I've always felt like wonderful changes happen during that seasonal twilight time between spring and summer. People get new jobs, move to new homes, buy new cars, start new school adventures, new babies arrive, new wedding bells ring, and so forth. It's all very exciting and exhilarating to say the least.
Thanks to social media it's that much easier to share these exciting moments with friends and family--Also makes it that much easier to send your heartfelt congratulations! And that much easier to think about your own life changes.
Over the past week I've seen people reach some exciting milestones and it's made me that much more thoughtful about my own future. Something about seeing another person's success makes you pause to think about your own and that train of thought can go one of two ways; either you take a negative turn wondering why your ship hasn't come in or you find the inspiration in someone's excitement to swim out there to your floating future.
I've chosen to take the latter which, honestly, isn't always the easiest choice. Sometimes it's easier to be consumed by the gloom. The negativity that follows that can be draining and tiresome. At some point it's time to get out of that irritating gray bubble and say, "Hey Life! I'm ready for something different!" To make a change, you have to put forth the effort.
Somehow seeing everyone's hard work turn into dreams realized has inspired me to put a little more effort into making my own dreams a reality. The catch is that you have to know what is your dream. What is your ultimate goal? Once you define that, make a plan, sketch it out. Figure out what is it you have to do to make it happen and then do it.
But it gets hard. You get derailed. Life gets in the way and then you start to find any and all excuses that keep you from working towards what you want. Is that really Life that's getting in your way or your own self? Are you scared to take that leap of faith, jump off your starting point, and start flying?
So many times I wonder "how did a person get there?" and "how did they do that?". Questions like"why isn't/hasn't that happened for me" and the inevitable "what am I doing wrong" seem to plague me as I see others hit goals and achieve their personal "impossible" moment. If I'm honest with myself, truly and brutally honest about why I haven't met a goal or done something yet, it's more than likely that I haven't worked hard enough for it yet.
The other side of that coin is that dreams can change--that's the lovely thing about dreams, you can have so many different ones and you can change them any time you want because they're yours. If you've had a lifelong dream and over the course of time it changes and shifts, well, that's perfectly normal. Except that most of the driven and focused people in the world find this incredible difficult to start.
I can't describe the sheer terror of admitting out loud that your personal goal has changed. Especially if it's a long term goal you've worked your whole life to achieve, told everyone about, and circled your whole life around. It's a familiarity that can be difficult to let go of for a new dream not yet explored. Hopefully if you're going through that, you have someone who can support you and reassure you that dreams change and if this new dream is what makes you happy, then so be it!
It sounds eerily cryptic and I'm sure you're thinking perhaps I'm in the midst of discovering new goals or a new career path, but I'm not. I'm just thinking through all the changes I've seen happen for friends, all the changes that are going to happen for them, and it's made me reflect upon my own goals and dreams. Do I really have set goals or am I floating through my days? Am I working as hard as I can towards the things I want or only day dreaming about the future success I hope to have? Do I really know what I want and if I do, how can I stay focused?
I get so off track sometimes and other moments I feel like I've worked so hard to hardly move at all. Instead of getting down and feeling beaten before I've even gotten up, I'm choosing to start again. I'm choosing to refocus, redefine, and restart on a good foot. I'm going to let the success of others inspire me to do better and fuel my fire to make my goals. I'm not going to wet-blanket ideas and I'm not going to complain and I'm not going to stop simple because my fleeting efforts haven't panned out. No more complaining and no more comparing.
I'm going to make something happen for myself and it starts today! But first, a big cup of coffee to get me rolling!
If you want to make your dreams come true, the first thing you have to do is wake up. -J.M. Power