Follow Your Dreams

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A blog post I felt I needed to write that is mostly already written for me.

Lately, my brain has been stewing over the situation faced by an acquaintance. Without going into too much detail or identifying him, I’ll just say a few things to set the backstory for this post.

My acquaintance — I’ll call him Joe — is recently retired in his early 60s. He’s married and his wife still works, but she is set to retire in spring. They’re financially secure, living in a nice home in a nice neighborhood. They have friends and family and are involved in a community organization they like.

Joe has some rather serious health issues and they are definitely slowing him down. But he also has a personal goal that means a lot to him. He started taking steps to achieve that goal, despite a total lack of support by his wife and family — in fact, they actively oppose him. In a way, I was part of the steps he took, providing assistance and training to the best of my ability in the circumstances. But when I recently followed up with him, he indicated that he was going to give up on this dream.

And that’s what I’m stewing over.

Be Amazing

If you’ve been reading this blog for any length of time, you’ll know how I feel about life and making the most of it. Search through this blog — or just look at the handy list I’ve compiled for you at the end of this blog post — and you’ll find plenty of posts where I either implore readers to follow their own dreams or crow about how I’ve been following mine.

And yes, I know it isn’t easy sometimes. There are always obstacles. But we’ve all heard amazing stories about people beating the odds to achieve things no one thought were possible. Amputees running marathons. Blind folks flying airplanes. Cancer survivors climbing Mount Everest. Wow! Talk about obstacles! Yet these folks did it. It really puts the concept of challenges into perspective.

Rather than sitting back and saying “I can’t do this because…” these people went out and did it. They are amazing.

But you can be amazing, too.

So can Joe.

One Life

LifeEvery single one of us has just one life. It doesn’t matter what you believe happens to our souls (or whatever) when we die. There’s just one real life on earth for us to do the things we want to do. We can either surf (or struggle) through the days we have, letting life’s routines and the desire to please family, friends, and employers guide our very existence. Or we can chart our own paths though life, facing challenges and reaping rewards along the way.

Joe has health issues. That’s undeniable. They sap his energy — at least now. But are they really enough for him to abandon his dream? After all, achieving — or even getting started on the path to achieving — this goal might be one of the last things he does.

And what if his health issues disappear and he lives another 20 or 30 years? Will he always regret not chasing down his dream, especially when he was already on the path to doing so?

And shame on his wife and family for not supporting his desire to achieve this goal. Honestly, I think that’s what’s getting under my skin most of all.

That’s Enough

I don’t need to write any more about this. I already have. Here’s a list of related posts in this blog. This is not an AI-generated list. It’s a real list.

If you’re feeling unsatisfied with your life and want to get on a different path or achieve a specific goal, the posts in this list can help you get started.

Make it happen.

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9 thoughts on “Follow Your Dreams”

    • I think you’ve got the right idea. I really pity the folks who don’t plan ahead for retirement and wind up having to work to pay their bills until they die.

      I’ll never fully retire. I think that having real work to do is part of what keeps me alive. But I am slowing down and starting to say NO a lot more often. And let’s face it — I’ve been semi-retired since around 2017 when I stopped doing frost control in California.

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  3. I know you don’t do Facebook any longer. But if you did, you’d know I just finished a 100 mile solo hike in Ireland.
    So many of the folks I met seemed amazed I did the walk on my own. I sort of shrug and say (or sometimes just think), “If I wait for someone else to have the time, the money or the inclination…I’d never get to do anything.”

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    • Congratulations! That sounds like a great trip. I’ve actually been thinking about doing one of the long paths in the UK.

      I did the Great Loop mostly solo and ran into quite a few people who were unsuitably amazed at what I was doing. But I’m with you: am I supposed to wait around to fit my adventure into someone else’s schedule/budget?

      Related: look for an email from me.

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  4. But…We still don’t know whether Joe’s wish is realistic. If it’s a bucket list thing like a tandem sky dive then Joe should definitely do it. If it’s a wish for an early exit then he should move to a state that allows it but if it’s a lavish purchase which endangers the family’s financial security in the longterm then maybe he should listen to the views of others?

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    • I don’t think money is the problem. I think it’s health and lack of support. He recently had a medical procedure and it left him so exhausted that he naps every day. But will that be forever? I don’t think so, especially if he takes another important (and obvious) step to improve his health. When I was with him, he got around surprisingly well. But being surrounded by people telling him he’s not up to it and it’s a big mistake is not making anything easier for him. Of course, I could be wrong. It won’t be the first time.

      Reply ↓

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