Dreams

While wasting some time on Facebook the other day, a friend had posted a quote by Walt Disney as their status; “All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them”. As cheesy as that may be, it got me thinking about what my dreams are and how I can make them realities. One of my academic/professional dreams is to be successful in my particular field of Professional Writing. I would argue that to be successful in our profession is a dream that most of us would share.

However, how do we realize this dream? We are all taking perhaps the most important step of furthering our education, but what else needs to be done? I decided to do a quick internet search to see what kind of advice was out there. I found a great article on UpMarket that deals with many aspects of a career, from knowing your value as an employee, to asking for a pay raise and how to get a better job. My favorite piece of advice from this article was “Always remember that the secret of success is passion. Always think big. Spread love & joy. You'll have blissful years ahead.”

The article can be read here.

With my internet search, I wasn’t completely satisfied so I decided to make a short list of my own ideas of how to be successful in your career.

Here are my ideas:

· Take advantage of opportunities. This could be anything from picking up an internship, volunteering to provide services or using your writing talents at your current job.

· Network. Build relationships with professors and classmates. After all, your classmates will be future professionals as well!

· Hone your craft. Spend time developing your talents. Keep a journal; write as much as you can. The more you write, the better.

· Learn your tools. Writers need to know more than writing. Today we are expected to have an eye for design, an eye for photography, and software skills, as well as many other things. Spend time learning the tools to help you in these areas.

While some of this list may be specific to professional writing and my own journey, I encourage you to think on this topic, come up with a list of your own and begin to realize your dreams. I would love to hear what you all come up with!

And to leave you with some intelligent words, here is the late Steve Jobs speaking about dreams…

Dream on!

Celia