Pursue Your Dreams 

by Carol Janssen, Life Coach

“Follow Your Dreams” -- We see that a lot: on greeting cards, on jewelry, on bumper stickers.  Are our dreams as illusive as they seem to be?  How can we be more in control over how we make our dreams come true? 

When I think of “Follow Your Dreams,” it feels like something passive that I do… that I will sit back and wait for my dreams to lead me somewhere, and let someone or something else do all the work.  I want to be more involved with reaching my dreams.  How can I do that?  By being proactive, by being active, by actually doing something about them.  Why not pursue my dreams instead of letting them lead me – to follow?

“To follow” is a passive verb and “to pursue” is an active verb.  I want to be actively involved in the realization of my dreams.  I know that I can’t be passive and wait for my dreams to happen to me.  I need to be in the driver’s seat… to take control, to pay attention, to be actively in pursuit of my dreams.  How do I do that?

Make a plan.  Nothing happens without a plan.  Even if it’s not our own plan, it’s the plan of someone else, or it’s God’s plan.  I know that if I sit down and actually write down my dreams, they become goals.  After all, goals are simply dreams with a time frame.  And once articulated, then my dreams are much closer to becoming a reality than if I’m passive and simply wish for them to come true.

Be bold.  Take action.  If I’m actively involved in the culmination of my dreams, then my life will be much more exciting, more fulfilled, and a lot more fun.  After all, life is not a dress rehearsal.  Life is what happens when we’re making plans.  All the clichés and all the wishes will not come true unless I actually do something.

Don’t wait for life to happen to you.  Dream big, dream often, and Pursue Your Dreams!

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