Chasing the dream

The New York Times ran a fabulous story yesterday about how the recession is causing people from all walks of life to reinvent themselves.

Is This the Time to Chase a Career Dream? may not seem like it’s directly related to a blog on writing and publishing a book. But it is! Why? Because writing and publishing a travel memoir is MY dream.

Becoming a journalist was my dream, too. So was traveling solo in Africa. But for a lot of reasons, the dream I’m chasing now seems harder to attain than the others. Funny thing is, the more out-of-reach the dream, the more I want it.

Pamela Slim, a business coach who authored the NYT story, wrote about her “interest in what makes people tick, and curiosity about what keeps them from realizing their dreams.”

“What separates crazy dreams from viable business ideas?,” she wrote. “I don't think that it has anything to do with the idea, or the profession, or the market itself. It has to do with the person.”

I, too, love learning what individuals would be doing if they really did what they always wanted. To me, a friend’s aspirations mean just as much, if not more, than where they are now. Those dreams tell me about their inner soul, even if it hasn’t come out yet.

And so I ask you, just as Pamela Slim would: What do you fantasize about doing for a living?