On Dreams and Their Pursuit

“There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure.” - Paulo Coelho  

Dreams tend to be intangible. They have this ethereal quality that almost immediately makes them unreachable. In everyday life, if a person talks about chasing their dream, then they are usually dismissed as being unrealistic. You want to be a musician? Well good luck paying the bills. You want to be a movie director? You better know somebody and get a good job first. The problem is that true dreamers do not come along very often. Many people have dreams, but that is all that they are. Dreams just represent what would be done in a perfect world, not what can be done in real life. Comfortability is what traps people into believing this. The average person knows that to pursue their dreams they would most likely have to be uncomfortable and that is a very scary thought. Life, for the average person, is about maintaining a feeling of comfort and safety.

The good news for all the true dreamers out there is 99% of people are not willing to do what it takes to pursue their dreams. Therefore, they are pushed down a path that is not what they want. But comfortability is waiting on them at that job that they will end up hating. Typically, a person is willing to give up eight hours a day, five days a week so there is a regular paycheck coming in and there is no risk in losing that car, or that house, or that trip to Wendy's when they get off. What is being sacrificed to maintain this comfort? Everything. Happiness is not something that can be bought; it is a byproduct of doing what you love to do everyday. Happiness is not the end, it is the result of the means. It cannot be achieved. It is experienced every day in even the smallest of actions.

The great lie of capitalism says that if you go to school and get a great-paying job, then one day you can be happy once you have that car or house that you have always wanted. Once you have those things is when people will love and respect you. The truth is that the people that are going to love and respect you probably already do. This is not to say that capitalism is bad; it most certainly is a good thing. It just must be seen for what it truly is, which is opportunity. As humans, especially Americans, we have opportunity at our fingertips, but we are too busy chasing that next dollar to realize it. The trick to life is doing what you love to do every day. If you get to wake up and do what you love to do, and you can make a living doing that, then you are a success. In my opinion, that is the trick of life. Do not go and do something you are going to hate just because it pays better. Do what you love and get undeniably good at it! The money will follow.

“Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” 
― Confucius

Even more scary than being uncomfortable is being honest with yourself and trying to figure out what it is that you really love. It is much easier to just do what people tell you to do and go get a job that pays well. That doesn't take any self-evaluation. All that needs to be done is choose among the careers that are presented. Real work comes in looking inward and asking yourself the tough questions.

• What do I love to do?
• What interests me?
• What is important to me?
• How do I want to impact the people around me?

Once these questions are answered, the action questions can come. 

• How do I achieve this goal?
• What steps can I take NOW to move myself in the direction of this goal?
• Who in my sphere of influence can help me along this path?

The beautiful thing about this life is that it is set up for dreamers. The formula for achieving your dreams is very simple. Here are the steps:

1. Decide what your dream is.
2. Cut everything that is not helping you achieve this dream out of your life.
3. Develop a game-plan that includes action steps.
4. All that is left to do is continue down this new path with determination and not take no for an answer. 

This post is as much for me as it is for the people who read it. I hope it inspires you. If there is anything that I can do to help you achieve your dreams, do not hesitate to ask me. Everything at my disposal is at the disposal of fellow dreamers. Now get off this blog and get to work. Our time here is brief.