Back in January people all over the world set new goals for themselves to achieve in 2015. They put down a plan to attain new heights, there were new languages to learn, or new exercises to get out and do. Maybe you were one of these people. You set out with high hopes and the determination that this year would be different. Before the end of March more than half of us will have given up on those goals.
The failure rate on New Years resolutions is rather high, the majority of the goals we set will be forgotten or abandoned over the course of the next few weeks. It seems as if this cycle of try and fail, and try and fail, is inevitable and not truly worthwhile. This month I’d like to take a shot at explaining why our goals and our dreams, no matter how impossible they may seem, are worth our time and our passions.
Many of us, Americans in particular, tend to think of goals and dreams as a zero sum game. We are investing our time, our effort and our strength into our dreams. If we do not achieve our goals, exactly as we envisioned them, then all of that effort seems like it was wasted. After all if you don’t have your book sitting prominently upon the bookstores shelves than it was all for naught. We have lost. The problem is that our dreams absolutely do not work in this manner. For starters no matter how much effort and time you put into your projects, there is no guarantee that you will achieve what you set out to accomplish. There is no winner, there are no losers; there are only those who have come out on the other side with their dreams intact. It is why I refer to dreams as a journey, because there is usually no end to them. The finish line is but a temporary one until another dream takes its place. When we invest in our dreams we do it with no guarantee of the outcome.
So then why? Why put so much time money and effort into our dreams? Those who spend time working on their projects do it for several reasons. One being that they love their dreams; they can’t imagine life without painting or writing. Let’s face it, if you are going to spend a lot your precious time trying to further your dream, you have to feel a certain affinity towards it. Yet even if we love something we still seek to gain something from our time spent with it. What we get from our dreams, those that succeed and those that fail, is not something that can be measured. Usually its not even something that can be clearly seen. For me the experience I gained writing my first three manuscripts was invaluable, I would not be who and what I am today without those experiences. These projects have stretched not just my ability to tell stories, but also my ability to build worlds, to create realistic characters, and has stretched my imagination ever further than before. Not to mention they have helped my technical writing skills in ways my English teachers would have been proud of. I now have the confidence to dream of bigger more complex stories to tell.
What you get out of your dreams is personal, I am sure there are other writers who have gained other things from their dreams. What I do know is that I can dare to dream because my success is not measured in sweat or tears or dollar signs. It is measured by my experience and personal growth. If you find yourself ready to quit on your goals this month, hang in there. It is hard to get started but the rewards are there for the taking, if you just know where to look.