As a follow up to what our dreams are, career and otherwise, there’s a follow up question I’ve been kicking around: What’s holding you back from realizing your dreams, and achieving your goals?

I think in in the overwhelming majority of cases, problems don’t arise from external obstacles but from fear. A while ago I was reading the “10 Money Questions” feature at Blogher, and was struck by a comment that Dayana Yochim made about women’s attitudes toward making investments and accumulating wealth. She said that women are often more risk averse, and their decisions are filtered through fear. Read the rest of this entry »

I hate to start the week off on a sour note, but I’m not having a good Monday. I’m having the worst bought of PMS in my life. My son is sick for the second time this month, and he gets asthma when he’s sick, so it’s an added worry for me. I’d like nothing more than to huddle under the blankets with him today, but I have deadlines to meet. Working when my kids are sick is still a foreign concept to me, and just feels wrong.

And yet, this is the week of Thanksgiving, for those of us living in the US. I’ve been thinking about being thankful a lot lately. Read the rest of this entry »

Friday my kids were off school, and I took them to the mall to buy Emily, my nine-year-old, some much needed winter clothes. I got two hundred bucks out of the ATM, She looked at me, and I swear I could see the cartoon dollar signs in her eyes.

“You have two hundred dollars! How come you’re always telling me you don’t have any money?!”

“I don’t tell you that I don’t have any money, I tell you I don’t have money for the Webkinz, or the CD, or the poster that you’re asking me for at the moment. We have money, but we only have a certain amount of ‘fun money.’”

“How come all my friends have more fun money than I do?”

“I don’t know, probably because most of your friends’ parents both work full time, and I only work part time.”

“You should go back to teaching! You should get a full-time job! Then I could get a cell phone!”

“True, if I went back to work full time, we’d have a lot more fun money. But you still wouldn’t get a cell phone, because in our family, no kid under 14 needs a cell phone. Also, Will would have to go to full-time school, and I don’t think he’d be very happy. ”
Read the rest of this entry »

Recently a friend and I were talking about getting our careers off the ground. She was telling me what her dreams were, and asked me,

“What are your career dreams?”

“Hmm,” I replied. “I don’t think I really have any.”

“But when you have some time just to think about the future, what do you fantasize about?

“I don’t fantasize.”

“Never?” She asked, aghast.

“Not really.”

“I guess you analyze, instead right?”

“Yeah, that’s more on par with my temperament, I guess.”

I don’t know about other cultures, but in the US, having a dream is an integral part of being an American, as baseball. From the pioneers to Pinocchio, we’re inundated with having a dream and making that dream come true. We’re told that we can make our dreams happen, and that hanging onto that dream can help us in times of adversity.

I was reading an article over at Freelance Switch about 8 practices of a long term freelancer, and number 6 is “practice your dream.” Yep, there’s that concept again. It’s something every self help book, and business success guru promotes: purusing your vision, following your dream, forecast your future.

From the perspective of someone who barely has a drop of visionary blood in her veins, it’s an interesting concept to ponder. Maybe I just define it differently. In other words, maybe I have dreams, but they’re sort of disguised in a different format. I have things I want, of course, but I don’t know that they’d qualify as “dreams.” But it’s an idea I’m fascinated by.

So, let’s talk about it in the comments. What does the word “dream” mean to you? Can you recommend any books that have helped you target your dreams? What are your dreams– career or otherwise? How did you find them? Do you pick dreams you know are attainable, or do you let your imagination soar? I’d love to hear them.