A change of direction

First of all, let me apologize for not publishing a column for the past two weeks. Week before last I encountered a computer glitz that couldn’t be fixed by me and last week I was in Arkansas without a computer.

The Arkansas trip was for the purpose of taking our middle son, Michael, to the University of Oklahoma for enrollment in the broadcast meteorology program there. This was a drastic change of direction for him but since he’s a full-grown adult, his mother and I let him make the decision. He has a B.A. and an M.A. in history and has taught since receiving those degrees but decided he wanted a change of pace.

I talked to him without lecturing him about how tough career changes are, especially after you turn 40 which he just did. He’s a wonderful teacher and I thought that’s what he would do until he retired but it obviously wasn’t meant to be. He’s enrolled in a 5-year program at OU which will culminate in him becoming a television meteorologist which he says he’s wanted to be ever since high school.

That part is true because when he was attending the University of Nebraska, he chose the same field then too but because he was living in a house of like-minded guys, there was way too much partying and not nearly enough studying which caused him to rethink his major. This time around, he’s living in a brand new dorm built exclusively for older adults returning to school, he has no roommates and will be working at OU in addition to taking classes. So the second time around is nothing like the first and hopefully, it will culminate in allowing him to fulfill his dream.

Dreams are vitally important in our lives if we are to achieve anything beyond what is handed to us. As an academician, I’ve always referred to dreams as goals but it really doesn’t matter what you call them as long as you have them. A person who has no dreams, no goals, no aspirations other than to make it through the day will never challenge themselves to do anything EXCEPT make it through the day. That’s a drain on them and a drain on society because they’re just taking up space instead of contributing.

For dreams to be realized, they have to be concrete and spelled-out. I know people who say every night they dream about winning the lottery but they do nothing more than buy a ticket and hope. So they can do that for the rest of their lives but the only thing that will help them achieve their goal is luck, not anything they’ve done on their own.

Michael has his entire five years at OU written down and planned out and, because he does, if he follows his plan he will achieve his goals. That’s the way it works. Many people don’t have goals because it sounds like too much work to put a goal together and many of those people will fail at life because they don’t. The reason for that is putting the goal together is easy. The hard part is carrying out each step contained within the goal until it’s completed.

But it’s a must if you want to succeed in life. Most of us say we do, not many of us actually will.