How To Find Your Dreams.

My blog is about giving teens a happy life, mostly through helping them follow their dreams now, not later, as I try to do the same thing.

It took me ages to figure out what I wanted from life, and there were times I thought I wanted to be a veterinarian or a politician, but eventually I learned that I love to write, and being a writer would support my ideal lifestyle. That means that the dream I’m going after right now, the one I’m focused on and working towards, is becoming a writer. That doesn’t mean I’m giving up on my other dreams. The main reason I wanted to be a vet was so I could be around a lot of animals and help them. I can volunteer at an animal shelter for that, but it isn’t my main goal. The main reason I wanted to be a politician was so I could change the world, and also because politics are pretty cool. If I can get a good enough article in a big enough newspaper, I can change people’s minds, which usually works better than changing laws.

One of the things that helped me most when trying to figure out what my dreams were is a sort of visualization of my ideal life. When you grow up, what do you see yourself doing, ideally? Maybe you want to stand on a platform and give resounding speeches that will touch everyone’s hearts and get into the newspapers and maybe even the history books. Maybe you want to live in a little country house with a big garden full of lavender and tomatoes. Maybe you want to cook and bake and then earn money from it. Maybe you want to be on TV. Picture it. What would your ideal day be like? If you have two different lives you’re picturing that both sound great, is there a way to balance them?

I want to live in New York, but I also want to travel all over the world, so I thought, hey, you know what would be cool? Living in New York and taking off for trips to other countries for months at a time. Of course, I’d need a flexible job that will pay me for traveling or at least pay me enough so I can travel. Like, for example, freelance journalism. You think of an idea for an article, you send out the proposal, someone accepts it, you write the article, you get paid. You don’t have any boss to tell you not to go to Fiji. Go to Fiji. Write an article about Fiji. Write many articles about Fiji.

Dreams don’t have to be just careers. What’s missing from your life right now that would make it more like your ideal life? (Apart from a car/ability to make your own legal decisions/money.) Go for the thing that’s missing. Find out what you would have to do to create your ideal life.

And, when you’ve figured it out, shoot me a comment below. Let’s see what I can do to help you.