Without leaps of imagination or dreaming, we lose the excitement of possibilities. Dreaming, after all is a form of planning.

Steinem links imagination to agency: “leaps” and “dreaming” are not escapist luxuries but the mental work that makes change conceivable. If we stop imagining, we also stop feeling the “excitement of possibilities”—the emotional fuel that sustains long projects like social reform or personal reinvention. Her closing line reframes dreaming as pragmatic: envisioning a different future is an early stage of planning, because it clarifies desires, expands the range of options, and helps set direction before tactics are chosen. The quote fits Steinem’s broader feminist emphasis on consciousness-raising—changing what people believe is possible as a prerequisite to changing institutions.