It’s one thing to decide to stop living out someone else’s dreams for our lives, it’s another thing all together to identify what our life dream is.
We would all love at times for life to just come at us with black and white choices. But it’s rarely that simple.
The truth is that there are some dreams that we may have to lay to rest. For whatever reasons, other choices we’ve made or circumstances we’ve encountered mean that that dream is no longer a good fit.
Getting married, having kids, moving to a different city, buying that house with a huge mortgage, losing a job, losing a loved one, all have consequences. It’s not only this though. What we value – the non-negotiables in our life – also have consequences for what the life of our dreams will look like.
And, of course, what we value will often change depending on the different life stages we are in.
For me personally, there are some dreams I’ve decided to let pass because other things have come and trumped those dreams. Getting married and having a baby daughter is far more important to me than some of the dreams that I could have pursued as a single guy with little or no responsibilities.
Essentially, what I’m saying is that identifying our talents and passions is the starting point to living a life that maximises our potential. But there are other factors involved too. The context that we choose to live out a life that builds upon our talents and passions needs to be chosen based upon our values, responsibilities, and circumstances.
If our dream is going to compromise our values or ignore our responsibilities it is never going to give us ‘the life of our dreams’.
Dreams are however fueled by our imagination and so, whilst we must be realistic about our circumstances, we must never let our circumstances dictate everything. Life is always at its richest when it is against all odds.
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