Most dreams die because the dreamers can’t take the requisite and always terrifying step into the unknown. The best laid plans and sincerest intentions are no protection against the stomach-lurching sensation when you let go of the lifeline.

Cila Warnke is currently writing a book – THE BOOK, as she refers to it. Here’s her description: The Book tells the stories of people who refuse to go gently into the fiction of “normal” life. They have confronted all the usual excuses for saying “no” (children, illness, age, lack of opportunity) and with cheerful, bloody-minded determination said “yes” to their dreams. These quiet heroes know the secret of success is not money, power, or privilege, but passion, desire, and a willingness to take risks. They are, to borrow from Henry David Thoreau, living deliberately.

I am fortunate to be one of the cast, one of the people profiled in The Book. Cila has been posting snippets of her writing on her blog for a while and I love reading about the wonderful people she’s spoken with. But yesterday, when I read her newest installment about my story, this part hit me: “Most dreams die because the dreamers can’t take the requisite and always terrifying step into the unknown. The best laid plans and sincerest intentions are no protection against the stomach-lurching sensation when you let go of the lifeline.”

And that made me think. Do more dreams die due to fear of the unknown, or due to lack of money? I hear from many people who say one or the other, and I honestly don’t know the answer. I’d like to say that lack of money may delay a dream, but if you are committed to making the dream happen that hurdle can be overcome. Taking that terrifying step into the unknown, however, is more difficult in my mind. For those of us lucky enough to live in developed countries, it seems to me that we can make it happen if we work hard enough. I know that, for many people in less fortunate situations around the world, there is no way no matter how hard they work.

And so I ask you: Do more dreams die because of lack of money or because of the fear of the unknown? What do you think?

Nancy Sathre-Vogel is Mom to an adventurous family who will try just about anything; many times, they actually achieve what they set out to do. Their most recent success was biking from Alaska to Argentina, but there have been others too. And some failures in there as well. You can follow their adventures at www.familyonbikes.org/blog