Hopes and Dreams

I'm a writer, a list maker, a goal maker and a little obsessive compulsive about 'tracking' my life.

I have notations on my calendar about my daycare schedule, my hours at school, the hours I've logged at bookkeeping, the dance lessons that I have paid for, appointments and the events in our lives (and the list goes on).

If I have a lot to do and a finite amount of time to do it in, I will even go so far as to write myself a schedule for the day/week, with the time I have allotted for each task.

I journalled my thoughts before I started blogging and in rereading those words, I am astounded at the goals I unknowingly set for myself during a rough time in my life. And amazed that I accomplished each one of them.

My brother assembled our family together and made a video recording in 1996 where (among other things), he asked us questions about our hopes and dreams. We watched that video together last year and I marvelled at the dreams that had come true for me.

This blog tracks my thoughts, hopes, dreams and goals. The mere act of writing something down and having a way to look back and say, "Hey! I accomplished that!!" ... has made me realize just how many of my dreams are coming true.

Some are small.

I wanted to be like the Noxema Girl. I became the Noxema Girl's Mother. I marvelled at how honest and up-front children are and within the month, I had two separate men display the exact same tell-it-like-it-is honesty with me (I think there was a third instance but I have temporarily forgotten).

Then there are the bigger goals - education, career changes, financial goals, the Great Dance Adventure and the (still to be realized) dream of owning a Bed and Breakfast.

I have most of these ideas and goals tracked here on my blog. I have gone back and read the words that I had forgotten that I wrote and say "Hey - another dream came true!"

If I hadn't written all of these things down, I wouldn't have been so amazed when I realized how many of my goals were attained. We say things all of the time, but how often to we overlook the small achievements as yet another dream-come-true?

I highly recommend finding some way to track your goals. A Hopes and Dreams Journal - something as inconsequential as a small notepad. We used to write letters to Santa, didn't we? What is wrong with writing a letter to ourselves with a list of all we hope to accomplish. Call it a Bucket List, call it a Things to Do Before I Turn (place age here), call it what you may.

• Record your wish list in whatever fashion suits you best.
• Tuck it away and forget about it.
• Bring out your list and add to it whenever a new dream comes to mind.
• Find it in a year or so.
• You will be amazed at just how many of your dreams came true.

Sometimes it feels like we are just going in circles. The thing we don't realize as we continue to go about our day-to-day life ... is that the circle is evolving. Some years it gets a little smaller, other years it expands. It's fun to reach outside your comfort zone and try to make it encompass just a little bit more than it did before.

It's satisfying to have a way to look back and see how far you've come.