Hope Is To Purpose As Air Is To Life. Will Being And Doing what others want fulfill me?

Robert H Goddard said “It is difficult to say what is impossible, for the dream of yesterday is the hope of today and the reality of tomorrow.”

Too often at some point in our lives maybe when our children grow up and leave home or some other major life changing event happens we realize time has passed and with it our dreams of who and what we wanted to be and do. We look around and wonder where it all has gone? We have spent each day being the perfect something, maybe it was wife, mother, employee or friend. Before we realize it those days have turned to weeks, and the weeks ran into months, the months became years and they all became the past. We stand here in the middle or latter part of our lives and wonder, “what now?” Who should I be now? Who do I please? How is it I gave so many years to all these things to now feel so alone?

Stop. Right now just stop and ask yourself this question. What do I want? Not what do others want or expect of me but what do I want? Somewhere along the way we forgot. We forgot what made us wake up for us, what made us smile and laugh. We became so wrapped up and doing and being everything everyone wanted us to be we forgot what and who we wanted to be. It is never too late. If you wanted to have children and are too old to have children the world is full of children that need to be loved. There are ways to be involved in children’s lives without being their parent. If you have always wanted to be a great cook, then take a cooking class. If you have dreamed of being a singer check into the local theater and see if there are any musicals you could be in or take singing lessons.

The only limitation to achieving our dreams is our own inability to continue to dream them. Those very dreams give our lives purpose and hope. They breathe air into our lives like a gust of wind into a kite. They carry us away to a place where once we believed in fairytales, Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and anything we could imagine was possible. We lost that ability to dream as we grew up and filled our roles in life. Well knock it off. We aren’t sure how many tomorrows we will have, yet how great it will be to look back over our lives and realize we never stopped hoping. We never reached a point where we didn’t have a purpose for something new and exciting. It doesn’t have to be huge; it just has to be something you want. As you continue to fulfill your dreams you exude happiness and it becomes contagious.

At some point we learned that to be a good wife, mother, employee, or friend we had to sacrifice what we wanted to be what everyone else wanted. It isn’t true; in fact it is a lie. We have to consider others and include them but not at the expense of sacrificing everything we want. Continue to pursue your dreams for they are your purpose and they will give you constant hope. With that hope you will always have a breath of fresh air to awaken you and remind you of all you have to offer others and yourself.