What is your dream? What do you want for your life right now? What is on your bucket list to do before you pass beyond this world? When you are gone and men write your epitaph, what do you want them to say about you? Do you feel like your dream is within your reach, or do you feel that it is only a vapor, something you will never be able to accomplish? Do you feel like you have the time or the money to do the things that matter most to you?
Many individuals and families today are struggling financially to keep their heads above water, let alone to realize the dreams they once dared to dream. Parents do not have enough time to spend with their children. Men and women do not have time to participate in politics or to stand up for their rights and opinions. Philanthropists lack the resources they need to affect the types of social change they wish to see achieved. In these economic times, adults are often working several jobs just to pay off student loans, to minimize credit card debt, and to pay the mortgage to avoid foreclosure. If you feel in over your head in these financial waters, keep reading and consider some of these ideas to simplify your life and reclaim your dream.
Today’s middle class must run faster than did their parents and grandparents in order to stay ahead. During the decades between 1940 and 1970, it was the norm for men to provide for their families through work outside the home and for women to care for their families at home. Families learned to live within the means which the father could provide through his work. The 1970’s initiated a time of change. More and more women began entering the workforce, yet many women still chose to remain home to care for the families as their mothers did. Today, however, it seems that it is normal for both parents to work outside of the home. For some it is a choice, but for a growing number of families, both parents must work out of necessity or decide to make financial sacrifices in order for one parent to remain at home to raise the children. When adults are running so hard to provide for their families and to stay in the middle class, little energy remains to address issues beyond family survival.
Some would be quick to point out that times have changed. Indeed, they have. The World War II generation lived in houses with a one car garage, one TV, and one bathroom. They also lived in a time of great sacrifice for their country. The Baby Boomers had two-car garages, two bathrooms, two televisions, and two telephones. Times seemed to have changed for them for the better compared with their parents. These decades have taught us that each successive generation should do better than the last, but that does not seem to be the case for Generation X and Y. Although the Baby Boomers were able to work more to get ahead, Generation X and Y, despite all of their best efforts in this economy, often still fall short of the “American” standards set for them by their parents. In trying to hold on to the world they were accustomed to when they were growing up, I believe that today’s Americans have passively accepted that they must run harder to stay ahead, allowing their true passions to languish from lack of time and attention. They pick up a second job to pay off credit cards and to recover the money lost in the value of their homes, leaving no time for them to address any issue that lies outside the realm of their own survival. If we as Americans are to stop passively accepting what life hands us and become involved in issues that are larger than our daily existence and more influential than our annual salaries, we must cease striving only after the middle class American dream so that we may save our energies to serve a greater purpose.
How can we take control of our situations and begin realizing our dreams again? Recognizing the problem is the first step – recognizing that many of us are running too hard after the American dream and never being able to actually reach what we are after. Second, we need to recognize that the world in which we are living is different than the world our parents and grandparents lived in. We are currently recovering from the worst economic recession since the Great Depression. We would do ourselves a favor to let that reality sink in, to realize that we may be the first generation in eight decades that will not be able to attain higher standards than our parents. Certainly, I don’t mean that we shouldn’t continue to push ahead. I do mean that we should never give up our dreams and passions in exchange for a life of slavery striving for the level of material wealth we desire.
In order to get ahead, to achieve big dreams, we have to first get small. It may seem counterintuitive at first, to go back to a time that we consider less privileged, but think of it as running leaner, doing more with less. Maybe we can live more like our grandma and grandpa did, going back to that time when the norm was to have a one-car garage, one TV, and a homemade meal on the table. We need to honestly examine our situations and ask ourselves what we are running for and if it is worth the running.
Running is not bad. Running is necessary to get ahead. We simply need to pace ourselves so that we can finish the race strong. We need to realize the terrain has changed from what it was even one decade ago and if we don’t change our pace, we may not have enough energy to see the finish line. We need to slow down, catch our breath, and enjoy the scenery. Before you know it, time will have passed you by and, hopefully, you’ll be retiring. When you get to that point, what will matter to you? Will it be the dreams you achieved, a life well lived, memories of good times passed; or will it be all that time you spent working, striving, slaving to earn the wealth you desired for yourself and the bitterness of never having the time to influence the world around you? Whether you are buried in debt, just keeping your head above water, or on top of the world, keep running, but pace yourself and know that what you are running after is worth it when the race is over.
