Dreams are amazing things. They have the power to make even the darkest days bearable.

When I was a child I had a dream. I dreamed of being this big business mogul. I owned a business that I paid others to care for and owned lots of real estate that others loved to rent. I had a nice home, a perpetually new car, and I was always on the go making business deals.

That dream kept me going when I worked four jobs to raise my three kids in the early days of my divorce. I would do my father proud, picking up where he left off when he sold his apartment buildings after he lost his leg.

That dream motivated me. I read business books, studied the stock market, looked at houses…after Katie moved out I looked at so many houses.

But did I want to start out with a house for me (to escape my rental) or did I want an apartment building? I could always move into one of the units. With every place I looked at something held me back. With every business opportunity, something felt off, so I never pulled the trigger aside from my old computer repair business and this website. They all felt wrong somehow.

Why???

But then I stumbled into my current job. My boss is the woman I imagined myself becoming as she flies all over the nation and the world. She darts into the office, signs whatever papers are there for her to sign, answers a few quick questions before she jets off again.

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Life has a way of explaining things to you if you only pay attention. If you watch and wait and trust, the answers will come. I have learned through experience to trust my instincts but I never understood why my Inner Self would rebel each and every time I went to leap into certain projects. This was my dream, my goal!

Until I met her.

I admire her but as I watch her rushing from here to there as she courts potential clients and puts out proverbial fires I realize that I don’t want to be her. I am cut from a different cloth so the Universe, in its own unique way, finally gave me the answer I had been looking for.

No.

I have another path. I don’t know what it is but now I know it exists. I understand that there was a reason why things worked out the way they did. Life has been preparing me for something different.

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We all have dreams. Those dreams can be of a glamorous lifestyle, jet setting with the rich and famous. It could be of having a farm in the middle of nowhere or a cabin in the woods. Whatever the dream may be, every time you get close, something always happens to push it away. You’ll get that feeling in your gut that tells you no and you don’t understand why.

Perhaps, like me, the reason that dream isn’t working out is because if it did work out you would be miserable. “Be careful what you wish for” is wise advice, I have discovered.

So today is the day that I release a dream I had for decades. Today is the day that I own the fact that, had I ended up with that dream lifestyle, that I would have been unhappy. Today is the day that I own myself and accept the fact that a dream I had as a child does not serve the me I became as an adult.

It is okay to release a dream if it no longer serves you. It is okay to admit that something you thought you wanted back in the day doesn’t suit the person you have become. It is okay to accept and acknowledge that you have changed or that, upon reflection, you’ve discovered that the dream, however appealing it may be to others, would be your personal nightmare.

For me, releasing that dream meant releasing some items I have held onto as I worked towards that dream. I released some books and a few other possessions that I clung to as reminders of who I wanted to become. While I am grateful that the dream helped me through some dark times, it is time I let it go.

Do you have one of those dreams, one of those little promises you’ve made to yourself to do something or be something, but when you try it on it feels like overly tight shoes?

Have you considered letting it go?