Getting Realistic With Your Dream

Are you feeling stuck in your career or in life in general?

Are you always thinking about where you DON’T want to be?

Sometimes we can be so busy fretting and fuming about where we don’t want to be, that we forget to define what it is we actually want! And how can you get what you want when you don’t know what it is?
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In this blog, we explore some ideas on constructively designing your future.

What Do You Want To Do?

I am writing this blog post as someone in the middle of asking myself that very question. Sometimes, the problem with wanting to escape from your current situation that you feel stuck in, is that you have an idealistic, generalised sense of wanting to do anything other than what you are doing now. Your dominant emotion is ‘I don’t want to do this particular thing any more’.

​You get so desperate that you are obsessed with this one objective of not being in a certain place doing a certain thing. At the moment, I have been envisioning myself in some hazy realm of doing something creative, that has loads of variety, and loads of opportunities to be in leadership, mentoring other people. I want all those things in one place at one time, but I have not yet broken it down and decided how I want this to look in reality. The joys of being an idealist!

Being overwhelmed with emotion can make it hard to think in a constructive rational way, meaning that you keep yourself stuck in a funk of frustration, anger and disappointment. I have made the mistake of going on these internet binges, looking for any kind of lifestyle or career inspiration on Pinterest. But instead of bringing me clarity, it only increases a sense of this vague shapeless dream being unattainable and out of reach.

Feelings are good, but they are hard to pin down. That’s when it’s important to start thinking methodically and rationally. It can help to talk it through with someone you trust - but try not to get bogged down with venting about how rubbish you feel about your job, or lack of direction.

I am talking along the lines of timescales, and steps, and actions. Start by examining your vague dream.

So, you are obsessed with your need for variety.

1. What things do you want to do?
2. What tasks do you want to learn how to do?
   
3. How will you go about learning them?
   
4. What tasks do you want to do less of?

So, you want progression. What point do you want to progress to? Saying you want progression is great, but you have to learn to define out loud or on paper what that means to you, and what you practically want it to look like, or how you want it to happen.

When you have defined what you want your progress to look like, what do you need to change in order to make progress possible? What habits do you need to change? What personal stuff do you need to work on? Realistically, where do you want to have progressed to in, say, a month, six months, or a year?

​In order to progress, you need a direction. Maybe you can be working on some of this in your spare time. Perhaps you can take a free online course in the areas you want to increase your knowledge and skill in. Maybe it’s a hobby that you want to turn into something more. Did you think about volunteering? ​

So you want your work to be more creative. What do you want to create? What do you enjoy creating? How can you be honing your talent right now, in your spare time?

Once you answer some of these questions and start putting flesh on the bones of your hazy dream, you will probably start to see that maybe your varied, creative, and leading job is more within your reach than you thought.

So, let’s start getting realistic! Let’s stop clinging on to our sense of frustration and victimhood. Let’s stop feeling defeated and disappointed. Let’s start getting our hands dirty and making something happen. Let’s start enjoying our process of discovery!

The future we want is closer than we think...