| Living your dream?
Posted: 3/11/2008 11:11:25 AM | Recently I saw a video of Randy Pausch's "Last Lecture" (http://www.oprah.com/health/oz/oz_20071022_350_106.jhtml) and it really got me thinking. . .
I'd have to say I've spent the better part of my life 'surviving' - working, paying bills, living paycheck to paycheck - not that I've had a bad life, but I haven't followed my 'dreams' (if I ever even had dreams. . .). . . so at 45 - is it too late to develop a passion for something? I look around at friends and family and many seem to have a passion (golf, skiing, sailing, that sort of thing) - but too many do not (myself included). My question is - what is your passion/dream? And are you living it? And if not, why not? | |
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| Living your dream?
Posted: 3/11/2008 12:55:42 PM | i always followed my professional dreams which were socially and politically motivated in the health care arena, to provide "equity" to all populations. i had my own company, sold several times since then and accomplished a lot. it all came crashing down in my late forties, but still, i remarried and then almost ten years later--divorced again. however, while disabled and at that time barely walking at age 50 (before treatment)--i fulfilled my dream since i was five years old. i became a mom and fost/adopted three teens.
yes, anything is possible. i have friends who did the reverse and started new careers. it takes a lot of work and determination and faith. most of the time, when i did the actual "work" on my projects, i thought i would drop. we did a lot that they said could not be done and they were wrong. same for taking on the kids and then doing it alone.
but, every goal has it's journey, new lessons, new friends. my work accomplishments are still thriving and as to my kids who i am still trying to help...one day at a time. there are things i would do "differently" if had another chance. but, one thing i can say is that i certainly led a full life. just wish, i could still go to africa...my other fantasy... but not sure if i could take the physical aspects, chemicals, weather, food--with this disability. so, i make it the focal point of my charitable giving. i watch a lot of tv on africa and meet people from there. my point: occasionally you have to modify your dreams or get to the goal in another way. my friend had a lousy voice, but she got into the theater world via the business aspect. that is another example. another woman i saw on tv, became a famous song "writer". she too had wanted to sing.
gotta start someplace. just start. some people know their passions. if you don't know yours, just get out and DO different things. it will come to you when you least expect it, if you are open. do some volunteer work if you are afraid to make too rapid a shift. you can even travel to foreign countries as a volunteer. your passion can beome "exploring" whatever. just be open to the universe. | |
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| Living your dream?
Posted: 3/11/2008 2:25:05 PM | | A lifelong passion for me was experiencing riding a motorcycle. I remember times when I was a child and older, seeing a bike pass by when I was in a car, I'd watch it go off into the horizon and wonder what it must feel like. Last year I took that step for that dream and have absolutely loved every minute of it, from the people I've met to just getting on it and riding alone. I truly hope to go to the mountains this year as that is also part of this dream.......to feel the warmth of the sun, smell the fresh air and feel the freedom. This dream I await. When I'm much much older and unable to ride, I know inside I will be so proud I took the chance. | |
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| Living your dream?
Posted: 3/11/2008 2:25:28 PM | Yes and no. I grew up in the city (not that OKC is a bustling metropolis) but being exposed to country living believed that is what I wanted and was best for me (and a future family). With my ex-partner we achieved that dream in the 90s... free and clear of any mortgage. It wasn't much but it was ours. Circumstances changed and without going into detail we voluntarily left it behind and found ourselves the proud part-owners (with the bank) of another place in the country. It is actually more in the area I always wanted to to be so no complaints there. But since then I've divorced and it's a lot to say grace over without the help of a partner while raising 2 teen girls. So I guess I'll be relocating again after my youngest graduates in 2 years, but I've experienced some things and can't say I regret it.
Professionally, no, I have not followed my dreams. I dropped out of high school, got married and started a family fairly young. Then I spent a considerable amount of time as a divorced mother in my 20s. I had wanted to be a hair stylist but that dream sort of feel by the wayside and I really didn't even think much if at all about it for about 10 years. By the time I thought about making some changes, I was pretty much living paycheck to paycheck and training for a change in careers just wasn't an option. Heck! I was thrilled just to be able to work part time and be home with my girls in the mornings and afternoons. It's impossible to regret having that opportunity or the positive impact it had on my family. After working full time for so long it was almost like being retired and I just enjoyed it.
I think our dreams can change. When I was quite young I imagined what it might be like to do stand up but I can't say it was a dream. Now it sort of is... not that there's a lot of opportunity for it in my neck of the woods. But I've tried to do a few things to move in that direction without getting ate up with it. I've dreamed of writing a book... a successful one. I don't understand this block that keeps me from fleshing out something. Maybe it's fear in disguise. But I ain't dead yet so you never know. I can't say I'm sweatin any of it. | |
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| Living your dream?
Posted: 3/11/2008 5:08:34 PM | My childhood dream was to go to college, get married, have six kids, stay home while they were little, go back to work to put them through college, then retire with my husband in a modest little home where we would have family BBQ's and get togethers (as my family always did) and we would babysit our grandkids. My husband and I would go off on romantic and fun vacations together.......Later, as an adult, I added a jacuzzi on the patio to my dream! Seemed like a pretty modest dream to me!
Nope, I'm not living my dream!  | |
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| Living your dream?
Posted: 3/11/2008 5:58:25 PM | For me...life is better than dreams...I have what I have...and I'm happy | |
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| Living your dream?
Posted: 3/11/2008 6:28:22 PM | Poster, it's never too late!!
Some of us are LATE BLOOMERS!! | |
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| Living your dream?
Posted: 3/11/2008 6:30:04 PM | | This will sound like I'm exaggerating but I'm not. By the time I was 49 I was living all aspects of my dreams. From career to housing to finances to entertainment. I guess I was so on top of MY world my ex wasn't on top of hers. So, she divorced me, now at 51 not a single dream is being realized. I lost all the above, which I do believe I finally have the gumption and energy to take golf back up this year. The rest is history, gone, and I cannot even begin to dream a new dream. I've been there done that in so many areas that I just really can't figure out what to aspire to anymore. | |
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| Living your dream?
Posted: 3/11/2008 6:41:08 PM | Don't say that...
Even you lost everything...it is always hope...and the best days you don't know yet...of the future... | |
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| Living your dream?
Posted: 3/11/2008 6:54:19 PM | Before my accident at age 50, I was living my passion.
I was a foster mom for special-needs children... and I was deep in the process of adopting a little one with very severe cerebral palsy, who had been living with me already for 3 years.
He was my passion... I loved him so deeply.
Life interrupted.
Now.. although I'm settled nicely into an entirely different life style... I'm wondering what will be my "passion".
I haven't found it yet... aside from the general passion to live, of course, and to enjoy, (as usual), nature all around me. | |
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| Living your dream?
Posted: 3/11/2008 7:02:18 PM | 45 is not too late. I was just becoming obsessive about a new hobby back then, like work had before. I always thought I should start a business just so it wouldn't be one of those regrets in hindsight and it went much better than I expected. At one time it was like living in a state of mania but eventually I had to scale back... which was another dream come true. hehe.
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| Living your dream?
Posted: 3/11/2008 10:22:47 PM | I have always had trouble understanding why it is viewed as a bad thing to be content.
I live paycheck to paycheck and I'm proud of the fact that I do so much better than some who make twice what I do. I'm happy to have a job to go to everyday and work to support myself. Since when is being a survivor a bad thing? There are alot of things I am passionate about. I have dreams of things that I would like to try and do someday, yet I am content to go to bed each night with the knowledge that I did the best I could, successful or not, to make my little piece of the universe better. Some days that may mean only that I p1ssed off fewer people than I made smile. I feel sorry for those that can not look at their lives and all that they have and not feel content. Besides, if you spent all your time fulfilling your dreams, what time would you have for fulfilling your responsabilities. And with all your dreams fulfilled, what would you have to look forward to? | |
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| Living your dream?
Posted: 3/12/2008 4:50:13 AM | My dreams have changed over the years. When I was eight, I wanted to be a cowboy or a fireman. At 15, I joined the junior auxiliary of my town's volunteer fire department, so that dream was fulfilled while I was still a teenager. At 18, I wanted to make a difference in peoples' lives. Within two years I was a medic saving lives in Vietnam, another dream achieved.
At 25, I wanted to write the great American novel because I got it into my mind that being published was one way which we gain immortality. I have yet to completely achieve this dream but I have managed to get myself remembered, at least in some circles. In my fiftieth year, my book, The Ghosts of November: Memoirs of an Outsider Who Witnessed the Carnage at Jonestown, Guyana was published.
Ironically, that year which marked the partial fulfillment of my dream also became the year of my downfall. The next nearly six years were not so good and my dreams were not so easily accomplished. Instead of dreaming for immortality, I was frequently dreaming of something to eat or a clean, dry, warm, safe place to lay my head.
Those dark days have disappeared and I don't really dream any more. I exist, I survive, I experience, I enjoy, I appreciate, but I do not dream. I am perfectly happy, at the age of 60, to roll with the flow. I wake up in the morning grateful that my name is not in the obituary. I do a little writing, play some Texas-Hold Em on my laptop, contribute to a forum or two, correspond with friends and acquaintances, meditate, work on enhancing my psychic skills, write, enjoy the company of people I have grown to love and who have replaced other loved ones my past behavior chased away.
I don't have any dreams anymore, but that doesn't mean life is not good. I do look forward to experiencing the next plane of existence but I am not quite ready to leave this one yet. There still are too many mysteries to solve and things I have yet to experience here. | |
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| Living your dream?
Posted: 3/12/2008 8:32:00 AM | | living on an island.i'm retired (at 50) and live in cozumel mexico.nothing better in life. cold beer and the beach and fishing. anyone want to join me ? | |
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| Living your dream?
Posted: 3/12/2008 10:55:45 AM | No, but I'm working toward it.
Throughout life dreams change, don't they? | |
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| Living your dream?
Posted: 3/12/2008 1:40:55 PM | It's good to see so much positive feedback - and I must say, I am happier than I've ever been. . . which I suppose is all anyone could ever ask for, huh? I have always wanted to help single parents (having been a single mom, twice now) - maybe I should move that 'if I ever hit the lottery' mentality to a 'this is what I can do for now' mentality.
Thanks people! Keep livin the dream! | |
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| Living your dream?
Posted: 3/12/2008 2:44:22 PM | I've worked all my life , lived some of my dreams by joining the military and travelling. By the end of this year should have everything in place to continue my one big dream to travel the world , experience different cultures , help along the way and if I find a place I really like stay there.
It is never to late to follow your dreams, sadly most have been raised to work work and work , go after the material things in life and around 60 retire to live a peaceful life. Although we are living longer now , working more, depending if you are after the materialistic things in life paying for something you will never take with you. When it comes time later down the road to retire at say 65 , only to find out you have this or that , not long to live, and still lots of bills to pay. So what ever age you are live your dream do not wait because death waits for no one.
Look at it this way if you were told you had say a week left to live, of course there is family and things like that, say it is only you no one to worry aboutkids , parents etc. THINK HARD WHAT WOULD YOU WANT TO DO SEE . NOW YOU GOT SOMETHING IN MIND MAKE IT HAPPEN. tHE MIND IS A GREAT THING IT CAN CREATE MIRACLES AND MOVE MOUNTAINS ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS USE IT OR JUST LOSE IT | |
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| Living your dream?
Posted: 3/12/2008 3:10:22 PM | | No, I'm not living my dream. I work at Wal~mart, not exactly anyone's career of choice, lol. But I am living a pretty goldarn good life! I have a very nice apartment, a job, my health, a car that runs, money in the bank. Life is good! But I'm on this site because of the one missing ingredient. | |
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| Living your dream?
Posted: 3/12/2008 7:43:02 PM | I am absolutely living mine....This is a an absolute GIFT! I lived in Houston 15 years ago and gave it up, this is like being with a first love who is your last love!  | |
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| Living your dream?
Posted: 3/13/2008 5:45:49 PM | Well, my dream was to go into the military and become a pilot. Since one has to have 20-20 vision, along with a few other things, that left me out. I have asthma. And that alone kept me out of all branches of service.  So i kind of shelved the idea of being a pilot. I never even thought about doing it as a private pilot. Untill i met a few guys who informed me about it. It is expensive to do it on ones own dime. But i figured why not? I do not have any children to support. Or alimony. Or a family. So i decided to at least go for part of a dream i had. It took me longer and cost me more money than i had bargained for, but i did it. And i have never looked back. I say to everyone out there reading this is to at least try to live your dream. We only have one life, and it is quite short. | |
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| Living your dream?
Posted: 3/13/2008 7:23:09 PM | | I am living my dream because I am doing it my way. If someone special happens along in the future we will live our dream because we will do it our way. | |
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| Living your dream?
Posted: 3/15/2008 11:15:25 PM | I'm 67 years old and have lived it many times. I'm still living it! I'll always be living it. Happiness isn't out there; it's inside you. My dreams have always been my personal reality. I love it! Life is soooo good!
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| Living your dream?
Posted: 3/16/2008 9:26:57 AM | Part of me is living my dream and part of me isn't. My dream has always been to travel, and in the last 10 years, I've started doing so. My journeys have taken me to: Belize; Costa Rica; Bahamas; Holland; England; and Africa. I have at least 50 more places that I want to see before I depart earth. My other passion is fixing up homes, which my current home has been work in progress. My last project with the house will be granite counter tops & backsplash for my kitchen.
The career side hasn't always been a dream or a passion. While I enjoy doing taxes and helping others, I find that working for Corporate America has been less than pleasure. I tire of the rigidity/inflexibility of the workplace. Plus, having been working for 30 years in a "man's world", that gets old at times too. I am finding I want to make a career change to travel writing. Will I do it? You bet, it will be slow going. I feel pretty confident that I will accomplish 80-90% of my dreams before I die. That in itself makes me happy. The best part, I plan on retiring in Belize. | |
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| Living your dream?
Posted: 3/17/2008 3:41:57 AM | Yes, I'm living my dream.
It is never too late but you have to start somewhere. You can't work towards a dream when you don't know what it is. | |
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| Living your dream?
Posted: 3/17/2008 4:32:03 AM | I read Paul Mckenna's "How to mend your broken heart" a couple of years ago... and it kind of explains how to re-build our hope and dreams, especially after relationship loss... It was a great and soothing read... would recommend it to everyone.
But I think the thing about life is, yes there are boring and mundane bits... and we are sometimes consumed with the here and now... but now and then we should just take a step back... and try and love ourselves a little... have a bit of time for us... to gather and re-group... to focus on what it's all really about ... and to gently try and do some of the things that we may not be able to do when older... I think we realise that time does creep up on us... and yes somethings we have to do... and grab them with both hands... lead the lives we want to lead... look outside the box... but not too much...
for it is the simple things, of sharing love and time with our friends and families that is the true thing that we take with us... as we age... and how we cope and have lovely experience of life...
These are the things that matter when death is knocking at the door...!
Sorry... but when it comes down to it... it's about feeling ok with ourselves and our conscience... and to be able to smile softly at the end of our lives. | |
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