It is easy to say, “I wish…” It is easy to dream, of things you want to accomplish or own. Life is about wishing and dreaming as much as it is about doing. The trick is to not stop at the wishing part and continue on to the doing part of the process.

Many people want more out of life than what they have. I spent years wishing and hoping and dreaming for things that would make my life seem real and fulfilled. Do you know what all that wishing and dreaming got me?

Nothing.

I watched and listened to all my friends doing the same thing. I want….I wish… I want more money. My life is going nowhere. I don’t want to be alone.

On and on we droned. Commiserating and complaining. Wishing and dreaming.

One day, I woke up and said, No more. I made a plan.

I decided what I wanted out of life and I went after it. Yes, I had to step on the heads of some of those friends who were stuck on the same level as me. If they did not move, I stepped over them.

I am not at the end of my journey yet. I am not at the top of the mountain that I chose to climb. I am still dreaming and wishing. The difference is now when I say, “I wish I could…” I then work that dream into my plan. Sometimes that plan is more research on the thing then act. Sometimes the plan is to talk it through then act. The thing is I keep moving toward the big goal that I wished for in the first place. Do not lose sight of the goal. The end prize.

If you make a wish and a plan then the plan fails, reevaluate the plan. The problem is not your dreams, it is the execution of the plan.

As I stand halfway up the mountain and I look back down where I came, I can see that some of the things I thought were failures were not actually failures. They were trajectory adjusters.

Believe with big picture wishes. Believe in long reaching journeys. Believe in dreams as actions.

~Lori