As the year turns, we dream. We dream of what we might have done this past year. More importantly, we dream of the future. We plan and set goals.

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My friend Michael Hyatt teaches an amazing process for this, and one of his key insights is “Dream big, even delusional, then dial it back a bit.”

But I have a counter-intuitive suggestion. The best way to achieve our dreams is to help others achieve their own. 

This idea did not originate with me. It’s right out of the Bible. In particular, we see it in the life of Joseph, the youngest son of the Israelite patriarch Jacob and Prime Minister of Egypt. 

Joseph the Immature Dreamer

Joseph is a dreamer, and his first two dreams center on himself. In chapter 37, he dreams he is a tall sheath of wheat, and all the other sheaves bow low before him. Then he dreams the sun, moon and stars are bowing down to him.

He reveals his dreams to his brothers. They resent his self-centeredness and sell him to roving slavetraders. Joseph ends up in Egypt and is thrown into prison.

This imprisonment is both physical and figurative. Joseph is behind bars, but he is also caught in the prison of the self. His own needs trap him. He is unable to appreciate and feel the needs of others.

We have all met people like the young Joseph. Everything is about them. They are friendly to you to the extent you can help them. Everyone else is a means to their end, which is themselves.

Joseph the Mature Dreamer

Ultimately, if they do not change, such people end up unhappy. They achieve little. As Rabbi Louis Mann once said, “A person wrapped up in himself makes a very small package.”

But then Joseph changes. We do not know what triggers it. Perhaps it was the time in prison. Perhaps it was simply growing up and maturing. But he begins to look outside of himself. And he begins to focus on other people’s dreams rather than his own.

The first example is in chapter 40, where one of Pharaoh’s servant asks Joseph about a strange dream he has. Joseph interprets it for him and helps the servant get back into Pharaoh’s good graces.

The servant had dreamed of getting out of prison and returning to work. Joseph helped him achieve it.

Joseph the Greatest Dreamer

Once he has returned to Pharaoh’s service, the servant helps Joseph, telling Pharaoh he knows a young Hebrew in prison who can interpret the dreams Pharaoh is having. Pharaoh calls for him, and Joseph is freed.

Then Pharaoh tells Joseph his dreams of seven thin cows eating seven fat cows, and seven thin heads of grain consuming seven healthy ones. Joseph interprets it, telling Pharaoh of the seven years of plenty followed by seven years of famine, and he advises Pharaoh on how to prepare for and survive it.

Joseph understood that Pharaoh’s ultimate dream was to help Egypt survive. And then Joseph helped him achieve it. And once again, Joseph benefits from his work. Pharaoh’s appoints him Prime Minister and gives him the authority to prepare Egypt to survive the famine.

Joseph has ascended from a lowly prisoner to the second-most powerful man in Egypt. His position ultimately allows him to save his family and bring them to safety in Egypt.  In helping Pharaoh’s achieve his dream, Joseph has achieved his own.

The late Zig Ziglar said  “You will get all you want in life, if you help enough other people get what they want.”  It was true for Joseph. And it is true for us.