Follow Your Dream with a Back-Up Plan, or Two, or Three…
Posted on January 16, 2015 by Denise McCanles, One of Thousands of Health and Fitness Coaches on Noomii.
Starting something new at midlife sounds scary and challenging, but it can also be exciting and transforming.
We are told at a very young age that if you work hard and never give up, your dreams will come true. We hear this all the time from people who have done just that, and we believe it. I believed it. I loved acting more than anything, and I just knew that I had the passion and perseverance to succeed. I was good at it, and pursued it non-stop for a very long time. At a certain point, however, I realized it wasn’t going to happen. I was devastated and bitter. I wanted to tell everyone that the “Follow Your Dream” propaganda was a lie. It sets you up for failure.
In a perfect world we would be taught to have more than one dream, to have many things we are passionate about, and to pursue each and every one in any order we like. We would be taught to be open to new experiences, to discovering new interests, and to creating new careers as life goes on.
Starting something new at midlife sounds scary and challenging, but it can also be exciting and transforming. It takes thinking differently and creatively, being open to new ideas, and creating new opportunities for yourself by expanding the way you think of yourself and your capabilities. In this way, you can adapt to wherever life leads you.
In today’s world, we need to constantly reinvent ourselves in order to grow and survive. It is about listening to that inner voice of yours —no, not your inner critic, but your intuitive voice. Sit down with yourself and think about activities that you love doing. Things that you enjoy so much that you are unaware of hours going by. Things that you get completely lost in. Make lists of your skills and interests and see where they overlap. Brainstorm with yourself, with friends. Remember, your possibilities are endless and ageless if you believe they are. Have faith in yourself and dream big, bigger, and biggest. Now you have choices, and if that first dream doesn’t work out for you, then you just happen to have another waiting in the wings.
