Why You Should Go For Your Wildest Dreams
Do you have a dream? It could be becoming a painter, buying a little run-down cottage and doing it up to make a stable cosy home. Would you like to give up a boring office job, and become a green architect? Or start an artisan vegan bakery, or organic veg box scheme?
Whether you dreams are big or small, it’s important to listen to that inner voice, and possibly start taking small steps, to make your wildest dreams a reality. It’s important to live in alignment with your values, as you’ll often then find that life ‘flows more smoothly’.
Learn to manage setbacks, and take small practical action steps, stop procrastinating, and take aim for your dreams. Most people give up at the first hurdle. Most people ‘can play a few chords on the guitar’, but not many keep training to become a professional. If you play ‘chopsticks’ on the piano but work in a mind-numbing shop job – what if you took lessons? In a few years, you could be tinkling the keys in a nice hotel lounge, likely a far nicer job!
Build Confidence Through Small Wins
Big dreams, start with small wins. Decide what you want to do, then take small steps to create your dream. If you’re 30 years old and hate your job and don’t like where you live, don’t just complain for 5 years. Over this time you could take a multi-year course to train in the job you would love.
You could put away most of your savings, to put down a mortgage on a little place in somewhere you would love to live. In half a decade, you could be a in home you love and doing a job you love. It’s possible!
Going for your dreams also softens regret. You don’t want to be in the same place in five years time, watching others live the life you want.
Open Doors to Amazing Opportunities
When you act on a dream, you step into rooms you would never enter otherwise. Mentors suddenly appear out of the woodwork, and the world expands. Because you are now a person who shows up, for what they want.
New paths often appear sideways, not straight ahead. A weekend ceramics class becomes a local stall, which becomes an online shop, which turns into a steady stream of custom orders. A blog attracts a podcast invite, then a freelance column, then a role with a community project.
Isa Chandra Moskowitz grew up in urban New York. She went vegan, then learned to cook for free, with lessons from fellow volunteers at her local ‘Food Not Bombs’ project, that cooks leftover food and distributes it for free to local people. Her cooking skills (and sassy wit) led her to produce online videos in her tiny city kitchen. Someone saw the show and liked it, and gave her a deal for her first cookbook.
That was around 20 years ago. The book became one of the best-selling vegan cookbooks of all time, she now has many more publications behind her, and used the funds to open her own vegan restaurant restaurant.
Discover Hidden Talents and Paths
In his books, Aussie Andrew Matthews writes that most people who have no aim in life, say it’s because they don’t really know what they are good at. He writes that it’s usually because they haven’t tried many things to be good at!
Visit the library or bookshop. What subjects do you always veer towards at aisles? That should give you a good indication of where your interests lie. Then think of how you could create skills aligned to your interests.
For instance, if you adore history (and some people do!), would you like to teach it? Or write about it? Or take part in local archaeological projects?
Gracie Morbitzer is a talented artist. She’s also a Catholic. So instead of painting images of things that don’t inspire or (or reading boring books about Catholic saints), she combined her love and skills, to produce Modern Saints, a book that updates the biographies of saints, along with her own unique art.
Ignore Naysayers and Trust Yourself
If you are surrounded by naysayers, then don’t tell them of your dreams, just work on them quietly in silence. There is freedom in this stance. You stop bending to please people who are not taking your risks. You start acting from conviction, which feels calm and strong. That calm carries into your work, your home, your health. It is a quieter life, and a truer one.
Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life? Mary Oliver
We either transform through experiencing the pain of what doesn’t work. Or through being brave enough to experience the beauty of what does work. The good news is, we can transform either way. Where could you let love lead you towards transformation, rather than waiting for hardship? Nancy Perry
