Last updated on November 2nd, 2019 at 10:52 am
I had an epiphany of sorts on my dream of becoming an accomplished equestrian while on vacation in San Deigo. My next dream, perhaps my “true” dream, appeared right in front of me. I’m not ready to say what it is yet. Realization of it is a long, long way off and may, in the end, be impossible. But, I’ve spent a lot of time in the past few days thinking about how to make it come true. It suddenly occurred to me that in order to move on to that dream, I need to accomplish my current dream first.
Here’s why and how one will help me get to the other:
I tend to have difficulty keeping focus. Just ask my husband–he’s used to me jumping from one thing to the other and never finishing any of them: I’m going to write a book, I’m going to start a cake decorating business, I’m going to become a paramedic, speech therapist, learn Spanish, learn French, become a photographer, go back to teaching horseback riding, go to Africa (that one we actually did), become a journalist . . . you get the picture. I’ve investigated each of those and started down the path only to lose interest, get discouraged, or become distracted by something else.
My new dream would require a lot of sacrifice from my family. I really think that in order to be taken seriously, I need to show some fortitude with the things I’m currently doing the dream of becoming an accomplished equestrian and my current career as an attorney. Otherwise, the new dream is going to just be cast-off as another one of my silly ideas.
So, I guess this is a long way of saying that I’ve come home with a new focus and sense of purpose. I know that my next dream may take a while, years even. I need to be patient and be satisfied with slow progress. That will be a change for me. The main reason I’ve gotten discouraged with the list of things above was that I didn’t have instant gratification; they took work.
Everything I do now is with the purpose of building towards that dream. I need to fulfill my need for instant gratification by lots of small successes at steps along the way. It’s going to be a long road; I’m not very good at long roads unless they’re bouncing along in a Land Rover across Africa!
Danelle
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