Disinter a Buried Dream This Year

You are a smart, ambitious person. You’ve accomplished a great many things in your life. But I’ll bet there are dreams locked away in your heart that want to be fulfilled.

We all have buried dreams — goals we once set and, for whatever reason, abandoned. If you ignore these dreams long enough, they disappear. But beneath the surface, they are still alive with potential.

I have so damn many unrealized dreams. I want to paint beautiful paintings. I want to play the guitar and sing Spanish ballads. I want to own a literary magazine and start a school. I want to learn Portuguese and write a book of philosophical musings. I want to write and produce a stage play and another movie. My list goes on and on.

What about you?

Reviving even one of your abandoned dreams can make a wonderful difference in your life. So take a minute right now to identify some long-lost goal, and then picture yourself doing it.

Does it still get you excited? If so, make a resolution to accomplish at least part of that goal this year — as much as you can realistically accomplish in the next 12 months.

And to give yourself the best possible chance of making this dream come true, consider getting a mentor — someone with the experience and skills to help you come up with an effective, step-by-step plan.

[Ed. Note: Mark Morgan Ford was the creator of Early To Rise. In 2011, Mark retired from ETR and now writes the Palm Beach Letter. His advice, in our opinion, continues to get better and better with every essay, particularly in the controversial ones we have shared today. We encourage you to read everything you can that has been written by Mark.]