Are you living your dream?

Are you living your dream?

ImageI was reading a blog post from Kristen Lamb about moving from being an “aspiring writer” to a “professional pre-published writer,” and it got me thinking.  How many of us out there are actually living our dreams?

This is something that I think about a lot because now that I’m a mother, I want to tell my daughter to reach for her dreams – dream big and work hard for what she wants in life. I confess, though, that I’m hesitant to believe this too much because how many people out there are actually living their dreams?

As a child, I think our dreams a really different.  You want different things and you base your hopes off of a place that is more or less not in tune with expectations in the “real world.” (Does that sound cynical – I don’t mean to be.)  I guess what I’m saying is as I got older, I know that my dreams changed.  Not just because of life experiences, but also because the things that were most important to me changed as well.

What is it about working towards your dreams that frightens us so much?  I wonder if other people struggle with that like I do and if so, I would love to hear your story.  From my experience, I can tell you that I always kind of figured that writing was something that would never be a real job – one that paid the bills and all that.  But now, after spending some time in that “real” world, I can tell you writing is all I think about.

I wake up, go to work, come home; and in all that time, I’m thinking about writing.  Now, after some serious thought, I had decided that this year, 2014, would be the year that I put more action to my thoughts.  ACTION is the word this year.  I’m going to keep trying and see what happens – because if I don’t I’ll never know, right?

How about you?  Are you living your dream?  Maybe your dream isn’t a job, maybe it’s something else?  I would LOVE to hear from you!  Please share your story with me.

4 thoughts on “Are you living your dream?

  1. I like your post. It hit home for me and is great timing. I can relate to thinking about writing all the time. I do and I have for years. Recently, I was laid off from my normal 40+ a week job. It is a bit strange that now I finally CAN write and have the time to write… I’m struggling with actually doing it. I don’t think it is writers block – I have a million stories – I think I’m struggling with being disciplined. So, thank you for the inspiration. I think I really needed to remember that this is my dream and I should follow it.

    1. Thank you so much for sharing this – it’s so great to know that someone else is in the same boat as me. 🙂 You are not alone, and if you would like more information, there’s a great site, http://www.WANAintl.com; that has all kinds of information and other people just like us. 🙂 Thank you again, and please keep in touch!

    2. When I was laid off from my job in 2008, I felt like I finally had the time and the ambition to write for a living– but I was scattered all over the place and wasn’t sure where to start. I did a lot of research and started compiling lists of markets and contests that I was interested in; but I spent more time planning than doing! I did end up getting published– short pieces in anthologies– but that was AFTER I took a few part time jobs. I would suggest submitting to whatever you can, right away; if you are looking at starting to generate income.

      1. Tina, life never fails to amaze me with all it’s twists and turns, especially when it comes to our direction and where we all think we are going. I’m looking at different competitions this year, and have already entered one (and entering another one at the end of the month), so wish me luck. 🙂 I’m looking for something now, maybe part-time (something maybe that I can do online from home); so hopefully that will work out and free up some of my time to enable me to devote more of myself to my passion – writing.

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