One person said, that the day that you stop dreaming is the day that you take yourself down to the undertakers office.
All of us start out in life with a dream. Maybe as a kid you wanted to be a doctor, a lawyer, a teacher, a CEO, a firefighter, a nurse, an astronaut ect. Whatever it was, you had a dream. You knew you would be great one day, that you would change the world, bedazzle it with your excellence.
However, as we get older, the reality of life sets in. For some of us, we're lucky enough for this reality not to set in until we're 18 and legally adults. For all too many of us, this reality hits at a young age, obliterating our innocence of the world. At 18, many of us go on to college. Or even if we don't, we move out on our own, have our own bills to pay, face the challenge of getting and keeping a job, finding the necessary means to make money to support ourselves.
As we grow even older into adulthood, we may become parents, have families. For the majority of Americans, we wake up extremely early. We all know that the alarm goes off far too early and we beg for 5 more minutes of precious sleep before starting the day. If we have children, we rush to get them ready - off to school, off to a babysitters, off to daycare. We rush in traffic to get to work. And we work, and we work, and we work some more. We rush, rush, rush, barely having time to stop and think. That 40 hour work week somehow turns into 50, 60, even 80+ hours. At the end of the day, exhausted and spent, we rush home to our family, put food on the table, and try to spend a few valuable moments with our family before it's off to bed. Years with our children fly by. Our spouse may work one shift and us another. Even if we do work the same shift, it may seem as if we never see each other, always working, off in two different direction to get needs met. Time together is a thing of the past, never mind a romantic dinner. We are under appreciated, underpaid, and plain exhausted from the rigors of the work week. Even with working so many hours, we barely make ends meet. We are left wishing and asking for more. Where will the money for the mortgage come from? What about the new pair of shoes that Johnathan needs, he's grown out of everything he owns? The car needs fixing, it can barely run? It takes a toll on us emotionally, physically, spiritually. We are left wanting, wanting for more. We may miss out on key events in our child's lives - a play that we miss because we can't rearrange a meeting our get time off from work. We try to balance it all, meet the needs of everyone and yet to do that we would have to be superman. But we are not superman, we are only human.
At those times, it seems as if those dreams, those dreams of our childhood, are but a dream themselves. We ask ourselves, how could we have been so naive? We wish for those days back, those days that we see in our child's eyes, days of wonder and possibility, when everything seemed possible.
But what if we could have those dreams back? What if we could find a job that not only met our needs financially, but in fact made things we didn't think possible, possible. What if we could afford that sports camp for Johnathan, or science camp for Suzie. What if we could send Charlie to the special school that he needs, or pay for Sara's braces. What if we didn't have to worry about our kids getting sick because we didn't know how we could afford the doctor or the medicine. What if we could pay off our house, our debt, save money to put away for our children to go to college. What if we could take that family vacation that we have been meaning to take since the children were little, take time and enjoy the little nuances of our child's' lives, things that too often are taken for granted. What if we could find a job in which we were appreciated and loved, a job in which getting up and going to work was exciting and something we looked forward to rather than dreaded. What if... What if...
Too often as adults we give up our dreams. We dare to hope, we dare to dream, we fear being hurt and having our dreams be crushed. But I am here to say that dreams are possible. Do NOT give up your dreams. Do NOT give up your hopes. They ARE still possible. The opportunities are out there. Often they come in the most unexpected of ways.
Do not let the fear of striking out keep you from playing the game.
So I say to you, Dare to dream. Dare to make your dreams come true. Dreams do come true and they are possible.
One well-loved and very important person in my life once said to me, "Reach for the stars, and maybe you'll land on the moon." We all have the potential to land on the moon. Find that dream within you, the one that you had as a child, reach for it. But whatever you do, DON'T STOP DREAMING!!!
All of us start out in life with a dream. Maybe as a kid you wanted to be a doctor, a lawyer, a teacher, a CEO, a firefighter, a nurse, an astronaut ect. Whatever it was, you had a dream. You knew you would be great one day, that you would change the world, bedazzle it with your excellence.
However, as we get older, the reality of life sets in. For some of us, we're lucky enough for this reality not to set in until we're 18 and legally adults. For all too many of us, this reality hits at a young age, obliterating our innocence of the world. At 18, many of us go on to college. Or even if we don't, we move out on our own, have our own bills to pay, face the challenge of getting and keeping a job, finding the necessary means to make money to support ourselves.
As we grow even older into adulthood, we may become parents, have families. For the majority of Americans, we wake up extremely early. We all know that the alarm goes off far too early and we beg for 5 more minutes of precious sleep before starting the day. If we have children, we rush to get them ready - off to school, off to a babysitters, off to daycare. We rush in traffic to get to work. And we work, and we work, and we work some more. We rush, rush, rush, barely having time to stop and think. That 40 hour work week somehow turns into 50, 60, even 80+ hours. At the end of the day, exhausted and spent, we rush home to our family, put food on the table, and try to spend a few valuable moments with our family before it's off to bed. Years with our children fly by. Our spouse may work one shift and us another. Even if we do work the same shift, it may seem as if we never see each other, always working, off in two different direction to get needs met. Time together is a thing of the past, never mind a romantic dinner. We are under appreciated, underpaid, and plain exhausted from the rigors of the work week. Even with working so many hours, we barely make ends meet. We are left wishing and asking for more. Where will the money for the mortgage come from? What about the new pair of shoes that Johnathan needs, he's grown out of everything he owns? The car needs fixing, it can barely run? It takes a toll on us emotionally, physically, spiritually. We are left wanting, wanting for more. We may miss out on key events in our child's lives - a play that we miss because we can't rearrange a meeting our get time off from work. We try to balance it all, meet the needs of everyone and yet to do that we would have to be superman. But we are not superman, we are only human.
At those times, it seems as if those dreams, those dreams of our childhood, are but a dream themselves. We ask ourselves, how could we have been so naive? We wish for those days back, those days that we see in our child's eyes, days of wonder and possibility, when everything seemed possible.
But what if we could have those dreams back? What if we could find a job that not only met our needs financially, but in fact made things we didn't think possible, possible. What if we could afford that sports camp for Johnathan, or science camp for Suzie. What if we could send Charlie to the special school that he needs, or pay for Sara's braces. What if we didn't have to worry about our kids getting sick because we didn't know how we could afford the doctor or the medicine. What if we could pay off our house, our debt, save money to put away for our children to go to college. What if we could take that family vacation that we have been meaning to take since the children were little, take time and enjoy the little nuances of our child's' lives, things that too often are taken for granted. What if we could find a job in which we were appreciated and loved, a job in which getting up and going to work was exciting and something we looked forward to rather than dreaded. What if... What if...
Too often as adults we give up our dreams. We dare to hope, we dare to dream, we fear being hurt and having our dreams be crushed. But I am here to say that dreams are possible. Do NOT give up your dreams. Do NOT give up your hopes. They ARE still possible. The opportunities are out there. Often they come in the most unexpected of ways.
Do not let the fear of striking out keep you from playing the game.
So I say to you, Dare to dream. Dare to make your dreams come true. Dreams do come true and they are possible.
One well-loved and very important person in my life once said to me, "Reach for the stars, and maybe you'll land on the moon." We all have the potential to land on the moon. Find that dream within you, the one that you had as a child, reach for it. But whatever you do, DON'T STOP DREAMING!!!
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