Why don’t we discuss our dreams anymore? For most of us, the things we most want out of life are secrets that we keep deep inside ourselves. Why are we so afraid to let it known that we have ambition? Why is it so taboo to actually be confident about the direction that we’re headed towards in life? Why don’t we reach for the stars instead of romanticizing the solid ground?

As a society, we tend to focus on the negative. I’m definitely guilty of doing this. Honestly, this is the kind of thinking I partake in a majority of the time when my thoughts turn towards the future. I get pessimistic, and the people around me are pessimistic as well. We dwell on the competitiveness of the job market. We fixate on the struggles associated with living out there in the real world - the lack of money, the long hours, the mundane nature of it all. Your dream job is cast aside as a fantasy. We are taught to be practical.

Though you do have to be realistic in some capacity as you make your way through life, it’s important to make it an advantage instead of a burden. I think that we all get too caught up in what’s possible that we forget to raise our sights to bigger and brighter things.

I am sick of being worried, stressed, and overwhelmed about the future. I want to be excited by the future. The future can be bright and be brimming with opportunities if we allow ourselves onto that path.

If we allow ourselves. That’s the key right here. It can be easy to fall into the routine of being unhappy all the time. It’s easy to think that the world it out to get you. It’s easy to complain about absolutely everything. It’s harder to actually have confidence in yourself and what you want to achieve, but that kind of mindset is critical in maintaining if you actually want to live out the life you have dreamed up in your head.

Stop complaining and start dreaming. Convince yourself that your dreams are not impossible to obtain, no matter how far-fetched you think they might be at this moment in time. Once you get into a more positive mindset, it’s time to get to work. I’m a firm believer in the fact that you can’t just sit around and expect good things to happen to you. You have to work hard and earn your accomplishments. Do whatever you have to do in order to make sure that your dreams come true.

For me, that means getting good grades while on the road to earning my bachelor’s degree in college. That means looking into internships relevant to the field I want to get into and actually applying to them. That means making professional connections. That means doing the work and doing it well.

You have to know what your goals are and work towards them in earnest, no matter how difficult and overwhelming that work might be. People achieve their wildest dreams every day if you think about it. You can too if you truly believe in yourself and start chasing after your dreams.