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Saturday, June 18, 2011

Dreams

Abide in the simple and noble regions of thy life, obey thy heart. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
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I need to go a different direction with this post.  It seems self defeating to spend so much time writing about the future, while today floats by unnoticed and unappreciated.  Being a student of philosophy, this prompt immediately made me think of Epicurus, a Greek philosopher, who said: 

"Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not, remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for"


Dreams are important.  I can't deny that, nor would I try.  That being said, a line must be drawn.  A line between what is and what might be.  How long can we spend focusing on the things we don't have before what is within our grasp loses its luster?  Spending my life and mental energy chasing an idea or ideal is not only unfulfilling, but also entirely unsustainable.  When does the cycle end?  Is success/happiness then the process of always reaching for a new benchmark, goal, or standard?  If we continue to obsess about our perceived "lack" we will fail to see how full our lives really are.



In response to...

Write down your top three dreams. Now write down what’s holding you back from them.

2 comments:

  1. Liked your post. I sometimes wonder how far out we should gaze. Too far and we lose sight of what's in front of us, not far enough and we can lose sight of our goals and dreams. And focussing on any point in time, forwards or backwards, takes us out of this moment, where we have any power whatsoever to take action towards the pursuit of our dreams.

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  2. Its a fine line to walk. I think looking ahead prevents us from making careless mistakes. At the same time, while looking ahead we can trip on the stone at our feet. In my opinion, the issue comes when one looks at their present moment as incomplete. Thanks for your comment, Gary.

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