Chasing Your Dream Without Having It Turn Into A Nightmare

A while ago I wrote a piece entitled ‘The Inherent Value of Doing Nothing.
https://www.bebee.com/producer/@jim-murray/the-inherent-value-of-doing-nothing
This was essentially a treatise born out of the extreme fatigue that comes from packing up your life and moving it 70 miles down the road.
When it was over, I needed a rest. So I took it.
It was, of course, short-lived, because I am one of those individuals who are, and have pretty much always been pre-disposed to being hyperactive.
This is what attracted me to the advertising business when I was younger. There the work is heaped on you in great gobs, and if you’re not pre-disposed to being hyperactive, you will be drummed out of the corps rather quickly.

After I went on my own, the hyperactivity got even more intense with the added responsibility of finding my own great gobs of work to do, as opposed to having an endless procession of account people doing that for you. And of course, this was further added to by the fact that you had to do your own marketing as well.
I was in hog heaven.
As I grew older, the hyperactivity became less hyper, mainly because I knew what I was doing and therefore things took less time. So I was able to compensate and keep my hyperactivity gas tank full by branching out into screenplay and lyric writing.
Also around this time, I started an email-delivered column called the Couch Potato Chronicles, which were very long format (3000+ words) review/lifestyle/business columns which I marketed aggressively and grew into a reader base of close to 10,000.
As I grew older still, I realized that this hyperactivity had grown into a more or less permanent state of being. And it worked for me simply because it was all powered by my love of writing.
And that’s kind of the point.

“Most men lead lives of quiet desperation”
Henry David Thoreau

There are a lot of people out there who run on pretty much the same frequency as I do. But for one reason or another, they are giving all their time and energy to something that they are not really passionate about.
A lot of them lack whatever it takes to admit that to themselves, scrap the crap and really work on finding something that not only satisfies their hyperactivity jones but also has some deeper meaning to them.
Those folks, more often than not are the ones who get ‘burned out’, develop chronic illnesses and become angry and unhappy human beings.

What’s Holding People Back?

I’m currently reading the Bruce Springsteen biography, Born To Run. He makes a very eloquent statement about growing up and into middle age with passion. But one of the things that he also expresses is the fear of being tied down by the obligations that a family brings.
This, in my opinion, is the single most common reason why most people never actually get to spread their wings and chase their dreams.
Hell, they hardly ever even get the chance to think in depth about what their dreams might be.
This is not to say that having a family is not a good thing. For many people, it’s the most important thing. And in order to make that work, a lot of people end up sacrificing their dreams. Frank Capra knew that way back in the day when he created “It’s A Wonderful Life”, and it’s a very common theme in both literature and film.

This Is Not A Chase Your Dream Promo, Or Is It?

I’m not a life coach or any other kind of coach. In fact, I’m simply one of the luckiest people I know because I managed to figure out what it was I was going to do with my life when I was young enough and had nothing to lose by trying to make it happen.
For those who are not as lucky, but still have that nagging little voice in their heads, I would not say (naively), screw it all, quit your job, follow your bliss and chase down your dream, because that’s all bullshit that nobody in their right mind really believes or would be loony enough to try.
But…there’s nothing wrong with phasing...by which I mean that once you have identified your dream, don’t quit everything to chase it down. Instead, start reading about it. Get to know how it works. Make it a hobby. Get good at it, And slowly phase it into your life.

If I Can Do It Yadda Yadda...

Every different kind of writing I taught myself started this way. For exampIe...I was in a very senior creative position in advertising when I decided I wanted to write screenplays.

So I read a ton of screenplays and treatments good and bad, especially the bad. I bought coffee for people I knew in the industry (who I had met through advertising) including William Shatner, Norman Jewison and William Goldman and just let them talk to me about it. Then I wrote some short film scripts, just to get into the rhythm of how that kind of writing worked. And finally, I started writing full-length features.
This all took place over a three-year period, and the only sacrifice I made, if you want to call it that, was to my personal time. I never let it affect my family life or my job. It was just my hobby and even though I have sold a couple of screenplays, I guess it still is. But that was my dream, so I phased it into my life and it brought me joy.
In retrospect, it wasn’t all that hard to do.
So if this gets you thinking about whatever it is might be your dream gig, don’t write it off as something unattainable. Human beings are capable of attaining a lot of things if they really want them.
All you need is vision, some patience and the belief that you can achieve it, no matter what it is.
Worst case scenario: You’ll get a whole new set of experiences to add to your life.
Best case scenario: You’ll end up right where you want to be.
Either way, there’s nothing really negative going on.

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If your business has reached the point where talking to a communication professional would be the preferred option to banging your head against the wall or whatever, lets talk.
Download my free ebook Small Business Communication For The Real Worlhere:
 https://onwordsandupwords.wordpress.com/2013/11/24/small-business-communications-for-the-real-world/
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https://www.bebee.com/producer/@jim-murray/this-post-is-my-about-page



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