Are You Living Your Dream or Dreaming of a Life You Want to Live?

Last weekend I had the great joy of watching my 20-year-old son in his New York City debut as a professional dancer. He’s been dancing in Germany for two years, and the company, SemperOper Ballett, toured to the United States for the Fall for Dance Festival at City Center. As I watched him on stage, I felt proud of his accomplishment and happy that he is living his dream.

Most of us just dream about the life we’d like to live. We don’t take the steps to make that dream into a reality.

Pursuing Your Passion and Purpose

From the time my children were quite young, I allowed them to pursue their interests. I wanted them to explore all their passions so they could discover the one or two that felt like their purpose in life.

My son’s path was a direct one. Although he was quite good at almost every sport, and he tried many of them, he knew he wanted to dance from the time he was three years old. Once he started this activity, he never stopped—or wavered. Eventually, everything else fell by the wayside.

My daughter, on the other hand, tried many different activities. The one thing that stayed with her was a love of art. Yet, despite a brief time when she thought she might pursue art as a career, she got a degree in scenic design and technical direction—but only after starting her higher education thinking she’d be a costume designer. It took her longer to find her path, but now she lives her dream by building and managing the creation of fabulous theatrical sets.

I began writing as a young child, first stories about horses, then short stories, then articles for the school and local newspaper. I pursued a degree in magazine journalism that later led me to book publishing. I can say with confidence that I always knew I wanted to write. (A numerologist even once told me my name means “writer,” so it seems to be part of my make up on many levels.) Although my days are not spent only writing, a good bit of my time is focused on being a writer and author. The rest of that time is spent on helping others become writers and authors and succeed at their endeavors—pursue their passion and purpose so they fulfill their potential. I believe, to a great extent, I am living my dream.

Why We are Here

I don’t think we are here on the Earth to just imagine what it would be like to live our dreams. I believe we are born to live those dreams, and that means discovering our passion, pursuing our purpose and fulfilling our potential.

If we don’t, we miss the point.

Be a Good Parent

It’s a parent’s responsibility to help a child find a paying livelihood, but right livelihood can become paying livelihood. And a job that brings joy is better than one that creates unhappiness daily—even if the pay sucks.

As adults, we have to act like parents and support our inner selves as we pursue our right livelihood … finding the job, career, activity that makes our hearts sing. We have to find our dream, and then live it.

Do What You Love

So many books have offered the same advice: Do what you love, the money will follow. Today, you can read blog post or watch videos about making money online—not necessarily spiritually oriented, and they tout the same advice.

I know it can be difficult for those who are the primary income earners and who support families to just quit their jobs to pursue their dreams. But there are ways to begin moving in that direction.

And not everyone who has followed their dreams has become a millionaire. I bet they are happier, though.

Life is short. And you only get to live this life once. Wouldn’t you rather live your dream than dream about living the life of your dreams?

If you have found a way to live your dreams, tell me about it in a comment below.

Photo © Barry Lo | Dreamstime.com