Susan Thom

Dreams And Goals Make Life More Interesting


Posted: Wednesday, July 25, 2007

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I think dreams are the thoughts, the envisionings in our minds that we can see and wish for. Dreams start at the earliest of ages. We want a certain doll, or a new truck, and even in our little three year old minds, we’re dreaming. We go to bed hoping that Santa or mommy or grandma will surprise us with our daydream.

If that’s not going to happen, there is an alternative. Work for whatever you want, for yourself. Make your daydream a goal of yours. Sweep the floor, empty the dishwasher, take out the trash, do something that earns good points in the direction of your want.

Strive for what you want. Work hard, and have pride in your work, and in the hours you are putting in to get what you want. Chances are you’ll take care of it better, having paid for it on your own.

We all need to have some dreams to push us forward and make us want to live on. When kids are little in grammar school, hating it the whole time, some of them, they should have dreams to sustain them through the week. Maybe a weekend at the beach, or a camping trip, or having a new computer game you can play for hours. Their goal through that week is to be able to do those things, so they should strive to get their homework done, and good marks on their tests.

When adults are working forty hour weeks, they need dreams to help them get through their efforts. Maybe a nice oriental rug may be enticing. How about a pleasant vacation on a cruise line? These dreams turn into goals that we strive for by doing the right amount of work to achieve them.

Dreams and goals don’t occur on their own. We can’t just dream of something, and expect it to come true. There’s leg work involved. I dreamt of having a beautiful home. I had to go through all my motions of courtship and marriage and picking out furniture and accessories and curtains, and then maintaining it all. After twenty years, I am still maintaining it, and it is beautiful. I made it my goal to get a home, and I made my dreams a reality. I have to strive to keep it looking nice and clean and updated, but my dream became a goal which became a reality.

At fifty one, my dream is to get a ’74, white, t top, stingray corvette, with tan interior. I had one once, when I was twenty three, but I cracked it up hitting a tree, and I always promised myself I’d get another one. I have to strive to get to that goal. I have to save money, I can’t spend any money, and I have to wait for a divorce to go through, but then, my goal will come true.

I dream that as I continue going to a wonderful reflexologist, I will learn more of her wisdom, and get better and better, and closer to the "balance." Not only has her reflexology massages helped me physically, and added energy and peace to my life, but her talking to me while she is giving me the massage, is priceless to me. I love to learn, especially about peace and Native American Indians and Chinese philosophies, and Hindu ideas, and she always has a story about all. My goal is to reach wholeness, and therefore, I will strive for it. I will go to sessions, and listen to the knowledge of this wise woman. I will learn more and more about how to be at peace with myself, and my world. How amazing that would be.

All these happy things happening because we have dreams that we turn into goals. I feel sorry for those who say they don’t have any dreams or goals. Life is what it is, hard, and if we don’t have dreams and goals, we have nothing pushing us to each new day. We need to have things to look forward to.

Sometimes, we have to force ourselves to make a list of goals we want to reach, and then, strive to reach them. Sometimes, they are just things such as, "Today, I will empty the dishwasher." "Today I will clean out my closet." "Today I will give the dog a bath." We need goals to steer us in the right direction, towards a happy and healthy and spiritual life.

Susan Thom is the mother of three children, two sons, 20 and 23, and a daughter 25. Her older son is in the air force in Germany right now, and her daughter is in the army in Tacoma, Washington.

Writing calms her, and gives her a place to go by herself! Clears the head and gets it out. She lives in a rural area, with a lake and mountains, and her partner, and has loved writing since she was a child.

She has been on a journey of self discovery for twenty years, and has learned many things about the human mind, and how to maintain some semblance of calm and peace within.

If someone reads one of her stories, and relates to her feelings, and gets a suggestion on how she dealt with them in a positive way, that would be the ultimate gift of her writing.

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Top-level comments on this article: (2 total)
» left by Dennis Hill
 4 years 197 days ago.
Good article in general, but it seems at times to lose its way. Try keeping your message(s) to a specific point - then work hard to stay on message. For example, your title suggests an application to "Us", but the content of the article is really about "You." The greatest mistake people make about communication is that the intended audience "sees" and "understands" things the same as the author. This is simply not true, and consequently, the communication is "received" in a distorted or limited sense. To discipline yourself as a writer, try writing in the THIRD person (He, She, They, One), rather than in FIRST (I and We)...and NEVER in SECOND person (You). If you write ABOUT something, it shouldn't matter whether it concerns you personally, and if it does concern you personally, consider the THIRD person approach as a way to stay objective and circumspect in your discourse. As a grammatical criticism, I would also avoid ending sentences with gerunds (words ending in -ing) and prepositions. This is how one may speak, but not how one writes. One mentor told me that we speak to be heard, but we write to be understood. - Keep on writing- you have some excellent thoughts in this and another article which I read!
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» left by susan thom from new jersey 4 years 197 days ago.
hi dennis, thank you for taking the time to read and critique my article. i will need to absorb what you said, and try to incorporate it into my mind, make some changes, and keep your thoughts in mind for my future writings. i do appreciate your time and comments. i love constructive criticism, it helps me write better, and that's the goal. thanks again for your time, best regards, susan thom
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