Sneak Up On Your Dreams

I get so jealous of people who know exactly what they want and seem to feel it deep inside their beings.  It’s as if they have a target circle pained on some distant goal and all they need to do is to keep their eye on it and it will draw them to it.  Unfortunately, I don’t find that most people have that kind of passion.  The problem, though, is that if you don’t set your sights on anything, you might not get anywhere.

There are many people who, intelligently, take the next right step in their lives over and over again and get reasonable places. When they graduate from high school they go to college, when they meet someone they like they get married, when they’re offered a job they take it. They keep building on this series of nexts and arrive at a nice place.

Sometimes, though, it’s hard to tell what the next step should be without some kind of eye on the future.  If there’s a decision to be made, should I take this job or that one, it’s hard to decide without some larger ideal driving you.  I find that every time I start wondering if I should be out there getting a higher paying job, I can appease myself by remembering that my goal is not more money, but more free time.

What I’ve found is that a passionless passion is just fine. A passionless passion is a goal that you are happy and comfortable with, but perhaps not completely insane about.  I might want to do something in particular or achieve something, but if I ran into a big obstacle I’d be fine with changing or altering my plans.  Having a goal, though, with or without deep passion for it, gives me some kind of guide to work with. I can attempt to reach my goal and along the way I’ll learn more about myself and what I want.  If need be I’ll switch my goal to something else entirely.

Currently, I’m working on saving money for the down payment on another house.  I’d like another, bigger house, but I’ll survive without it.  Keeping my mind set on the goal, though, cannot hurt at all.  If I achieve my dream of another house I’ll be happy, if I don’t and my goals change then I’ll just have a bunch of money in the bank.  I can live with that.

If you’re having a difficult time coming up with a true, deep passion for some goal, try to develop some passionless passions.  Come up with things that you think you’d like and work towards those.  The practice of working towards a goal is always helpful, if even just for the practice of working slowly towards a goal.