Episode 49 – What is your dream?

What do you see yourself doing for the rest of your life?

What would give you excitement every day

When you wake up?

What would keep you motivated, focused, energized,

Even when you run into challenges and roadblocks?

What gets your heart racing when you think about it?

What puts a smile on your face?

A swing in your step?

Don’t be disappointed if you don’t have anything l

If you don’t feel the energy I described

If nothing comes to mind

Don’t tune out

Not quite yet

Just because you cant think of anything doent mean there isn’t anything

And just because you think there isn’t anything, that doesn’t mean you have to just give in and live life without passion

 

It just means that you have not explored it yet

True – some people know early on what they burn for

And they follow this path their entire life

And that’s ok if you are not one of them

But deep inside we all have one or more things we love to do, that is meant for us

And when I say “meant for us” I mean its meant to fulfill us

Its our thing

Its where we flourish

 

• At some point in our life we have across our dreams
• We did something we loved
• We were interested in something
• Or we even tried it and loved it

 

• Unfortunately, we often dismiss these inspirations
• It happens either early one led by our parents and friends that encourage us to be reasonable
• Or later, when we are forced to make a living and have hectic schedules
• Or, when we unsuccessfully tried out one of these dreams and now we are discouraged
• We have pushed it aside
• The passion for a sport because of an injury
• The admiration for art because everyone knows artists are poor
• The talent for helping and inspiring people because people told us we are too loud, to bold, to aggressive

 

Dreams get crushed for a million reasons and a million times each day

Here are a few reasons as to why this happens or why it happened

And a deeper exploration of these reasons and how to turn them around today

 

First of all –

1. we make an incorrect association between our dreams and making a living

• we think passion and making money have to be inclusive
• and if our reasonable mind cannot connect the 2, then we often disregard the dream in favor of making money
• its understandable – we have to pay for rent and make a living
• but our dream is often forgotten in the process
• consider this:
  • your dream can lead to something that sustains you, you just may not be able to see it at the beginning
  • it can also be something that will never sustain you fully, but you can do it alongside something that does
  • your dream doesn’t need to become a fulltime job
  • people get this confused.

 

The next issue that pushes our dream away is this:

2. we shy away from the work and effort it would require

• very understandable
• some of our passions can be time-consuming endeavors
• think of writers, painters, coders, musicians,
• the learning and developing of a craft takes time
• but by doing so, you are building your dream
• by shying away from the work, you are basically saying to your life: I am fine with a mediocre life. I don’t want a grand life.
• We settle for comfort instead of applying effort
• Yup – unfortunately we all have that tendency
• Nobody wants to waste their time on something that’s not guaranteed, something that we may fail at
• Think again
• Trading a boring and monotonous life for a potentially amazing one?
• Don’t feel bad – I fall into this category
• I went for safety and security instead of passion
• I was at the junction to pursue something I really wanted to do
• But I went the save route
• So many of us do
• Good thing is – our life is not over yet
• We have tons of time to turn it around

And lastly:

3. we cant see it

• we deem it either to risky
• or we cannot see it grow into anything
• we are fascinated with a small aspect of it, but don’t see the whole picture
• one reason is – we lack imagination or knowledge
• to this I say:
• grow your mind
• educate yourself about your dream,
• look what’s out there
• learn, and grow, and challenge yourself
• masters of their craft were not born that way – they spent hours and hours doing what made them great
• another reason we cannot see it is – we don’t have the support network that a dream requires
• we hang out with people that cannot relate to this aspect of ourselves
• this is often a limiting factor that holds people back from pursuing anything
• they think they are weird or don’t want to be an outsider
• sadly this happens often to children and teenagers that just happen to have the wrong friends
• to this I say:
• find people that challenge you
• find people you can look up to, that push your forward, that you can learn from
• these are the people that may tell you something that’s uncomfortable or that you don’t like
• but that’s what you need to grow
• there is a difference between people pulling you down and people pushing you to become better
• try to see the difference next time you don’t like something your friend told you
• if you don’t have friends that share your passion, find at least one
• take a class and connect with someone there, go to a Meet-up.
• I bet There is a meet-up for any interest out there
• It’s the easiest place to meet people
• You go once and if you don’t like it you don’t have to go back.
• Most of them are free so you don’t loose anything but an hour of your time
• Just because you cannot see your dream coming to fruition doesn’t mean it wont
• I have said this many times on previous episodes:
• When you start taking small steps, into the direction of your dream, things will start falling into place
• Doors will open, people will show up, opportunities will present themselves
• Remember the episode I did for my friend?
• A few weeks ago he was completely lost.
• Then he started talking to a company regarding work
• And the last update I got was – he is talking to a second company now regarding similar work
• When you Start moving, things around you will move too

 

So – let me repeat what I said at the beginning:

 

What do you see yourself doing for the rest of your life?

What would give you excitement every day

When you wake up?

What would keep you motivated, focused, energized,

Even when you run into challenges and roadblocks?

What gets your heart racing when you think about it?

What puts a smile on your face?

A swing in your step?

 

Maybe something came to mind during this episode

If not, explore

Try out things

Do something new

I know you have an inkling, a thought, an idea

Pursue it.

Find your dream.

 

“It’s the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting.”
― Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist