Your Dreams Aren’t Going To Wait For You

So you have a dream. You have an idea, a dream, a concept that fills you with excitement. Lights your heart on fire. Ignites a spark of passion in you.

Are you chasing it? No? Why? Because you have a job already? But let me ask, do you have a career? Do you love what you went to college for? Do you love what you spend 40 hours a week pursuing? Can you say that you are inexplicably happy working a 9-5? If so, that is amazing. May we all find that happiness.

If not, why should you have to settle? Who wrote the rule book and told you that you could not chase the things you hold dear? Who told you that you had to follow the formatted societal game plan?

Let me tell you something: that plan is boring. And it is not yours. We are so very lucky that today, we have the option of carving our own paths. Making our own mistakes. Making our own decisions.

That doesn’t mean it comes easily. That doesn’t mean we won’t have periods of famine, or struggle. But we can work and push harder than others are willing to. Play harder. Live life like it will end one day. Because it will. Time is not unlimited. Time is the one resource you have that will truly and utterly expire.

So you have a dream. When you wake up in the morning, what kind of life do you want to lead? What does your day look like? What does it feel like? Where are you? Does the air smell crisp and sweet like a mountain range? Or is it whizzing by, heavy and busy like a New York city block?

You have to decide. You can wake up and feel as if you are living the same day over and over again. You can wake up and forget all of the things that bring you true joy. You can work paycheck to paycheck or work for the sole purpose of your paycheck.

Or you can wake up and live. You can wake up and be bold. Be courageous. Be adventurous. Be decisive. Be wild and crazy and playful and still pursue your dreams.

Are you willing to wake up early and stay later? Are you willing to chase the life you crave with both arms pumping and lungs burning?

If you are, and you mean it, make a plan. Set up a step by step path for yourself. If you don’t know all of the answers, (who knows all of the answers?), seek out an expert in that field. Seek out someone who knows how to get from A to B and is willing to help you along the away.

Then just start. Start anywhere. Just begin. Practice. Walk until you can jog. Jog until you can run. But when you can run, keep running until running becomes sprinting. Until sprinting becomes as simple as taking a breath.

Do not give up. Do not be discouraged by the pot holes or the stop signs or the yellow lights. Do not listen to the people that do not understand the journey. Do not listen to the people who say you can’t, you won’t, you never will. Because you can. You will.

Your dreams do not care about your age, they do not care about your race or gender or sexuality. They care how much you are willing to fight for them. How many times you will have their back when they are doubted.

Every single thing you can think up is attainable. I promise. It may take months or years or decades. Dreams have their own time tables. But with perseverance, dedication, late nights, early mornings, and the grace of something bigger than all of us, you will reach the finish line. The time will go by anyway, why waste it?

Alison Malee is a poet and the author of the book Shifting Bone.

Shifting Bone is available as a physical and electronic book. You can buy it here.