KEEP DREAMING

By: Kyla Tollefson

All of us, whether big or small, are working towards some type of goal in life. We all have dreams and aspirations that we want to conquer. Some people work hard towards a goal and experience success after a short period of time. Most people work for years before ever fully reaching what they’ve been working towards. It could take you one year or one decade to fulfill your dreams, but neither one makes you more successful. It’s the journey that really matters, not the destination. We can get so wrapped up in the “next step” that we forget to live in the moment. Don’t take your life for granted.

We’ve all faced failure in some form, and that can tamper with our ability to continue keep dreaming. The saying goes, “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.” Easier said than done. Disappointment, doubt, fear, and uncertainty are a part of life though. If at first you fail, get up and try again.

Nothing good in life comes easily. You have to lose things you thought you loved, give up things you thought you needed. You have to get over yourself, beyond your past, and out from under the weight of your future. You have to let go of the need to be perceived as perfect, and the fear that people will leave once they see who you really are inside. Let go of the things that hold you down.

There is freedom when you can invest yourself deeply and intermittently in the life that surrounds you, instead of declaring yourself out of the game because what has happened to you is too bad, too ugly, too deep for anyone to expect you to move on from. When you can stand up and no longer be afraid to look your past failures in the face, you can come to a new beginning. New dreams begin to take root in your heart, and you find strength you never knew you had. You’re not living in worry, because you know that each trial brings about a new opportunity that can teach you something, and make you a stronger person. That’s that good rich place; the place where things that looked for all intents and purposes, like curses, start to stand up and shimmer and dance. It’s there that you realize, with a gasp, that they might have been blessings all along.

The good stuff never comes easy.