- This topic has 8 replies, 5 voices, and was last updated 10 years, 4 months ago by
Inky.
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June 24, 2014 at 7:35 pm #59502
billParticipantI decided today to renounce all my dreams. I am weary of pursuing them. It is clear that they are too hard to pursue. The whole process of forming these desires and going after them has worn me out to the point that I am a wreck. I am 58 years old and I am going to remain underemployed and empty. Deep down I just don’t believe in a life of meaning and fulfillment anymore. Pursuing dreams has become a joyless process – an attempt to try to fill a void that apparently cannot be filled. I am tired of trying to plan and control and drive my life forward and am going to deliberately go rudderless. I choose not to affirm the value of being in this world anymore.
June 24, 2014 at 10:48 pm #59515
@Jasmine-3ParticipantGood luck Bill. When the going gets tough, the tough gets going.
Jasmine
June 25, 2014 at 3:51 am #59521
InkyParticipantWhat in the world are your dreams?? You can have a Fail-Safe clause to them. So they technically become true.
Dream of Acting? YouTube Videos. Make your own Indie Film. Submit to film festivals.
Author? Blog. Self-Publish. Have local bookstores carry them.
Living on beach? Get shore shack instead of beach mansion.
That said, I totally get the burn out. So take dream vacation until you get inspired again. But by the New Year, have a dream that you could actually make come true. This year, get a job, any job.
June 25, 2014 at 4:18 am #59525
MikeParticipantIts your own responsibility to take the steps towards achieving the dreams you have for yourself. If you are 58 and you say you have not achieved any of your dreams then what has been holding you back, obviously our dreams have to be rational to our potential and the way the world works. I can wish and wish to write anything as great as the really great authors, to put out an overnight sensation, but that probably is not in my future and it can’t be in my future if I never write anything let alone a book. If getting a job to fund your dream is difficult or you are just burnt out on your job then get into a new field of work in two years you are going to be 60 anyway, you can be 60 still in your same predicament or you can go get training in a new field and be 60 with a new more interesting career.
June 25, 2014 at 4:32 am #59526InkyParticipantOK, I’m going to add something ~ I just skimmed your previous Posts.
Oh my goodness, non-for profit, saving the environment!!!
You are a burnt-out Super Hero!!!
Don’t feel bad AT ALL!!! Like the Planet, you, too, have limited resources. And in the great Life Cycle, you are entering an age of Introspection. You have gladly given up the corporate, $$$ making machine, the wife, house, picket fence, two kids and a dog lifestyle that is shoved down our throats.
You have gone against the Culture’s Current. You have simply got caught in a rip tide, that’s all. Stop struggling, and swim parallel to the shore!!
Mother Nature is telling you to live within your means now. Get a simple job, live within means, and use this time to reflect until you store up enough energy to fly high again.
Namaste Brother (and I never say that!!) 🙂
Inky
June 25, 2014 at 6:38 am #59534
JohnParticipantHi Bill,
If those dreams have been unattainable (up to this point), maybe you can pursue and enjoy smaller dreams in the meantime or instead. Always ‘shooting for the stars’ can lead to burn out if all you focus on is the stars. What about the steps in the middle?
Let’s say I dream of recording an album. Though along the way I learn a good amount about sound engineering. Ok, let’s pause and feel what’s going on. I just gained some valuable knowledge about sound engineering! Maybe that in itself opens other doors for me to pursue other dreams, big or small.
There’s the saying ‘think big’. Yes it is a good thing. But don’t overlook the small.
Hope this helps.
June 25, 2014 at 6:54 pm #59582billParticipantThe problem is that I am really still 25 or 30 in my heart. I still want to love. travel, create art. and YES, fight for the causes that I believe in. I spent the evening with a group of ocean conservationists and regretted not studying more biology because I was a straight A biology student in high school. Bottom line is I have been poor and struggling since the nonprofit closed at the beginning of the 2008 crisis and I dedicated so much to that to end up this impoverished. When I wrote this I was burned out. Nothing seemed to mean anything anymore. So I spent time looking at pictures of the Greek sea coast and the English countryside – couldn’t renounce it. Today there hundreds of young people sitting at sidewalk cafes in DC enjoying the Summer. I thought – to renounce this is like death – why do it? Life is continuously in bloom.
June 26, 2014 at 4:19 am #59625InkyParticipantSome of the greatest people I know/have known live very simply. My late mentor was an old Quaker, and she lived in “a closet” apartment, but was utterly happy. She was a great soul like you. She would write reviews for the paper, and still live off the little $$ that brought in ~ and she would work on her real purpose ~ her books ~ on the weekends or evenings. And she published! Yes, she may have only published one or two instead of the three or four if that’s all she did, but she did it! And she was tremendous in the Meeting House and in the community with all she was involved with ~ the philanthropist side.
She would/might tell you ~ get a simple job, and travel once a year, do art at night and cause fight on the weekends or “When the Spirit moves you.” “You’re doing great, kid!” 🙂
June 26, 2014 at 4:43 am #59626InkyParticipantUnitarian or Quaker churches might be good for you to check out ~ all of the ones I’ve been in are filled to the brim with other Cause Fighters. Or they’ll know someone. Or they’ll help you with your projects. P.S. They are crazy-open minded!
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