Pursue Dreams Big and Small

What are some of your dreams? If you could do anything in the world what would it be? Is it possible to actually do? Many dreams are doable if you’re willing to pay the price. This is the real key: Are you willing to pay the price?

I just lived a dream of mine. I took a trip around the world. I’ve traveled a lot before but never on a trip like the one that I just took. I bought a one way plane ticket. I had no restriction of time or money. I was free to do whatever I wanted; go wherever I wanted whenever I wanted for as long as I wanted. I had no itinerary and no return date. Traveling in general is a real passion of mine. I love all the people I meet, I love seeing different places and cultures and I love that each day is a different adventure. However the biggest thing I love about travel is the freedom. There is no excuse to be unhappy. If you’re not happy with what you’re doing or where you are just change it. You can choose to do whatever you want without responsibility or prior commitments binding you. This trip was taking that to the ultimate extreme. I really loved that I was as free as I could possibly be. And for so many days I could honestly say there is absolutely nothing in the world I would rather be doing than what I was doing at the very moment. It was a dream come true!

Much more accurately it was a dream made true. It was something I really wanted and I made it so. So many people told me they were envious of what I was doing. I always told them don’t be envious, just do it. People will often say they can’t. “Can’t” is bullshit! Almost always it’s possible it’s more a question of being willing to pay the price.

For me the price was probably around $30,000 and much more importantly the complete disruption of my career. I needed to forgo all the momentum I had built up over the last 5 years of working and stop dead in my tracks. I need to deal with whatever perception others might have of me having checked out of the working world like that. I also needed to disrupt my life in general. I was away from my friends, and away from my normal dating world for 9 months. It was a price I was happy to pay and having done it I can’t imagine life any other way.

That was my dream. If you share that same dream you can probably make it happen. (It’s actually easier than you’d think. If you can cut all expenses from back home I find travel is cheaper than living in down town Toronto). It may cost you more, it may cost you less depending on your circumstances and how you choose to go about it but if you’re willing to pay the price most capable people can make it happen.

What if at 31 years old I decided I want to be doctor? I don’t want to be a doctor but if I decided that that is where my passion lay I could do it. It would be horribly inconvenient and require all kinds of sacrifices in other areas. All of a sudden I would find myself taking undergraduate classes again to get the prerequisites for med school. I also wouldn’t be earning a proper living until my late 30’s. If I really wanted to though I could find a way to do it. Again, it’s just a question of whether you are willing to pay the price.

If you have a dream that you think is unattainable ask yourself is it really unattainable or just costly? Often the answer is that your dream is possible but the cost is a bit scary. Few dreams are easy. If it were easy everyone would be doing it. You just need to decide how badly you want your dream and then you can decide if you have the commitment to make it a reality. And finally, try to make an active decision one way or another instead of choosing to maintain the status quo of forgoing your dream by default.

Click here to see the next related post about Embracing Failure.