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Let Loose Your Dreams
by Phoebe Fox
What would you be doing right now, if you
could choose to do anything in the world and there were no limitations on
your choice?
Imagine it: Money is no object, the world
is your oyster, you can go anywhere in the world and do anything you wish
to be doing. So what would you choose?
Funny, isn't it, how quickly the ideas leap
to mind; all the things you would do, if only you believed that
you could. While the list will surely look different for every
human being because our individual interests and talents and dreams are so
varied, one thing is certain: It won't take you ten minutes to fill up a
page with all the things you dream of doing.
So what's stopping you? The same thing that
stops most of us; we don't let our dreams loose from the list. Even when
we don't have the list down on paper, it takes no time at all to fill a
page with our unfulfilled dreams. Why is that? It is precisely because
we all have a list in our minds already. The list is always there,
waiting for us to pull something from the back burner to the front of our
consciousness, waiting for us to "get around to it", waiting for us to
feel ready, or waiting for us to believe that one dream from our list has
become possible at last.
"Who has the time to be out chasing their
dreams all over the world," you ask? You do. Look at it this
way: If you don't pursue your dreams, who will?
Pursuing your dreams doesn't have to mean
immediately quitting your job and leaving your family. We all have
financial and social responsibilities we must meet. It is not necessary
for you to jump off the deep end of the pool in order to get wet. It is
entirely possible to pursue your dreams a little at a time, while you are
still meeting your commitments.
You say you've always wanted to paint? Sign
up for an art class and begin painting in your spare time. Where will
those extra hours come from? Give up television, for a change. A person
may never realize how much time is given over to that box of lights and
wires, as Edward R. Murrow described it, until one sees what solid things
can be accomplished when that time is used in doing something
constructive.
Perhaps you feel inspired to become a chef
by the spate of cooking shows that abound on television these days. Sign
up for a cooking class, or enroll in one of the many cooking programs
around the country. One does not have to go to Paris in order to become a
great chef; there are several world-renowned chef schools right here in
these United States. Check it out, and go for it.
The beauty of signing up for a single class
is that it lets you get a taste of what actually performing the
skill of your dreams will be like. You may find that the reality is a bit
different than you imagined, and that alone may make your decision of
whether to actively pursue that particular dream (or not) much easier.
Human beings tend to dream of how the romantic ideal of a thing would
feel, while leaving out the nitty-gritty technical aspects of the craft.
Imagining oneself as a master chef, for example, is far easier than
thinking about the number of hours one is likely to spend chopping
vegetables and raw meat. If that doesn't sound like your idea of a good
time, then becoming a chef is probably not something that will hold
long-term appeal for you either.
An artist friend of mine told me that, in
order to be successful at something, one must find the art or craft in
which every step of the process is fascinating and enjoyable to you. It
is not enough to simply want the end product, he cautioned. Only when you
love every step of the process in some way will you be motivated to
continue working at the thing until you have mastered it. Otherwise, the
parts you don't like will stop you in your tracks and you will eventually
give up on it altogether.
"Follow your bliss," Joseph Campbell tells
us. Find the thing you love, and then find some practical way to pursue
that dream in the present. Let loose just one dream from your list, and
take the steps to make it a reality. Your present life will become richer
and more meaningful when you do. For more on this subject see Phoebe's
column titled
What's the
Worst that Could Happen?
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