What Is the American Dream? Dreaming, Meaning, and a Growth Mindset

One of the key aspects of the American Dream is the dreaming itself. We can’t pursue the American Dream and try to fulfill our human potential if we don’t have a dream in the first place.

That dream is ultimately the search for meaning in life—the pursuit of happiness itself as the Declaration of Independence said almost 250 years ago. It is trying to live “the good life” as described by philosophers like Aristotle millennia ago. It is having a vision for your life that motivates you to get up every day and pursue that dream. And once you have the idea of the dream, taking aim and action to pursue it is one of the most important next steps. As one of my favorite quotes by Denzel Washington says: “Dreams without goals are just dreams.” So taking action is certainly a must—but more on that in a separate post.

Before taking aim and action, we need to first understand how meaning in life motivates us and also how the environment around us can shape a more positive or negative vision of our future. Meaning and environment are what motivate us to even dream in the first place . . . and then to act on it.

Let’s start with meaning in life. “Meaning” is one of the most important elements of the definition of the American Dream by James Truslow Adams as it fuels the pursuit of a better, richer, and fuller life from different perspectives. One of the most important aspects of that definition—the pursuit of a fuller life—involves achieving fulfillment guided by personal meaning and purpose. But even if we pursue a more tangible or “material” dream, there is still a sense of fulfillment around achieving it that is distinctly related to the philosophical freedom of choice in how to live. Finding fulfillment in material wealth could mean to us that we have been successful entrepreneurially or through employment because we’ve been able to purchase a house or nice car, been able to save for a good retirement, or have been able to use our material wealth to travel the world and live a more comfortable life.

In the case of achieving a “better life,” meaning is certainly present as well. For example in our pursuit of a good family life, it is often in the pursuit of seeing our children’s success that we as parents achieve our own meaning with their success as proof that we have raised them well. Or even if one doesn’t have children, one can find meaning in enabling a better life for others by serving in the community, donating to worthwhile causes, or inventing a lifesaving drug that helps people live longer lives. So, meaning drives many of those pursuits of the American Dream.

In our day-to-day lives, having meaning and purpose in life motivates us to take action. Viktor Frankl discussed this at length in his book, Man’s Search for Meaning. In his case he didn’t have an American Dream, but there was a meaning in his life that motivated him to survive the concentration camps and never lose sight of what was most important to him: freedom of thought and the ability to control one’s own agency in how he or she chooses to face a situation. Most of us won’t have the same obstacles as Viktor Frankl faced, but a deep sense of meaning for one’s own life can certainly help people persevere and overcome obstacles on their way to achieving their own dreams.

The pursuit of meaning in life is part of our existential nature as human beings. As my colleague Clay Routledge reminds us, we’re an existential species that is always in search of meaning. And once we find what we want that meaning to be, we take action to pursue it. This is why believing that we can dream and trying to achieve our dream can be summarized as having existential agency. According to Routledge, existential agency is “the belief that one has the power to find, maintain, and restore meaning in life.”

You see it in various people who are chasing their own dreams in different facets of life. People are motivated by existential questions, and they want to contribute to their own families, to their societies, or to the world at large. They are motivated to start a business that is solving a societal problem and a need in the market. They are inventing a lifesaving treatment for cancer motivated by something that happened to a family member. They are motivated by beauty in science to unveil the bigger mysteries in life. Or their American Dream motivates them to write a book and leave a legacy for future generations. Meaning in life and existential agency are a driving force of the American Dream.

After understanding the necessity for “meaning” in order to pursue an American Dream, we also must understand the necessity for a growth mindset. A growth mindset certainly varies according to the individual, but each of us needs to work individually to develop grit, resilience, and a sense that we’re able to fall forward, facing and overcoming obstacles in our way on the road to achieving our American Dream. A big part of it, as we just discussed, is related to having meaning in life and being motivated by it. But it is also affected by the social environment and how much we think we’re in control of our own lives or are affected by external factors. For example, coming back to Routledge’s work, he reminds us that

when people are anxious or fearful, they become more defense-oriented and less growth-oriented. This means they become more vigilant against potential harms (physical, social, psychological, and economic) and thus less motivated to take the kinds of risks that lead to new discoveries and ventures. Indeed, research finds that the more anxious people are, the less likely they are to engage in entrepreneurial activities. It also means they become more rigid in their thinking and less tolerant of people they disagree with. More broadly, a defensive mindset undermines many of the psychological characteristics that help free societies flourish such as curiosity, creativity, agency, and optimism.

This certainly applies to pursuing the American Dream. When you’re pursuing it, you certainly need many, if not all, of those positive psychological characteristics. The problem is that if in our public discourse we hear from many of our leaders—such as politicians, journalists, and academics— repeated proclamations that the American Dream is dead, if we’re told every day that there are structural barriers that will stand in the way of achieving our dreams, that climate change is an existential risk that will destroy us any day now, or even that AI will soon steal all of our jobs, we become more defense-oriented and not growth-oriented. And in that sense our capacity or willingness to have an American Dream in the first place, let alone pursue it, is certainly hindered. The environment around us can make or break our capacity and willingness to dream and have a growth mindset, which are key ingredients for the American Dream.

Despite potential obstacles tied to the current pessimistic narrative surrounding the American Dream, challenges that remain in the United States, and the seeming decline of the American Dream as a viable goal, the United States continues to be the best place in the world to have a dream, find meaning, develop a growth mindset, and strive to achieve it.

It is easier to dream big dreams because we’re standing on the shoulders of giants who have dreamed before us and have shown us a path forward. From the settlers who first came to the United States, to the Founding Fathers who dreamed of a land where people could be free to pursue a meaningful life, to successful entrepreneurs who removed barriers so others could start their own businesses, to civil rights leaders who fought to remove legal and social barriers for many of our citizens—the examples of American Dreamers are numerous.

Americans can and do act in ways that maintain the fuel to keep the American Dream alive and well. Immigrants coming in search of opportunity end up refueling the dream with their own endeavors when the flame of the dream runs thin for some. The engine of markets and capitalism enable more opportunities as the United States is still the most entrepreneurial and innovative economy in the world, despite obstacles and challenges facing her. America is still a nation of dreamers who believe the American Dream is a unifying narrative for those fortunate enough to be here.

And because of all these reasons we can change the public narrative and perception about the American Dream and our ability to overcome any challenge in our way, so we can provide a better environment that fosters more growth-oriented people who ultimately act as a positive feedback loop for more people to believe in and find meaning through their own pursuit of the American Dream.

Let us close this post with more wisdom from Routledge:

For a free society to flourish, it needs to be populated with mentally healthy and growth-oriented individuals. It needs to be populated with people who believe in themselves, their fellow citizens, and the institutions that support freedom and opportunity. It needs to be populated with action-oriented individuals who are inspired to roll up their sleeves and work hard to improve their own lives and make positive contributions to their families, communities, and broader society. It needs to be populated with people who have an optimistic attitude about the future.