When Will You Feel Like You’ve Achieved Your Dreams?
A Stream of Consciousness Piece
I was at Target and passed by a copy of TIME Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People of 2024. I saw Patrick Mahomes laying his head on a football looking at me, I picked up the magazine, I leafed through people…filmmakers, activists, actors, athletes. All of these people with incredible lives, drive.
And I kept thinking to myself, Man. My life is kind of bullshit.
In my heart, I know that this is awful and weird in so many ways. My life is not bullshit. I’m setting up an editing business. I have people coming my way wanting help and work. There are seeds that I planted in my life in the past that are starting to finally bloom. I am building a life that I love, I set my own schedule each day, and I have no major problems. No health issues, overwhelming debt, seriously entrapping life circumstances — none of that. I have a lot of blessings to reflect on that I’m incredibly grateful for.
But that’s not even the best part: no one, not even myself, ever knows how good their life is going to get. Repeat that.
The journey is unknown. The blessings are unimaginable. The hope is, hopefully, unshakeable.
I hate feeling like my life is very “whatever,” as if there’s anything actually wrong with that in the first place. Heck, it’s sometimes even enviable to some people. I wonder if Taylor Swift would love to go to Target by herself like me.
Still, the feeling stands. We weren’t meant to travel our lives feeling mediocre and small. I guess that’s why we have dreams in the first place.
Yet here’s the thing that one has to remember about dreams: yes, they’re magical and beautiful. Yes, people who achieved theirs feel an immense sense of accomplishment. But at the same time — and this is so key — the buildup to achieving your dreams is….gradual.
There’s a quote I think about from the Pixar movie Soul:
Dorothea: What’s wrong teach?
Joe: It’s just, I’ve been waiting on this day for my entire life. I thought I’d feel different.
Dorothea: I heard this story about a fish. He swims up to this older fish and says, “I’m trying to find this thing they call the ocean.” “The ocean?” says the older fish, “that’s what you’re in right now.” “This?” says the younger fish, “This is water. What I want is the ocean.”
It’s probably one of the most memorable quotes in the movie because it resonates with us so much. Dreams are almost ephemeral in nature because when we achieve them, they’re no longer dreams. They’re our real life.
Furthermore, when the time comes when we have achieved our dreams (and I do mean to say “when,” because we’re all capable of it), new dreams will take their place. We will always strive for new goals and aspirations, because that is the lifeblood of our existence. Humans find ways to motivate ourselves to make life bigger than it is in this moment of time.
So, let me wrap myself back to the moment of looking through the TIME magazine. Every single influential person in that issue reached their dreams in ways they couldn’t have actually imagined, and once they were blessed enough by luck and hard work to reach them, their dream life became their steady state. It’s their equilibrium, their normal.
Also, I guarantee that even with their dreams achieved (or, at least, their biggest dreams), they still get pissed off in traffic, have moments where they lose their phone, and go to the doctor to get their cholesterol checked. OK, but they have a mansion to go back to. Whatever.
All of this is to say that perspective is so key. Take a bird’s eye view of your life. Center yourself on who you are and who you really want to be.
And finally, trust yourself that you’ll get there in time.
