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Thursday, November 10, 2011

Step 11 - Follow Your Dreams

Day 11 of the National Blog Post Month challenge where I’m writing a blog post every day along the theme of 30 Steps to Happiness and Contentment.

 Do you remember this:
Happy talk, keep talking, happy talk.
Talk about things you like to do.
You've got to have a dream,
if you don't have a dream,
how you gonna make a dream come true?
Depending on your age, you'll either recognise it from Rogers and Hammerstein's South Pacific,  or if you're a bit younger you may remember Captain Sensibles version in the 80's or if you're even younger you may recognise it from Dizzy Rascals 'Dream' in the 90's (I must admit this version passed me by, I only found it on Youtube yesterday).

Anyway, enough of that, it just sprung into my mind for the last few lines:
You've got to have a dream, If you don't have a dream
How're you going to make a dream come true?
Such an obvious statement, but it's absolutely true.  So many people seem to get stuck in a rut and loose sight of any dreams they may have once had.  But, you really do need to have dreams because they give us something to focus on and strive for.

Some dreams are easily obtainable, some are harder to achieve and other may, at times, seem impossible, but that doesn't stop you striving for them.

When I met my husband, he was full of dreams, many of which seemed very unlikely at the time, but he has now achieved many of them through hard work and determination.

For instance he always wanted his own Garden Centre - 20 years ago (even 5 years ago) this seemed an impossible dream and yet nearly 3 years ago, against the odds, Kingdom Vegetal opened it's gates for the first time!

Us with our eldest son at the opening of our Garden Centre
Many of the dreams we have alter course as we grow older and our needs change.  Gary and I had dreams of living abroad, initially we wanted to live in Greece.  When the time came we discovered Greece wasn't practical at that time with the ages of our children and so we decided to move to the South of France instead.  (It's probably just as well with the situation in Greece at the moment).  Now we have dreams of maybe retiring there....

Some dreams are more easily attainable - for instance I had an idea for my dream kitchen when we moved into our house 7 years ago.  We had so many other things to do (convert 3 holiday apartments, bedrooms and bathrooms for ourselves, manage the land and start up a garden centre from scratch to name a few), so a new kitchen was way down on our list of priorities.  Anyway, gradually we chipped away at it and now (with the added help of my lovely family) I have the kitchen of my dreams.  OK it's not quite finished, but it's usable and I love it!

There are loads of dreams I have for our house and they feel more achievable now we have the new kitchen.  It might take another 10 years (or more) before they're all realised, but if we can just achieve one a year that's good.

Then of course I have bigger dreams - to finish my book and get it published.  To make a living from writing - wouldn't that be great, I'd needn't feel guilty about the time it uses then!

So, hold on to you're dreams and if you don't have any, well find some! 

What dreams do you have?

You may be interested in the other posts in this series:
Step 30 - The Key to Happiness and Contentment
Step 29 -You are the master of your own destiny
Step 28 - Don't give up on a good relationship
Step 27 - Don't Judge , Live and let live
Step 26 - Don't Worry, by happy
Step 25 - Never give up
Step 24 - Get by with a little help from your friends
Step 23 - Go with the Flow
Step 22 - Enjoy the moment
Step 21 - Love what you do
Step 20 - Forgive and Forget
Step 19 - Unconditional giving
Step 18 - Smile and the world smiles with you
Step 17 - Work to live, don't live to work
Step 16 - Surround yourself with Positive People
Step 15 - Always look on the bright side of life
Step 14 - Where there's a will there's a way
Step 13 - Silence is Golden
Step 12 - Feed your Soul
Step 11 - Follow your Dreams
Step 10 - Use your time wisely
Step 9 - Don't be too hard on yourself
Step 8 - Consider what you value most
Step 7 - Find time for Yourself
Step 6 - Make time for Family and Friends
Step 5 - Don't take yourself too Seriously
Step 4 - Feel the Fear and do it Anyway
Step 3 - Love what you Hate
Step 2 - There's no such word as CAN''T
Step 1 - Find the Best in Every Day

9 comments:

  1. I love this one, and you are the poster-girl for makng your dreams come true so it's all the more poignant coming from you. Only having one life can be a problem - you have to define the dream that is most important and that' s hard. Maybe tha't why some people don't bother at all?

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  2. Awww thanks for the vote of confidence Midlife Singlemum! I think we should have lots of dreams and just be patient, work on the more achievable ones, but always have in mind your bigger dreams as you never know what's round the corner. :)

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  3. very inspiring - in the currently economic climate I am struggling to fulfil my dreams and they are very simple. Boo

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  4. I know what you mean Gemma it is hard, but I think it's times like these it's even more important to have your dreams to hold on to. You might not be able to attain them yet, but times will change. Keep dreaming - it will happen, eventually :)

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  5. I didn't know you loved Greece! I lived there for 3 years, oldest was born there and we go back regularly! Where would you live then? What's your dream for retirement? Our dream is to flit between several countries, having places in each one, being fluent in each language too xxx @lunchboxworld

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  6. Hi Caroline, yes we wanted to live in Crete, but as our eldest had to board in England it was too difficult to travel there in the winter. We were even taking Greek lessons when we were in England. I guess we'd still like to have a home there one day and like you it would be lovely to be able to flit between several countries, France included because I do love it here and I expect at least some of my children will stay here when they're older.

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  7. Good reminder. My big dreams are to get a novel published, be a mom, and have a second home abroad (probably France!). Ahhh. Little dreams include redoing our bathroom and kitchen and traveling more.

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  8. wow you really did make it happen - thats so inspiring - well done you x Im trying to make it happen - Im at uni studying at the age of 38 so Im getting there but impressive work there missus

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  9. Hi Ramblinbess, thanks for sharing - hope your dreams come true :)

    Thanks Alyson, my husband did his degree in his 30s - it's not easy studying later in life with a family etc, but I think you're more motivated and haven't usually got the student social scene to distract you! Good luck with you're studies :)

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