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I thought I’d take a few minutes out of editing Legon Restoration to write a blog post. After all, in my September resolution, I promised myself I’d blog more so here it is.

I find myself getting into the same conversation with more and more people lately. That conversation is about my books and generally that people are impressed that I’ve published several of them. It’s always flattering and I ask whomever I’m talking to about their dreams. Sometimes they say they want to write, others want to do art or have a family. What makes me sad is how few of these people are trying for those dreams or worse say they don’t have time. Sadder still is that most of those people feel like they cannot attain their dreams. YOU CAN HAVE THE LIFE YOU WANT! Okay, no more yelling.

In this post, I will use passion and dream interchangeably. So if you hear me say “dream,” don’t think that it doesn’t mean I’m not also talking about “passion”.

In our modern world we have more of an opportunity to live our dreams than any other past generations. Indeed, even the dreams that we can have has increased. For many of us no longer is the days of laboring in the field, our dream merely to survive. Yet so many of us still live in that state, working day by day at a job we hate or in a life that we find distasteful. Why is this? For thousands of years our ancestors have strived for a better world where their descendants could live better than they. I look at my family history seeing the sacrifice of these individuals and find myself wondering if when they see me not try for my dreams, if they are sad or disappointed. In so many ways I feel obligated to follow my dreams; they gave me a precious gift that I won’t throw away.

That’s what I’m going to talk about here: what are dreams/passions and maybe how we can achieve those dreams.

What is a dream?

A dream is something that we deeply desire, something that we feel would enrich our lives, and they are different for everyone. For many of us, we have more than one dream or passion, which I think is healthy. I’m going to share two of my dreams in life to help illustrate my points. It’s amazing how interconnected they are and how they fit around my passions.

On a professional level, my dream is to do what I’m doing now. Writing and telling stories, exploring my creative side and sharing this side of myself with others. I would like to publish books for the rest of my life and would like to hit some major bestseller charts. For example, on a professional level, I’d love to someday hit the New York Times Bestseller list. To me this would be wonderful. My writing also ties in to my personal dream. That tie in I’ll get to shortly.

On a personal level, my dream is a bit more lofty. I would like a quiet, comfortable life. Preferably someplace a little more rural but still close to the city. More than that I would like to marry my best friend and have a family. I don’t want or expect a perfect marriage because they don’t exist, but a very happy one instead. I want my kids to have the kind of father I didn’t have. Most of all I want my wife and children to feel like they can do anything in this life and that they will have a husband/father that will stop at nothing to help them with that. I want to be able to sit down with my kids and tell them to go for their dreams and tell them that they can make it because, after all, dad did. I want a legacy that, in hundreds of years from now if one of my descendants is doing a school project on family history. they can find my books. How great would that be?

Now why am I telling you this? I know it’s extremely personal to share on an author site. I do it because these are dreams I’m striving for. These are the things that have fueled me through both good times and bad. These dreams fuel me because they can happen if I work at them.

Why are dreams important?

I think that dreams are vital to our lives; they give us goals and hopes. When we are on the path to attaining our dreams we are able to weather life’s storms and we grow into the person that we want to be. Dreams also give us a path to walk. For me, my dreams are something that will take a lifetime. They have an almost-eternal nature to them. This makes them points on the horizon for me, points that I can move towards. I may not always be heading in the right direction, but I always come back to the right path because of those dreams. You can, too.

How can we maybe achieve our dreams?

This is a hard thing for most of us. Due to the vast difference in individuals’ dreams and passions, I’m going to try and keep this on a higher level and talk more about attitudes rather than steps by step. In my experience the people who are the happiest are those that have a dream, believe they can live that dream and that are actively pursuing it. First we need a dream; do you have one? The answer is yes, you do. You may not know what it is, it might be buried deep, but it’s there. Find it. Once we have a dream we have to ask ourselves “is this something that can happen?” Well, is it? Chances are unless there are physical restrictions, your dream can happen. Not right away most times, but it’s possible. You need to believe that you will live your dream if you try. People who feel this way are generally right; they hit their dream.

Another trait that I see almost all the time is that most people living their dreams are being active agents in their own life. What does this mean? People who are agents to be acted upon generally are waiting for their lives to improve, but not doing anything about it. In this mindset, your dream is more the universe’s problem to solve and not your own. For the active agent, this is not true. They are always trying for their dream, pushing themselves and growing. I’ve had the pleasure of seeing people accomplish goals they’ve set by sheer willpower alone. So ask yourself “Am I an agent to be acted upon or an active agent in my life?”

Long-suffering is another key trait. Most dreams are big ones so they take time. You have to be able to stick it out. Are you long-suffering?

Optimism. This goes back to believing that you can do something. I’ve found that generally half of the joy of a passion or dream is in trying to get there; you have to be positive to do this. So, are you positive?

Make time! If it is something important to you, I promise you can find the time. Maybe you have to cut out TV or go to bed just a bit later, but you can find time.

Finally, you don’t have to give up your life. This is important to note. In my dream of writing, I did it in my spare time. You normally don’t have to uproot your life and leave everything behind to start working towards a dream.

I know this post sounded very self-help and not like most of my normal posts, but since it’s November and time for NaNoWriMo, I thought maybe a post to kick some of you would-be writers in the butt was in order. I’d love to hear your thoughts about going for dreams and your stories, too. Also, any advice is more than welcome so please comment. If you aren’t comfortable commenting, but still want to share something please feel free to contact me directly. Thanks, again.