Are You Following Your Dreams?
19:00
Photo credit: LukeDetwiler / Foter / CC BY
A while back, I wrote a post in which I asked an important question: do you believe in your dreams? A lot of dreams seem impossible because we can’t quite bring ourselves to believe in them. I’ve actually been thinking a lot about my dreams recently. In just over six weeks, I will be completing my final semester at university. Very soon, I’ll be holding a degree, staring at the rest of my life, and trying to work out how to make this whole adulting thing work. And I’ve been thinking, what do I want to do with my life? What dreams do I have? And what can I do to achieve them?
I think everyone has at least one dream. For us writers, many
of us dream of publishing a book, meeting a famous author, working in the
industry they love, or making a living from their writing. Or maybe they love
writing, but they have other dreams as well. But a lot of the time, even when
we have dreams that are near and dear to us, we never get on to doing anything
about them. They stay as dreams, something we ache to do, but can’t bring
ourselves to try.
<
The problem is, a lot of dreams aren’t really ‘sensible’ dreams.
And when I say ‘sensible’, I mean ‘sensible’ by society’s standards. It’s not ‘sensible’
to dream of being published. It’s not ‘sensible’ to hope to make a living from writing.
And a lot of the time, because these dreams aren’t ‘sensible’, we don’t dare consider
following them. Is it really ‘sensible’ to dream about being a fulltime writer?
To hope to work as a freelance editor? To dream of being successful in a career
that doesn’t offer a steady paycheck?
No, it’s not.
Follow your dreams anyway.
Because there’s always something you can be doing towards
your dream, no matter how not sensible it might be. You might dream of making a
living from your writing. But that doesn’t mean that you have to jump in with
both feet right now. You can have a stable job and write on the side, pursue
that dream and make a living at the same time, while you’re building up a body
of work that will eventually support you. You might want to have a conventional
job, but do something creative on the side that isn’t quite ‘sensible’. You can
start that now. It’s ok to follow those dreams.
A little while back, I was watching this video, listening to a speech indie music
artist Peter Hollens gave at a graduation ceremony at the University of Oregon,
and in it, among many other inspiring, motivating thoughts, he offered this gem
of wisdom. “Don’t overthink it”. Many dreams never get their start because we
think about it too much. We convince ourselves that we don’t have a chance,
that it’s never going to be feasible for us to follow this dream because it’s
not sensible. It’s risky. You might not make it. What if you fail?
Stop.
You have a dream in you. It might not be ‘sensible’. It
might be risky. People might think you’re crazy for even considering following
it. Follow it. It might not be feasible now, but if you work hard, it might be
in the future. You may have to give up all your spare time to it. You may have
to work a boring job to support yourself until you manage it. You may have to
push on in the face of discouragement from family and friends. But there’s always
a way to follow your dreams. And no one should ever stop you from trying to do
what you love the most. It might not be a ‘sensible’ dream. But it’s your
dream. And in the end only you can stop yourself from following it.
So, what do you dream of doing? How are you following your
dreams? Do you have a dream that is crazy, risky, and totally wonderful? What
do you think about following your dreams?
6 comments
Very inspiring post! I definitely agree with you, especially when you said that you might have to do your creative work on the side at first. Sometimes we think that just because we can't be super successful right away we think we should quit. I think if you enjoy something creative, you should continue to pursue it simply because you love it.
ReplyDeleteGood luck with graduating:D
Exactly right! A lot of people have told me that it's not sensible to follow what you want to do in most creative paths because you're not assured of being able to be successful, or that you'll have money. But I've always believed that you shouldn't be put off by that. There's always a way around, and if you're following your dreams, making sacrifices like working a boring job for a while is worth it because you're also doing what you love.
DeleteThank you for this, Imogen. ^ ^ I'm aspiring to be an author for a career and working hard at it, but since I'm not published yet, it's a bit hard especially since I've been pursuing it so long. I feel like I'm so close and my calling is to write, but sometimes I get discouraged while working and waiting for something to happen.
ReplyDeletestoritorigrace.blogspot.com
Writing is one of those careers that take a long time to really see any progress because it takes so long to write a book. I can definitely empathise with this. I've been feeling a bit discouraged myself recently. It's important, I think, to take a step back sometimes and just remember that it's taking a while, but you're still making progress towards your dreams.
DeleteI am going to shave this for a time to be motivated... like, I mean, I need to be motivated now. But later when I want to procrastinate and be motivated at the same time. XD Still, it's really difficult to sometimes get through this all, so you have done well to remind me my dreams are still awaiting, even if they are far away. *sigh*
ReplyDeleteI have all these videos and a whole bunch of quotes and things saved for the times when I really need to get motivated and stop procrastinating too. It's useful to have a stock of motivational things sometimes, isn't it? I'm glad I could remind you to keep dreaming. Some days they really do seem so far off, don't they?
Delete