I dream to dream

The gold star list. Totally awesome right? To show you these aren't things I just talk about, I am going to share with you one of my dreams.


I want to always keep dreaming.

It's as simple as that. Dream #1 is to always keep dreaming. No matter where I am in my life or what I'm doing, I always want to have a dream in front of me. Even when I'm 92 (I'm living til I'm 93 by the way) I will still continue to grow and experience the world and live my life in the moment. It is very important to me.

It is important for me to keep dreaming because it keeps me growing. I love more than anything in the world who I am as a person and where I want to go, but I'm not content to just rest on my laurels. I don't want to work hard to achieve a goal only to be content with myself for achieving it. It is important to always keep growing. To always evaluate where we are in life and where we want to go. To continue to get better. I feel like a lot of us set out with a goal list and once we reach a certain point we think that's enough. We get comfortable in our lives and with who we are and we don't continue to challenge ourselves to become better. We need to keep challenging ourselves. It will keep us sharp. It will keep us strong. And who knows, you might be chasing a dream and discover a whole new world you never knew existed!

Even if we aren't happy with our life and want to do something better, we might not form new dreams or chase what we really want because we are scared. The goals we used to want have been accomplished and the dreams we might now want we aren't sure about chasing because it means growing. We worked so hard to accomplish our previous goals we shouldn't just make new ones and move on right? Wrong. If you want to, you need to. One of the best parts about gold star lists are their flexiblity. I mean, last time I checked, most of us don't do a lot of stone carving to make our lists. It's really easy to revise, adapt, and add to your goals. Heck, every time I do I get another gold star because I'm adding a dream to my list. Yay for dream #1! Gosh, what a great dream! Anyway, our dreams can always be revisited and reevaluated. Have you always wanted to paint, but think you are are now too old to start? Go take a class, slap down some paper and go for it! You don't have to become the next Monet. Paint to paint! It's your life. It's your dream. It doesn't have to be for anyone else but you. You can always grow. You can always dream new dreams. You can always become who you want to be. It's never to late.

Take 14 year old Josh for example. He had goals. He had dreams. But if I would have stopped there, I wouldn't be where I am today. 14 year old Josh would hardly recognize me. He was really into math, HATED writing, was extremely shy and didn't have much confidence. Oh and he really didn't like to run what so ever. Chasing a soccer ball maybe, but running to run? Never. Good thing he did cross country! He never thought in a million years he would one day have his life be filled with running and writing like it is now. He thought he would graduate college, get a job as a computer programmer and live a happy life. But he grew. And his goals changed. And now here I am. I want different things than I did back then. I want to travel. I want to see and experience the world. I want to help kids realize they are important. I want to inspire. Unlike 14 year old Josh, I won't be happy just having a 9-5 job and a house and settling down to live out the rest of my days. I need more. I want more. There are times when the unknown still frightens me. But guess what? I'm still growing. Instead of cowering, I'm starting to get excited about ideas of the unknown. About the opportunities which arise from following my dreams. And this is why my number one dream is to keep dreaming. To keep challenging myself to become better. A decade ago, the life I'm leading now would have scared the heck out of me. But now? I'm excited. I'm excited about who I am. I'm excited about where I'm going. I'm excited about chasing my next dream. Sounds like a gold star to me!