Remember those passions and dreams you put on the shelf when you were younger, because they weren't practical? Maybe you loved to sing, act or paint. Perhaps you had mountains calling you to climb, a goal to run a marathon or a book inside your heart yearning to be set to paper. Did you always wish you could learn to speak French, but never quite got around to it? Or planned to go back and finish college someday...but someday hasn't happened yet.
Whatever it is for you - why did you stop? Or never even start? If you are anything like me, I am guessing life happened. The older you got, the more time and money started getting channeled toward adulting. Raising kids, building careers and paying the bills. The house needed cleaning. Relationships required attention. There just weren't enough hours in the day anymore, so the passions slowly faded out of your life, replaced by demands and "have-to's."
There also most likely have been voices telling you to grow up. Get a "real" job. Be responsible. Bring your head down out of the clouds. Stop being selfish, put away childish things and pursue success as the world defines it. Convincing you that you weren't talented enough, pretty enough or smart enough. Until you believed them, and simply gave in and gave up. Or maybe even worse, that voice was your own, because deep down you didn't think you deserved the fanciful or spectacular. Those things were reserved for amazing, special people - not ordinary, regular people like you.
Now don't misunderstand me here. I am all for maturity, integrity and responsibility. So much satisfaction can come from jobs and families too, both in giving and receiving. A lot of life is about getting necessary things done, and that's ok. The trouble comes though, when over time we allow our individuality to become stamped down by outer influences. When in the process of meeting other people's needs, our own become buried or forgotten.
There is no sadder sound than the anguished soul cries of dying dreams. Can you hear them too? You're not too old you know. It's never too late to revive enthusiasm and zest for living. To recall or reinvent hobbies that spark your joy and creativity. I just signed up for social dance lessons, by myself, at age 53. I used to love to dance, but it has been many years, and these days I feel pretty lumbering and awkward in my body to be honest. I have so many reasons to talk myself out of this, and decide that this is a ridiculous thing to do. And I have no illusions that a professional dance career is likely at this point, so it's not about that or any particular goal or agenda. I'm simply longing to get back in touch with a part of myself that's been lost. To give that girl inside that loved to dance, the freedom to express herself again. It's overdue.
What have YOU been putting off and waiting for? It's never too late to believe in your dreams, even the ones you haven't nurtured for awhile. Maybe it's time for you too.
Comentarios