When I was reading Chapter 4 of Your Money Or Your Life, I could not come up with good answers related to questions about goals/dreams. What kind of life did I imagine for myself and my family? What did I still want to achieve? I had no answers. Although it was a sad realization, I didn’t really think much more about it until recently.
At a certain age, you know that you won’t achieve “bigger” goals and dreams. Hell, there’s a high probability that you won’t achieve any big dreams! To be fair, dreams also change once you reach the real world. For a while I thought I wanted to work in the movie business but once I found out more about it, I knew it wasn’t for me. While I’ve come to terms with abandoning certain dreams, I couldn’t go forward in life without any hopes and dreams. That’s when I realized that two of my biggest goals/dreams are still within reach and that I already talked about one of these on this very blog.
Here are the Big Two:
Moving Abroad: I’ve dreamed of moving abroad since my college days. I don’t remember if I pinpointed a location but Europe was definitely the target. I blame Hemingway or Scott Fitzgerald for this obsession. Of course now that I’m older, wiser and with a family, I know that the unencumbered starving artist lifestyle is not at all glamorous and not for me at all. I’ve seen the struggles of immigrants (I won’t glamorize the move by using the term “expat”…) and it’s tough to transplant yourself to another culture, no matter how much you think you’ll love it.
Speaking Italian (or a romance language) like a native: I read a very helpful magazine article about how to define your 5 year plan. A five-year plan is a daunting prospect for most, so rather than just asking yourself the question and drawing a blank, the article writer took you through steps to get there, starting with listing five past achievements that make you most proud and why. I came up with more than five but noticed one common thread: I was most proud of challenging projects especially if it involved overcoming fears. Learning new languages has always been a challenge for me. While this is a newer life goal, I would love to be as fluent as possible in Italian and I know that I would be very proud of this achievement.
Now that we’re contemplating a move to Italy, those dreams could become reality (although not without hard work). So in a nutshell: Two of my biggest dreams are also two of my biggest fears.
Do you have a five-year plan?
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