Lorenz and Friends

Follow your dreams while you're still awake

We adults often ask our children, grandchildren and especially high school students, "What do you want to do when you grow up?" It's the big question of life. What do you want to accomplish? What are your dreams, goals, hopes for the future?"

We expect kids to know the answers. But what about us? What are our adult dreams, goals, and hopes for the future? It's as important for adults to have dreams as it is for youngsters.

I believe that we only need five things to be truly happy in this life: someone to love, something to do, something to hope for, laughter and faith. And the one that prevents us from becoming a nation of psychotic, depressed, stressed-out individuals is the third thing, something to hope for.

I don't think I've ever asked my readers to do something after reading one of my columns. But I'm going to today. Please take an index card and write down your dream. Write down at least one thing you'd like to do, accomplish or experience before you die. Place that card on your refrigerator, on top of your computer, or on the bathroom mirror, someplace where you'll see it every day. And then get busy making that dream come true.

Make sure your dream is something you can control. Winning the lottery doesn't count. Making our dreams come true is our responsibility, not someone else's doing.

When I speak to groups I often have the participants write down their dreams on paper that I collect. At least 90 percent of all dreams that people have seem to fall into one of eight categories. Get rich, retire, travel, lose weight, get more education, change careers, dreams for others (they want their kids or grandkids to be happy and successful, etc.), and what I refer to as the "Miss America dreams." (world peace, love, kindness, a cure for all diseases etc.)

Recently, I asked women at my SWILL group (Southeastern Wisconsin Interesting Ladies League) to share their dreams or goals. Connie said she wants to become an accomplished writer and make enough money to also be a philanthropist. Her first dream may take 20 years like it does most writers, and the second may be out of her control. Hopefully she'll fine-tune her goal into something like selling one article to a magazine in the next six months. It's important to keep our goals in bite-size chunks so we can actually make them happen.

Elaine said she'd like to work with wood and find her creative voice. Bravo! Now there's a dream that's doable. I hope she's enrolled in a woodworking class at a local community college by now.

Deborah's dream was "to integrate my smarts and experience and talent into a position where I can make a difference in the world." Sounds like she could use the help of a good career counselor who can give her some integrated testing to find out where her strengths lie and what her options are.

Kitty wants to visit Iceland, write about her travels for publication. Knowing Kitty, I bet she's already got her plane ticket purchased.

Jean, in her mid-70's, wants to finish the eighth edition of a college textbook she wrote years ago and to keep her health in top shape by continuing her weight training and her three-mile walks every day. Jean's dreams and goals keep the younger ones in our group inspired to the max.

Betty, a second grade teacher, said she wants to leave a small mark on many lives. She emphasized that she didn't want the attention focused on her but rather on the lives she hopes to touch and change. As a teacher, Betty is living her dream every day.

Karen, who works as a home health nurse, said her goal is to become a more positive influence at work. She said her work environment has become riddled with rumors and back-biting gossip and she wants to be a catalyst for helping change the attitude and camaraderie on the job. She's going to bring in a suggestion box where fellow employees can drop the funniest, most outrageous rumors they can think of. Karen has a good dream ... to replace stress with laughter on the job.

Whitney, in her early 20s who's working on her doctorate, said her goal was to facilitate a woman's group like SWILL someday to encourage and empower women. Right on!

Geri, a widow who remarried two years ago in her late sixties, said, "I'm living my dream, right now, everyday. I'm happily married, have a new home and am recently retired. This is the happiest I've ever been."

What's your dream? Whether you're 18 or 98, write it down and then get busy making it come true!

(Lorenz, a mother of four, is a resident of Oak Creek.)