
So, In today's blog I want to touch on something that has so much meaning for me - following your dreams.
Up until around four years ago, I like countless millions of people, was meandering through life with little or no direction. Life it seemed to me was nothing more than a trial to be gotten through. I had no great dreams, no great aspirations - all I really wanted to do was to make those years of my life pass quickly and comfortably.
Yet, when we were children, we did have such great dreams about our future, about our lives. It seemed that nothing was impossible to us - so what happened? Some would say what happened was life? But for me that is too simplistic and shallow. What happened in reality was we allowed well-meaning parents, teachers, friends, and society in general to squash those dreams. We were told that dreaming was for "wasters", that dreaming wouldn't pay the rent, that it wouldn't put food on the table - so we conformed, we got a "normal" job so that we would fit into this society.
Well, I say enough is enough - It's time to reclaim those dreams of your youth. It's time to follow your dream!

I have real purpose in life now. My days are filled with the joy and passion of doing something I absolutely love. I have become a much better person than I ever was before for one reason, and one reason alone. I am living a purpose-filled life.

My life now has two distinct purposes. Firstly, I want to give as much pleasure as I can through my writing. You see, I always knew I could write - I always wanted to write, it was one of those childhood dreams that I talked about earlier. As a child, I absolutely knew I was going to be an author one day, I absolutely knew that this was my calling; yet somewhere along the way I got distracted, diverted and my dreams were suborned by a society that suggested to me that writing wasn't a "real job" and what I needed was a "real job". Well, those who know me, know exactly how well that worked out!
So, now I am a full-time writer, I am living a live that makes me want to jump out of bed in the morning and get on the computer and simply write. Every day, new and exciting ideas are swirling around my head. Suddenly, I am excited about life, I am excited about every single second of every day. I no longer sit and mindlessly watch television all day, or trawl the internet - I have a real purpose in life now - why? Because I followed my dream!

I used to be a surly, grumpy old man who blamed everyone and everything for what went wrong in my life. What I have learnt is that there is only one thing in this world we can change - and that is ourselves. We can choose to be happy - we can choose to not engage in negative thoughts and we can choose to approach every situation from a positive perspective. You know, I can't stop the war in Iraq, I can't stop ISIS terrorists from beheading people, I can't cure Ebola - there are so many horrible things happening in the world that I can't control or influence - but I can control me. I choose to be happy, despite the current state of the world.

Now, I'm not suggesting that you have to travel half-way around the world and uproot your life, as I chose to do, to follow your dream. What I am saying is you need to re-examine what you are doing with your life - what makes you happy. If you are doing something that makes you stressed, irritable, angry, or depressed, then ask yourself; "why am I doing this?" Revisit your child-hood dreams. Ask yourself; what is it that I really wanted to do when nothing was an obstacle - when anything was possible? In there somewhere you may find that which will give you your "bliss". When you find it, start to lay plans on how to work toward achieving it. It doesn't have to be overnight; you don't have to drop everything and take up a new path - as I did. All you have to do is work toward incorporating that into your life today. It will give a whole new perspective on your day.

1/ Are successful and wealthy people happy because they are successful and wealthy or are they successful and wealthy, because they are happy. I firmly believe the latter to be the case.
2/ The most powerful tool we have to effect change in this world is our own mind. The power of our thoughts should never be underestimated. We are what we think! The most important thing we can do is to love ourselves and to be happy with who and what we are. Once we have mastered self-love, we can begin to "change the world - one life at a time."