so your life didn’t turn out the way you thought it would

 

OK, so your life didn’t turn out the way you thought it would.

 

Maybe you’re feeling bitter. Or disappointed. Or maybe even angry.

 

Well, you could keep on living your life like that, or you can decide to make a change. If you want to keep on living like that you should probably stop reading right now. If you want to make a change let’s talk about how.

First, you need to decide if your lost dreams are truly lost. Are they something that you could still pursue now? If so, read on. If not, it’s time to put the dream in the past. To release it. To send it out to sea.

 

Sure, you could always become a concert pianist at age 80. But perhaps you can’t become a rock ‘n roll drummer at age 45 when you have children to support and a lot of responsibilities. So decide if it’s time to let it go and move on.

 

They say that it’s better to be a has-been than never having been anything at all, but I disagree. It’s better to figure out your new dreams and pursue them than to live in the past, full of wishful thinking and regrets.

 

Identify if your bitterness and anger is holding you back or coloring your world. If it is, seek help to work through it. Perhaps you may need help letting go and in that case it may be helpful to talk with a professional.

 

Maybe the best thing to do is to figure out your next step. Figure out what your new dreams are and  pursue them. So how do we do that?

 

 

Think about that thing you’ve been wanting to do for a while now and decide if that’s one of the dreams you want to pursue. (Maybe it’s not that simple. Maybe you don’t know what you want to do now. I will address that in a future article.)

This is not anywhere near as simple as it sounds. It’s a simple three-word sentence – create a plan – but it is actually amazingly complex. Don’t let that deter you. Think about your end goal and then think about how to accomplish it. Mind you this step may take months or years especially if you are older with a lot of responsibilities.

 

It’s also important to recognize that everything has a season.

 

 

Finally, begin to take tiny steps toward your end goal. Set small, meaningful goals. Create assignments for yourself with timelines attached, because too often it’s easy to have big dreams but not actually take steps forward. So if you give yourself small assignments, you’ll get closer and closer to your end goal.

 

If you miss a deadline, don’t sweat it. Adjust your timelines and keep moving. This sounds amazingly easy, but honestly the most difficult part is holding yourself accountable for your own future. There are so many people in this world who have dreams and never follow through on them. Let’s not be those people. Let’s set goals and move forward in our lives to accomplish those things that we want to do, even if it takes months or years or even decades. Because if we don’t make a move and take steps to accomplish those goals, we will live our lives as bitter, regretful wishful thinkers who wish we had done something different, when in fact we could have.

 

Our time is limited so let’s use it wisely.