Turn your "Wanna" Into a "Gonna"

​This past April I was blessed to have the opportunity to fly to Grand Rapids, Michigan for a conference. The conference was amazing, but it was the flight home that got me thinking about this blog post.
I flew on Southwest, you know, the no frills airline. It was a fairly short flight, so I only got a cup of soda and a small bag of trail mix. I guess I could have had more if I asked, but I try to not be a glutton when I am amongst strangers. When the drink and snack was served, it came with a small dessert napkin. It was the napkin that really caught my attention.

On one side of the napkin were the words, “Where will your wanna take you?”

My wanna-whata? “Where will your wanna take you?”

At first, I thought that was strange, but when you really think about it, we all have “wannas” in our lives. It makes perfect sense. We wanna go someplace, we “wanna” be something, We “wanna” do something, we “wanna” this and we “wanna” that. (I feel that Dr. Seuss could have had a field day with “wanna”.)

The idea of “wanna” is the beginning of visions, dreams, desires. These are good things. The Bible tells us that, “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” (Proverbs 29:18 KJV) It is a good thing to dream, to imagine what our lives could be. Our children dream of their future and what they “wanna” be when they grow up. It took me well into my adult life to figure out what I “wanna” be. When I was young it was to be a firefighter/paramedic. I made it to Intermediate EMT, but never made it to firefighter. (I guess that was a half-a-wanna-be) The “wannas” in our lives are what dreams are made of. And our dreams are what our realities can be. But we can’t fulfill our lives on “wannas”. We have to take the step up to the next level. Fortunately, I turned to napkin over.

The other side of the Southwest Airlines napkin completed the equation. “In 1971, a triangle scribbled on a napkin transformed a dream into an airline and a wanna into a gonna.”

Visions and dreams are great, but it is what we do with those visions and dreams that really matter. As I write this my wife and great niece are in the process of baking a cake. Prior to this they had the vision, dream, “wanna” of baking a cake. Had they not gotten up and into the kitchen, gathered the ingredients together, turned on the oven, and mixed everything together in the right proportions, they would not have turned the “wanna” into the “gonna”. In a little bit there will be a cake that we are “gonna” eat. The “gonna” creates the satisfaction of the finished product. If they only stayed on the “wanna” our stomachs would be empty and my taste buds would be terribly disappointed. The same can be true, will be true, if we leave the “wannas” on the drafting table. We take our visions and dreams and we put together a plan that will help us get to the “gonna” and beyond.

So, I ask, what is the “wanna” for your life, for your child’s life? What do you “wanna” be, where do you “wanna” go with your life? What dreams, visions do you have? Once you have a clear vision of your “wanna”, it is time to plan to turn the “wanna” into a “gonna”. Draft the plan, finalize the plan and make it happen. You can’t go anywhere on a “wanna”, but you will be fulfilled with the “gonna”. So, how are you going to turn you “wanna” into a “gonna”?