. So he will help you establish those plans. But first you gotta accept the assignment and you gotta say, hey, yes, I agree. This is this is the dream. This is what I want to do with my life. This is what I want to make sure to do with my life, or at least start to set up before I die. You know, when you go start into this dream though, you're gonna have this wilderness season. There's the there's a whole season where the ground is quiet and you're you're digging in the ground and you're tearing up roots and you're and you're uprooting things and rearranging things, and and nobody can see the growth except for you. And sometimes you can't even see the growth, and that's a really hard season. Um, that season does come to an end, which is super exciting, but nobody's clapping for you. This is the part where you know you name your dream, and people say, that's crazy, or I don't really see you doing that, or that doesn't sound like you. It's okay if it doesn't sound like you because they don't know that this is a part of yourself that you haven't yet revealed to the world, right? So there is going to be the need for quiet, unseen work. You know, for me to be able to get six kids to all the different sports they do, I do 14 loads of laundry a week. Like if you come to my house in my life, you can see on my social media that my kids and my family and everything were doing like these big crazy adventures. But what you don't see is the really boring part, you know, it's the like staying up late, nursing a baby, and typing a screenplay at 11 o'clock at night when everybody else is asleep. You know, it's it's crying in the car because all the kids decided to take a nap in the driveway, and you're not anywhere near, you know, the the chores that you have to accomplish. And and it's also like the learning curve, you know, the very first worst lesson I showed up for, I was wearing uh fashion boots from Kohl's and leggings from Target, and I don't even know what my helmet was. I I didn't care, I was just there. I showed up for my dream. It took so much effort. I it took years, it actually took me 10 years to be able to afford to take a $30 horse lesson and have my daughter in two hours of um preschool care and to not be in the middle of a pregnancy. So for me showing up wearing the wrong thing, riding a horse like a sack of potatoes, I didn't film it, nobody knew it, nobody saw it except for me and my trainer, but I was there, I was showing up for my dream. And so there's this just like really messy part, and that's where God's building the character that you need to go to the next section. I always say, like um achieving a dream, it's like unlocking levels of a video game. I suck at video games, I don't play video games, but my kids play a lot of video games. And, you know, you yes, there are cheat codes, but oftentimes you'll arrive. Um, kind of like I love the um the movie Big Fish, you know, where he actually does cheat codes. He arrives at his destination too early and he's not ready for the dream. He's not ready for the gift yet. So he's got to kind of go back to square one and work his way back up towards the dream. So, you know, these these wilderness times, these I don't see the vision is I'm losing the vision. How will this ever be accomplished? That's just as important and just as valuable and rich as achieving the dream itself. You know, it's it's it's not a punishment, it's preparing you for whatever it is. And sometimes it's preparing you for the next thing that's beautiful, and sometimes it's preparing you for something that's even harder and more difficult or bigger stewardship. Um and uh regardless, it should be preparing you for beauty and poetry if you have the right mindset. So it's it's not a sign that you're failing to be in this wilderness part, it's a sign that you are building. When you're building a building, it looks like a hot mess. You know, people can't see. I am doing something really cool. I remember when we laid the foundations for our house, everybody were like, What are you building? A hotel? And I was like, you know, it's just masses of concrete for 10,000 square feet. And I was like, kind of building a hotel, but it's actually much cooler and more beautiful than that. And you're gonna come in and you're gonna be welcome and you're gonna see what it is that I'm actually doing. But it's gonna take another four years, probably. It did take another four years until I was able to welcome people in and show them everything that I had prepared for them to welcome them as guests. So, this show, this this podcast that I'm I'm presenting to the world, it's it's one of my dreams. I've actually been working towards it for for years. And today is the day I said, um, I'm not waiting for tomorrow. Today is the day. I I don't have a million years left. I'm 47 years old. Today is the day that I share my dream, this podcast, but also share some of the dreams that I've been doing. And it's this show is about structure, it's about clarity, it's about discipline, and it's about long-range thinking. I'm I love a good, long-range plan. I love a good, long-range, patient, persistent goal. And maybe you do too. These aren't, these aren't the dreams of like, what should we do today for fun? Although that can be a thing. This is about how do I build something purposeful and meaningful and poetic with my life that's in alignment with what God's calling me to do. So I'm gonna walk you through the frameworks that I use to build a writing career, a high capacity family, multiple businesses, um, and and just a life aligned with calling and purpose, where people say, Oh, yes, of course, that matches. I love those um, you know, like absolutely yes moments where you don't even need to think about saying yes to the opportunity because it so matches who you are and what you love. But that takes again a naming of the dream and this long wilderness as you kind of build yourself up to who that version is. So this show is is um, I'm gonna do some sharing for my own life, but I'm also gonna bring on guests who've built something real and not just talked about it. And I'm I'm not, it's not like, oh, I'm gonna pull this celebrity and that celebrity, although I might. I have like I love the rich tapestry of people who are achieving beautiful, beautiful, tiny poetic moments um in the ordinariness of life. And then I love the big flashy dreams. So I'm gonna try to introduce you to some of my friends who have who have come spoken out their dream that God gave them and then lived that out and and kind of break down how they did it. So um it this show is about building a life that can hold like the the weight, the the the legacy of a spiritual, emotional, and practical dream. And because your dream that you have in your heart that hasn't been accomplished yet, it it's not impossible. It's it's just unstructured, and you might be a little bit afraid, and that's okay because structure is something you have control over, structure is something that you can build and expand if you're crazy enough. So the next time I'm gonna tell you the story of one of the very first dreams I ever built from scratch and the blueprint behind it. But for today, this is so simple. It's actually not, it's very scary. Uh, it can be scary. I was scared to do today's dream, but today I want you to go and name your dream out loud. You can name it to God, you can tell a trusted loved one, like your spouse or your kid or your best friend or your dog or your chickens. Um and then what else is important is to write it down somewhere. There's something about how our brain, not not just type it down, but like write it down physically. Create an art piece if you want to go crazy, but say that dream in your heart. Dare to say it out loud and give a voice. To the dream that God's placed in your life because it's the first step in building the life that He's called you to create. See you next time. Thank you so much for listening to the Dream Blueprint. If this show is helping you build a life that makes sense, subscribe and share it with someone who's ready to do the same. Remember, your dream is a blueprint, and you are meant to build it. Let's build your dream into something real.