You Gotta Have a Dream

In the musical, South Pacific, they sing a song about happy thoughts. One line says, 'you've got to have a dream, if you don't have a dream, how you gonna make a dream come true?'

I think about this a lot. 

Dreaming big is my FAVORITE thing to do. I love to imagine things different then they are. I love to play with what something could be if there were no reservations, expenses and I didn't have to be remotely realistic, the way little kids dream. They honestly think they can do anything. Somewhere along the road of life, some of us got dragged to the dust by too much reality. If we could let that go and tap into the little kid inside us, who thinks anything is possible, I truly think we could accomplish anything. 

The downside to how much I love dreaming is that I sometimes forget to add a plan of action to the dream. It's just so fun to imagine and plan. I think the people who accomplish their dreams are the people who, #1 NEVER stop dreaming and #2 turn those dreams into actionable plans. 

I've mentioned before that I've wanted to be a published writer since I was a kid. But I also wanted to be a famous actress. The actress thing died out as I got older, without me even missing it all that much, but the writing thing never did. I've wondered about that. Maybe I saw things in the acting world I didn't really agree with or want to participate in. Maybe I realized how hard it would be to reach my other, bigger, goals of having a family and serving in the church if I lived a Hollywood life. Not to mention the difficult of trying to break into that business.

I wonder why I let reality crush the actress goal, but never listened to it when it tried to crush the writing goal. Even when it was painfully obvious publishing was not going to come easy I never gave up, I never gave in. 

Maybe that's the difference between a goal and a passion. 

I see how much good I can do in my sphere by writing uplifting, wholesome, fun books. I see how much good it does me to write stories that focus on what's working in the world instead of what isn't. I see kids that walk around with my book tucked under their arm or curled up on the couch bursting out laughing while they read. I know what I do is important. I feel pushed and I feel sustained. 

I think I'm exactly where I need to be.