I'm tired of dreaming. I really am. I'm tired of talking about all the great things my friends and I are going to do. I'm ready to do it now.
The greatest speech ever given on dreaming is the one titled I Have a Dream but what makes Dr. King's speech so incredible and influential is that he died for his dream. This wasn't just something he sat around in the comforts of his living room talking to his close friends about. This was something they woke up every morning to work on and went to sleep every night preparing to continue that work. The men who marched alongside Dr. King who are still alive today, like Rev. Jesse Jackson, Rev Joseph Lowery and Andrew Young continue working on the dream they all shared.
The dreams I have with some of my close friends are amazing. We discuss ways we want to seriously and permanently impact the world we live in; however, I can't help but notice how it's ALWAYS somewhere out in the future and so rarely up close and personal. "When I get my degree" (even though all of us have at least a bachelor's) or "when I make real money" or "after I quit this job." I'm just as guilty of it as they are. I imagine what I'll do with that Master's in 3 years and how all my friends with JDs, MDs, and MBAs will be able to help me with my goal.
I can't help but notice people my age and younger than me who are living their dreams. I could sit here and outline all the opportunities they may have had that I didn't, but I'd either be exaggerating or outright lying.
I wrote a grant in high school (read more about what happened to it here) that was successfully funded. My idea was to bring the "at-risk" youth we tutored every day back to my high school's campus and expose them to team-building activities as well as cerebral activities all designed to help pull out their leadership potential. This is right along the lines of what I still dream about doing. At 15 I had the opportunity to jump on it and I didn't. There were real roadblocks holding me up, but I allowed my own frustrations to stop me from pressing on.
I've pondered before on the difference between dreams and goals. Ultimately, I think dreams become goals through hard work. You wake up everyday and you do something to take you closer to making your dreams a reality; that work transforms a dream into a goal. I'm not doing enough, anymore, to make my dreams goals and it's starting to bother me.
This post came to mind because of a conversation I had with a friend. She's thought up a plan to help make her life less boring and she's super excited about it (which is saying a lot, because she, like me, rarely gets obviously excited) and I could tell she was a little bit disappointed that I'm not as excited. I try to be, but it becomes a drag to have people set up this great plan and then not follow through as she's done numerous times. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that I'm tired of having these "in the future" convos. I'm tired of dreaming and I'm ready for my dreams to become a reality.
Now the question is: what am I going to do about it?
3 comments:
Gosh, this has been a recurring theme in my life for the past 5 years or so. Great ideas, but little or no action. This year I decided that I'd either do something about it or continue to work for someone else and not complain because it's ultimately my choice.
I ended up hiring a coach and I can honestly say that she's a god-send. Not only did I realize the route I planned to take was the "safe" option, but I also learned a great deal about myself and what I'm truly passionate about. Learning these things have been the turning point I so needed. It's never too late to start, the follow-through is always the catch.
What are you going to do about it? That's the real question but when you ask yourself that you take it too far like you have to quit your job, or start a business or go march on washington.
Its just baby steps towards your goal. Whether that be reading,gathering data or volunteering in a organization similar to the one you want to set up.
Only a couple of people make the big change but the rest of us just take baby steps and sooner or later you become the dream!
CurvyGurl -- I hear life coaches are the business. I'm glad that worked out for you.
FreeMan -- You're right and on some level I understand that doing what I'm doing is me working towards my goals, but sometimes I feel like it's just lip service. We can't all take those monster leaps, but DANG!
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