Chasing Dreams
We all have dreams and aspirations, but few ever reach them.
You may believe that you can never reach your dreams because you don’t have enough money, have a dysfunctional family, not smart enough, not enough time, too old, too young, etc. You can always blame your circumstances. Do successful people ever blame their circumstances? You may argue that successful people were in the right circumstances to succeed, but there will be many who battled through more difficult situations than you are currently in.
If you don’t feel like your circumstances are great and believe it isn’t your fault, accepting responsibility for your current position in life is an excellent place to start. From there, it is much easier to make progress; blaming others for your situation does not invite improvement. You’ll just get stuck thinking about how you could have had a better life if it weren’t for reason X. You’ve made decisions in your life which have got you to your current position, now you need to start making decisions which will push you towards your aspirations and leave your past behind.
I believe that everyone can make a conscious and committed decision to improve. There is a sharp difference between making a decision and making a committed decision. Not making a committed decision to grow in an area you want to improve in is merely a wishful thought. You’ll think about how you’d like to improve in that area, but never really get anywhere, or give up when you reach the first hurdle. Making the committed decision to change is where you actively pursue what you want and persist when the going gets tough. Commitment to changes often have a lot of emotion behind them, and keeping that emotion up is a cornerstone to keeping it up. Self-discipline is also key to holding yourself to your past decisions. Sometimes a crisis will force people to make a commitment to change, though you definitely don’t need a crisis to inspire proper change.
Perhaps you want to be rich, famous, impactful, or just live a happy life. So, what have you done over the last week to push you towards your dreams? Often people will say none or very little. If you aren’t actively pursuing your ambitions, then they’re nothing more than a wish, that likely won’t ever be granted. If little to no progress towards your dreams has been made in the last month, then a committed decision to change has not been made.
You can ask yourself at the beginning of each day: “What can I do today to push me towards my goals, dreams, and aspirations?” And at the end of each day: “What have I done today to progress my major goals and dreams?” Introspection by asking questions like these will make you realise how much progress you are making. Yes, you may be unable to make progress every single day due to time commitments you have made, if that’s the case, then you can look at these questions over each week rather than on the difficult days.
Consider the analogy that life is a river, and you slowly float down the river in your own little boat. Some people tend to be guided more by the currents of circumstance, taking them in whatever direction the current goes. When a fork in the river appears, they’ll just be taken down whichever route the flow of the river takes them in. Some will put their paddle in the water to steer them a bit better but won’t have that much control. Some will start paddling to avoid the currents and to go where they really want to go, rather than letting the current push them to situations that they’d rather not be in. And some will really put effort into paddling and won’t allow a small crash into the riverbank to get them down, every day they’ll be putting in the struggle necessary to get them to where they want to go.
With this analogy in mind, consider comparing it to your own life. Are you letting the currents of the river and the wind in the air control your direction and progress, thinking that putting in the effort to paddle isn’t worth it? Are you content with where you are and are happy to sit in a tranquil part of the river, only putting in the effort to change if you start drifting too far? Have you crashed into the riverbank and don’t know how to get back on track, or can’t find a good enough reason to? Or have you picked up the paddle and are putting in the effort to guide your life in the best possible direction that you can currently see? It may be time to really pick up the paddle and make a committed decision to change. You don’t want to crash into the rocks, nor do you want to drown. Don’t let the currents of circumstance control you.
If you’ve decided you really want to paddle, then when will you start? Are you going to think that you’re not strong enough to paddle yet, or you believe that your current paddle is too small? Notice when you’re blaming circumstance for not doing something, even when you can change things if you put in the effort. If you put in the effort, you’ll eventually get to where the grass is greener, or at least somewhere better than if you crashed your boat and gave up. The time to start paddling is now.