Soul Searching

I've been doing some soul searching recently.Maybe it's the New Year. Maybe it's our new baby girl. Whatever it is, I've been asking myself a lot of questions.

1. What am doing?
2. Where am I going?
3. Is this what I want to be doing?
4. Is this where I want to go?

Conveniently, these questions have fit in well with a couple other outside influences. I've been reading Touching the Void: The True Story of One Man's Miraculous Survival by Joe Simpson. I may review it later but, related to this post, the book references a quotation:

All men dream: but not equally, Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes, to make it possible.

T.E. Lawrence from The Seven Pillars of Wisdom

It's not dreams that make the dreamers dangerous. No, it's the action. It's making those dreams real that's dangerous. I've been dreaming for, well, forever, but I haven't necessarily been dangerous. I need me some danger. I need to put legs on my dreams.

The second thing I've read recently came from an unlikely place. There's a site dedicated to, well, James Bond. Yes, 007. And, yes, I check the site out periodically. Anyway, there was a posting about finding your mission. Not necessarily infiltrating a villain's island hideout (sign me up) but identifying and pursuing you're own mission. Making the sacrifices for the greater reward. Always moving toward the goal. Huh? Life by 007.

I believe we achieve exactly what we set out for. It's all nicey-nice to set goals and say you're doing something but, if those dream just sit there in your head (or even on a blog) and you're comfortable where you are, you're not really trying. If, you set out for more of the same, you'll almost certainly achieve it. Pursue those goals...well...that's something different altogether.

To that end, I'm working on my goals for 2010. I see it being a big year. Huge.