Goals and Dreams

One thing I learned from being married to someone who always looked for the gloomy side of life is that life is easier to bear if you are an optimist. Life is too short and too fragile to make it more difficult for yourself. Why beat yourself up? I have learned to stop being hyper-critical of myself. You need to give yourself a break sometimes

 

January is the time people make resolutions. Sometimes by their very nature the resolutions we make doom us to failure. After my divorce I ate to console myself. My weight jumped to 155 pounds which was too much for my 5' 1½" frame. I would resolve every year that I was going to lose all the extra weight I'd gained.  As with many broad resolutions I set unattainable goals for myself. I would lose and gain back. I was like a yo-yo. I would get mad at myself because I wasn't losing as fast as I wanted to. It wasn't until I stopped and made the goal reasonable that I started losing the excess weight. I gave myself a goal I could reach. My goal started as I want to get down to 150 pounds. Five pounds my body could handle. When I reached that goal and stayed there I gave myself another five pound goal. I am now at 130 and have gone from a 12/14 to a 6/8. My next goal is 125 pounds and I know I can make it because I taught myself how to eat healthy.  I no longer beat myself up because I've proven by attainable goals that I can do it. The mind and body can take change as long as you don’t try and force it to change faster then it can handle. Through trial and error I came up with food that tasted good but was healthy. As a result I now have a section on my website with recipes that I’ve created that helped me lose weight and still excite the taste buds. You can find them at http://members.aol.com/michelesrecipes/recipes.htm.

 

My art makes me happy. I used to sell it at science fiction conventions in California. Now that I am in the Midwest taking care of my Mom I don’t have that channel. This year I’ve decided to set up an art website and sell off of the Internet. I have taken the beginning steps to accomplish that goal. It is a goal that is attainable. Would I like to be as successful as Thomas Kincaid? Of course I would but at this time that is not an attainable goal. It is a dream however and I am taking the first steps towards reaching that dream.

 

I have a series of inter-related fantasy short stories I want to get published. I am taking the first steps towards finding an agent to get them published. Would I like to be as famous as J.K. Rowling? Of course I would but again that is a dream. I am taking the first steps towards getting published. You can’t be a famous writer if no one reads you.

 

What I have learned is that there is a difference between what you dream and what is attainable right now. I work towards attaining my goals but my goals are the steps necessary to making my dreams come true. Only in the movies is something  really huge just handed to you. To live is to dream and to make those dreams come true you need to work towards attaining those dreams one step at a time. For me that is one of the main ways of being a happy person. As we vertically challenged people know sometimes to reach something you have to stand on a step and if a step isn’t available you create the step.

 

The picture is called “Stormy Sea” and is a scan of an oil painting I did. As with all storms they eventually break up and the sun or moon comes out to glow.