It’s Never Too Late To Fulfill Your Dreams
Every day I am more convinced that we live in a world full of so many preconceived opinion and ideas of “what should be”, that there comes a time when it is difficult or even impossible for us to distinguish reality.
And within all this tangle of ideas, perhaps old age is the stage of life about which we have the most prejudice.
First of all, to stop limiting ideas
When we are young, it seems to us that we can eat the world and that we have the ability to achieve anything we set our minds to. Everything seems easy and changing and reinventing ourselves is simply part of the process of living.
But as we become adults, we internalize and accept as valid limiting ideas, which slowly engrave themselves in our unconscious and make us act accordingly.
Then the day comes when we accept as absolute and personal truths ideas such as “I’m too old to fall in love again”, “at my age there are things I can no longer change”, “after so many years doing the same thing I could not dedicate myself to anything else”, “at my age there is no point in trying to be different”, “if I were younger perhaps…” and a long etcetera.
But is there really a moment when it is too late to change our lives? Is it chronological age that determines when we should stop dreaming and fighting to achieve those dreams? Are there decisions that really are for life and that we cannot change no matter how unhappy they make us?
When and how to change your life?
First of all let’s be clear about one thing: change is scary! And that is so, no matter how old we are or who we are. Change means crisis, it means facing the unknown and taking the risk of failure. That is why we resist change, because it scares us.
However, there are many moments in life when what is at stake is much greater and change is the only alternative so that we do not lose ourselves, because what is at stake is life itself and the possibility of being happy.
All of us at some point have felt the need to change, because change is the only way to keep growing. But when this need for change arises in youth, or even during the 1930s, perhaps the 1940s, it is easier for us to take the risk and launch ourselves into the adventure of breaking with routine and reinventing ourselves.
Many times this reinvention is a conscious and meditated decision, but at other times life does not give us an alternative. The loss of a job, a separation, the death of someone loved, are circumstances that often take us to the limit and force us to rethink our lives.
But in most cases, this need to change is presented as a deeper feeling, as an uneasiness that we can not identify or as a voice inside us that whispers that we are not in our rightful place.
The problem is that the older we get, the more afraid we become of hearing that inner voice and trying to turn it off by all means. We convince ourselves that “it’s too late” and we conform.
We forget that while we are alive we have the right to LIVE and for that we need to dream. Dreaming means setting goals for ourselves and doing everything in our power to achieve them and for that we have to move, we have to act. And that often means abandoning, in part or completely, the life we lead and starting over.
What are the signs that we need to make a life change?
Cases where a dramatic event forces us to change are exceptional. Most of us reach the key point almost without realizing it, but there are signs that we can identify and that clearly indicate that it is time to start moving.
The clearest sign is the feeling of being trapped. If your routine has become for you a kind of prison that prevents you from moving freely, then it is an unmistakable sign that the time has come to break out of the restraints and “escape”.
Another clear sign that you need to make a change in your life is if you feel that the life you are leading has no meaning. If your life is marked by routine and boredom, you have lost the excitement and motivation and even seem to have run out of dreams, then it is time to rethink your path.
Perhaps the way you once imagined your life or the things that once satisfied you are no longer valid in your present moment and it is time to ask yourself what you want and where you would really like to go.
Remember that you are designed to grow permanently, as long as you have life and stay static is as much as going backwards. No matter your age or what stage of life you are in, there is always room for improvement.
Dreaming, the key to finding the courage to change your life
No matter how old you are, no matter what your past life is, the only thing that matters is that you don’t stop dreaming. Whenever you have a dream, that dream will be your motivation, your strength to get up and make decisions, even if those decisions mean having to leave your comfort zone and change your life.
Banish once and for all, the idea that at a certain time or a certain age, it is no longer worth dreaming, because the moment you stop dreaming you begin to die. And there is nothing sadder than being dead while you have life.
If to achieve your dreams (of whatever size and type) you have to change your life and reinvent yourself a thousand times, then do it, do it until the end. You have no limit to the number of possibilities, no rules, no “must be”, beyond what you want to be!
Always keep in mind C.S. Lewis’ wonderful phrase: “You are never too old to set another goal or dream a new dream.“
Because when you don’t dream and you stop having goals (however small they may be), that’s when you really get old and that has nothing to do with age.
