dreams

I've touched on this subject briefly over the past 18 months or so that I've been writing this blog, but how important are your dreams to you? Do you know what they are? If you had an unlimited amount of money, what would be the first thing you did? Are you making progress towards the things you want in life?

Dreams can come in all shapes and sizes. Owning your own home. Starting a family. Getting that new job or new promotion. You name it, and there's someone out there who is desperately hoping for it right now.

My dreams range from simple and easily achievable to most likely never going to happen. I'm trying to lose weight, that's easily achievable and simple. In fact, I've already done it. That's a simple matter of focus.

I'd like to write a novel. That's iffy. I can write - especially in fiction format. Anything I've ever written and shown to my friends has been very highly received. I have ideas. It's a big commitment, though, and for one reason or another I've never really been able to fully commit. I'm not sure if it's because deep down I don't believe in myself as strongly as I need to, or what. This is an iffy proposition.

If I had an unlimited amount of money - I'd quit my job and travel the world for no less than a year. I'd see anything and everything I could. Now here is where things get a little wild. I don't exhibit this in normal life. I don't do a lot of traveling as is. I have anchors. My dog. My job. My house. But this is my #1 life goal. This is what I want for myself. The six months I lived abroad were the happiest six months of my life. Reality is, it's probably not going to happen. I have fallback scenarios and ways in which I could talk myself into getting rid of everything and doing it (and no I would never get rid of Jack - this is something I'm considering doing around 35 - when Jack will mostly likely be going to a farm upstate. Can I say that if I live upstate? I don't know). I always kind of kept this a secret but I've mentioned it to a few people so I might as well just say it. If I'm not married and dog-less by the time I'm 35, I'm probably gonna quit my job, sell nearly everything I own and take off for a year. That's a lot of ifs, though, right?

It's funny. The things I've "achieved" haven't really been things I was working towards. The story of how I bought my house is kind of a joke. No one would rent to me because of Jack's mildly scary appearance. I just called a real estate agent on a whim one day, they took me to visit 10 houses and the same day I was approved for a mortgage of up to $150,000. Just like that. I made an offer on a house and closed in 6 weeks. Zero dollars down! A few months later, it was nearly impossible to get a mortgage. Lucky, in a sense. But I never dreamed of having my own house one day - I just sort of fell into it.

The point I'm making is that even though I've done things that people would consider big wins, I feel like I've done and have been doing a poor job in working towards the things I want most out of life. It's easy to fall into a routine and do what you're supposed to do. But I'm going to make a more conscious effort to be the person I want to be; to do the things that I want to do. And I hope everyone who reads this will stop and consider it and wind up doing the same.