Pursuing a Dream

No one. And I do mean no one is going to understand why you pursue your dream. They don’t have to either. It’s yours.

They won’t understand for two reasons. One, they can’t crawl around inside your head to get a true picture of the thing. They can’t wallow in your satisfaction in a dream made real. They can’t visualize with stunning clarity the spoils of your hard work, the freedom you now hold thanks to the sacrifices you made then.

And, two I already mentioned. It’s not their dream. Until someone has their own dream – and I’m not talking about a wish, or a keen desire, I’m talking about a dream. Something you mostly keep to yourself because everyone else thinks it’s crazy – what you do in pursuit of that dream will only seem excessive, weird, over the top. If someone is being particularly cruel or insensitive you may even hear the adjective ridiculous.

And this has nothing to do with what your dream is or whether you can actually achieve it. Pursuing a dream is about the work. The singing or dancing all day and all night anywhere they’ll let you, the working an extra job or two or three to buy paints, the practicing until your feet or fingers actually bleed and not caring because you just replenished your supply of bandages.

Doing the work is what makes dreams come true. For most of us that work is serious. If you’re like me you have a day job. Which means giving the 9 to 5 its do and then coming home to make it happen from 6 or 7 to 10. And that can be a problem when people want you to socialize and have fun.

Just today I was supposed to go out for a drink after work and I completely forgot. All I could think about was getting home to make the last few edits to my latest manuscript. I want that book up on Kindle and Nook before the end of the week.

But I’m not gonna take anymore time to explain why I run home every night like my house is on fire. Not even to the people I love. I don’t have time. I gotta lot of work to do.