31 Days of Finding Freedom in Simplicity - Dreams

There seem to be two types of people in this world, those
who give it their all and continue to reach their dreams, and those
who make excuses as to why it just isn’t happening.

I happen to fall in the second camp. I am really great at figuring out what I want to do, but not so great in coming up with the steps to achieve that dream. In fact, I bet a lot of us fall into that
second camp. Do you see the life that you want, but are unsure of how to get there?

When you think about your dreams, do you tend to make
excuses as to why they can’t or won’t happen?
Today, it is easy for you to have so many things going on in life that
it seems impossible to be able to move forward with your dreams.

There are bills to pay, there are mouths to feed, there are
responsibilities that you have. You are
frustrated with your circumstances, you can’t figure out how to get from point
A to point B. You know that you are on
the cusp of some big accomplishment, but for some reason it feels like it is
constantly just out of reach.

Now, most people will tell you that you need to write your
goals in a SMART way, and then you will be able to reach them. Honestly, SMART goals are really really
important in the process, but sometimes you don’t know how to measure your
progress, or it might not seem quite attainable. This is when it can start to be
frustrating. You see the big picture,
you see the end result, but you have no clue on how to get there.

You are letting things hold you back. Your relationships, your possessions, your
finances, all of these things can hold you back from reaching your dreams, but
only if you let them.

It is a hard reality to face, and one that my husband and I
have been discussing a lot lately. What
exactly is holding us back? What changes
do we need to make in order to live out our passions?

We live in a very old house.
It needs a lot of work. We got a
lot of work done when we first bought the house, and then babies and bills
started to arrive on our doorstep, and it was no longer feasible to do as much
work as we had been doing.

It is often a heavy weight on us. We seem almost at a standstill as to what is
next because we have this big home that needs a lot of work. We struggle because we are blessed to have a
nice big house that easily fits everything we own, and everyone has space. But, it also is a weight on us, always
looking ahead, but never quite being able to grasp what it is that we want.

Fear plays a big role in this. You know what you want, but you also know
that it is going to take some unconventional means to get there. It isn’t as easy as getting job x in such and
such a country and going up the corporate ladder – that doesn’t seem to be the
dream anymore. Now the dream is
different, it is not main stream, and it is off the beaten path. You don’t have a compass or a map to figure
out where to go next.

When you start to simplify the things of life around you,
possessions you don’t care much about, commitments that you really aren’t
committed to, relationships that may be doing more harm than good, you are able
to start to see some of the freedom to reach for your dreams.

You can get stuck in the rat race, or if you are feeling that
there must be something more, you can jump off the track and start to dare to
do more. When you let those expectations
go, either from others or from yourself, you can start to move forward towards
those dreams, and they don’t seem so far off anymore.

Instead they seem to be within your grasp.

Do you
have a dream or goal that you think is a bit unconventional? I would love to hear about it!

Find the entire 31 Days of Finding Freedom in Simplicity series here.