A young friend of mine sent her passport renewal paperwork yesterday. While that, in itself, is interesting, what interested me most was she said afterwards: “I wish I could move that quickly about everything that I want to accomplish.”

And, indeed, she had moved quickly. In fact, it took her only a day, from the time we first spoke about renewing her passport, to complete the paperwork, acquire the $100 renewal fee, and to mail it all.

You see, she wants to travel. Her desire to travel to accomplish what can be seen as a rather tedious task.

Although travel is appealing in many ways, it was not the key factor in her choosing to act quickly.  The key factor was her desire. Her feeling of wanting something caused her to take the steps towards achieving it. It’s a no-brainer, right?

Well, maybe not.

Many of us live our lives doing what we believe is expected of us and never question why we are doing what we do. As we get older, we begin to cast aside dreams, disregard opportunities for change and play into the notion that whatever we are, that is what we were meant to be.  In essence, we lose our desire for living outside the confines of societal and familial expectations.  Whatever curiosity and passion we held in our childhood, adolescence and young adulthood become seemingly spent, used up by the rationality of being a grown-up.  Then we spend our time lecturing those who are younger on how  not to end up like us, but to make sure that they live within societal norms while giving up on fantasies (a.k.a dreams).

Of course, this is not applicable to everyone. However, a good number of us seem to operate in this manner.  We seem to work to cancel out possibilities of younger people living extraordinary lives.

“I wish I could move that quickly about everything that I want to accomplish.”  In this one statement, my friend revealed that

• 1) there are things she wants to accomplish, but has little motivation so to do, and
• 2) when there is something she really wants to do, she accomplishes it quickly.

Well, the answer to her problem becomes simple: she must figure out the things she really wants to do in her life, rather than trying to accomplish what she believes she should.

Knowing what you really want out of life, what you are truly passionate about (even if it is challenging or lacks impressive financial rewards), what moves you to positive action (not reaction), what moves you to constantly evolve can only lead you to live a life full of meaning.

So, what was my response to my young friend’s statement? “Well, just do as you did with your passport.”

• Acknowledge what you want,
• Research the steps you need to take to accomplish it, and
• Take the first step, and then the second, and the third, etc., until you get to where you want to go.

Living a meaningful life is truly a work of ART.

So, start painting your dreams into reality.

Until Next Time,

D.