When you have a week like we’ve had this past week, it can be easy to think that life is just against you. Random things happen in the everyday routine of your world and you get bogged down and discouraged. Dreams can, and often do, turn out to be just dreams. We spend so much of our energy just living life that we don’t feel we have the capacity to do more.
Since returning home in January, we have been working on a few things around the house, not so much because we had missed doing projects while on the road, but more because it was just a good time to do them. Our house is still partly empty: belongings are still in boxes, and furniture we got rid of before we moved out has yet to be replaced. This, combined with a very mild Texas winter, made it more favorable to get some long overdue projects completed.
After spending several weekends re-tiling our kitchen floor, then painting our daughter’s room, we were ready to take a break for a while. We are big do-it-yourselfer’s and do everything ourselves. Tiling can be exhausting and takes a lot out of you. So, here we are, ready for some relaxation time, and what happens? A water pipe in our bathroom bursts and the ceiling collapses. Fun.
But that’s just life, right? You’re cruising along, exhausted because you’ve been working hard, but feeling good because you finally got something accomplished. You stand back to admire your work, sit down to raise a glass to celebrate, and then, BAM, the ceiling collapses. Life’s unexpected “hiccups” can be discouraging. They can even make you believe that you only have the capacity to deal with the here and now. Dreams are for dreamers and who has time for that? Well, let me encourage you. If you have a dream, any dream, even if seems impossible and that it will never happen, start doing something, anything, to make that dream become reality.
If you read my previous post, you learned what motivated us to pursue our dream of traveling the US in our RV. We talked about our dream for 18 years! What changed last year? What made us finally, really, do it? I think the thing that helped the most to get our dreams on the reality track was to put it down on paper. The first thing we did to make it more tangible was to make a pro’s and con’s list. When you see the reasons why, and why not, you want to do something. It either encourages you to go to the next step or tells you once and for all that it’s not going to happen. Our pro’s and con’s list helped to push us to make our dream happen and I would like to share it with you. My hope is that it will inspire you to start pursuing your own dream.
Our Traveling Adventure: PRO’S
• Educational for our kids
• Family bonding time
• Lower living expenses
• Time with extended family
• A goal to work toward
• Less stress
• Opportunity to make new friends
• Change
• Less responsibilities/stuff to take care of
• More active lifestyle
• Life-long memories
• Extra money from renting out house
Our Traveling Adventure: CON’S
• Leaving friends (temporary)
• Leaving home (temporary)
• House damages from renters
• Lots of preparations (temporary)
• Time away from our oldest daughter and grandson
• Change
• Less living space (temporary)
• Less technology
As you can see, our pro’s outweighed our con’s. That might not be the case with your list, but if your dream is important enough to you, I bet you could change some of your negatives to positives. Don’t let life’s little surprises discourage you, start working on turning that dream into reality by writing it down.
What are some of the obstacles that hold you back from recognizing your dream? What have you done, or can you do, to overcome those obstacles? Please share your stories. I would love to hear them!