List of the Day: Life, Goals and Living

Someone once accused me of not having any goals or dreams. At the time, that really bothered me. I was wondering how pathetic is my life if I have no goals or dreams. I mean, why would I keep on going, right? Then I began to remember what my life used to be like and where my life is at now, and I realized that I’ve really come along way, all because of the goals that I set for myself and the hard work that I did to achieve them. Here’s a list of some of my past, present and future goals/dreams:

1. PAST: Own my own home. Ever since I was 18 and living in an apartment I’ve wanted to own my own home. I worked hard, cleaned up my credit, saved money, and have been living in my own home for the past 5 ½ years.

2. PAST: Have my poetry published. I’ve been writing poetry since I was a teenager. Some of it is good, some of it isn’t, but it’s all real and straight from the heart. I now own two coffee table books full of poetry from random artists, each of which contain a different poem written by me.

3. PAST: Have a fabulous career. It took a lot of hard work and a lot of learning, but I finally am there. Of course, I could always go higher….which leads me to my next goal.

4. PRESENT: Go back to college and get my paralegal certificate. It’s one thing to learn from experience, it’s another thing to actually have the certificate. While it’s only a piece of paper and I doubt (but may be surprised) that the instructor will teach me anything that I haven’t learned from my experience already, it’s something that I want, and will get.

5. PRESENT: Learn a foreign language. I used to speak fluent German, but not anymore. I was learning Spanish years ago, but I don’t use it enough to remember. I’m thinking Irish Gaelic and then Scottish Gaelic.

6. PRESENT: Pay off my debt. It’s sad when you go from having excellent credit to having a credit score that dropped, but unfortunately that’s what happens when you have bad or no insurance and kids that have to have surgery or expensive tests run. But slowly but surely I’m making the effort and I’m seeing progress.

7. PAST, PRESENT, FUTURE: See my kids grow up and become productive members of society. This is a big one. This isn’t one that can happen overnight. It’s a goal that will take, literally, no less than 18 years per child to achieve. But I’m on the right path. I make mistakes at times, I raise my voice at times unnecessarily, I don’t always listen or understand as well as I should, but I never give up. They’re my babies and I love them more than anything in this world.

8. PRESENT, FUTURE: Get my house updated so I can sell it. I love my house, I worked hard to get it, but now it’s time when I’m looking to move. I’m doing a little bit at a time to it, and I see a huge difference between how it looks now to how it did when I bought it.

9. FUTURE: Travel the world. Being a mom with one of my children still being young, traveling the world isn’t exactly on my to-do list for tomorrow. But what’s nice is that with this dream, I know that I won’t be sitting around crying my eyes out when my kids are off at college or married. I won’t be wondering what to do with myself because I’ll be too busy doing what I want to do and fulfilling my dreams.

10. FUTURE: Find the man who is perfect for me. All good things come in time.

It’s good to have dreams and goals. They’re what keeps us motivated and what keeps us going. It keeps life interesting and helps our sense of self. Finding the balance between living the boring day-to-day details and finding time to work on your goals is something that’s important. One shouldn’t focus simply on their goals and dreams and forget about living the not-so-exciting day to day life, just as one shouldn’t live their life in a rut and only deal with what life brings you with no vision of change. Life moves fast, and as we change our goals will change. Forsaking your dreams or goals for those that are in your life is foolish, but forsaking those that are important to you for the sake of your dreams or goals is just as foolish.