Most of us drift through life; Hours go by and they turn into days, that turns into weeks that turns into months, and then into years. Soon enough, you’re 30 and wondering where all the time has gone. You wonder why your dreams of younger years have dissipated. If you’re someone who knew what they wanted in life at a young age, went directly to college, and happen to land your dream job right after graduation, then this blog isn’t for you.
This one is for the dreamers; The ones who have goals they believe to be unattainable. They just gave up and landed the first desk job that was offered to them.
It took me many years to realize that we aren’t all programmed to live the life that people expect of us. One of my mentors told me something that will stick with me. “If money wasn’t an issue, what would you be doing with your life? That’s what you need to work towards. If you’re doing things that aren’t leading toward your goals in life, are you really living?” How many of you would be able to say you’re working towards your life’s biggest goal?
I believe the reason why so many people give up on their dreams is because they truly believe that their dreams are unattainable.
However, I also believe that any dream you have can be obtained as long as you’re willing to do the hard work that goes along with it. And yes, this may actually mean working that crappy desk job that you hate so much. It may mean, going without lattes for a couple months, or putting away your social life for a while. Whatever sacrifices you have to make, just be sure that they’re sacrificed for good reason.
I recently read the book, The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, and there was a part in that book that inspired me to write this blog.
In the book, there was a young man who was out searching for his soul’s purpose. He loved to travel, so he became a shepherd (which wasn’t a well sought after career.) During his journey as a shepherd, he becomes aware of the soul of the world, and goes on a search to discover his personal legend. He was told that he must go to the pyramids to find this “personal legend”; That the treasures he is looking for lies beneath them.
Santiago, the shepherd, follows all of the signs that have led him to believe that he needs to find these Egyptian treasures. Along his path, he stumbles upon a crystal shop. He ends up working there for a year, even though he knew it wasn’t his “destiny”. I believe this is one of the most important parts of this story.
Even though the shepherd boy knew that working at this crystal shop wasn’t his “Soul Purpose,” he helped the owner at his shop every day without any complaints. He went above and beyond to increase the profits for the owner and stayed for a year, even though that wasn’t what he actually wanted to do.
So many of us, when we aren’t doing what we really want, don’t put in good effort to our daily mundane tasks. This is because we believe that what we’re doing now doesn’t have an impact on our own “soul’s purpose.”
That couldn’t be further from the truth. The effort you put in now, directly correlates to your final destiny. You can half-ass your way through a desk job until you’re retired. Pretty soon you’re retired, just wishing you would have put more effort into chasing your dreams. You can either be Santiago, who worked at the shop for a year just to save up enough for his next journey of learning the “language of the world”. You can otherwise be the shop owner, who’s soul purpose was to make it to Mecca. However, he believed he would never get to go because he couldn’t take time away from his crystal shop. In believing this, he never goes.
If you believe you will be able to accomplish your dreams, the universe will start conspiring with you to make that happen. Just make sure to give everything your everything. The universe doesn’t respond well to low effort.
If it’s your dream to travel the world, don’t give up just because you’re working a desk job now.
Everything you do, is leading you to your ultimate destiny. That means that even if you’re working a job you dislike, it is most likely teaching you something you must learn before you can move forward with your dreams. Once you give up and decide that’s where your dream stops, the universe will listen to your inner dialog.
If you keep telling yourself that your dreams are unattainable, your dreams will in fact be unattainable.
I hope some of you take this advice and realize that we can do so much more than we allow ourselves to believe. We are worth so much more than we give ourselves credit. Once we start believing that, and put in the small steps towards our goals, eventually we will make it to our destiny.
