Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

“In the end, we only regret the chances we didn’t take.”

A few years ago, I was asked the question “where do you see yourself in five years?” Well, I actually was asked ten years at first but I said that was too far away. I was taking part in “the Rose of Tralee” and my answer was “I will just be finished with University and I want to be lying on a beach in Australia.” Five years later, there I was – lying on a beach in Australia basking in 40-degree heat. I have always stood by plans to the best of my ability and set my sights on my goals and try my hardest to fulfil them.

So, now I need to think about the same question again. Where do I see myself five years from now? I would like to have travelled Canada, America and India. I want to live in a remote village for longer than a month. I hope to be able to travel with my work and begin again wherever I rest my head. I know that I eventually want to settle in Ireland but I need to clock up some more air miles before that.

Learn to drive – Check (kinda)

Sky Dive – Check

In the past five years, my views have changed on certain subjects such as religion, relationships, personal growth, and friendships. People and situations change but your dreams remain the same.

I recently read an article about Brittany Maynard. At 29, she was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. She bravely went public with her decision to end her life and die with dignity. She completed a bucket list of things that she always wanted to do before her death and it got me thinking. Why is that we wait for such horrible and unthinkable circumstances before we begin our bucket list. Turn around, look at your life, and decide right now it you are happy. If there is any part of you that feels comfortable, content, and unchallenged, stand up and walk away now. Starting over is not about changing your current scene, but the way you are living it.

Ride an elephant – check

Oktoberfest Munich – Check

My name in credits – Check

Life has a tendency to get stale, just like your favorite food it loses its flavor after a while. While we do enjoy comfort, we all crave experience. If you find love for a city, a person, a job, move for it. People who like to travel can often be seen as fickle, unreliable, and not wanting to settle. Some of the best people I know still don’t know what they want to be at 50 so don’t worry.

Sigmund Freud suggested that if you want to understand what’s happening in the “real world” you should study what’s happening in your subconscious, because when we dream our subconscious takes over.

Just like a child our subconscious acts on urges and impulses. Dreams represent those wants and needs we didn’t even know we had while awake. Freud also believed that nothing happens by chance. Every action or thought is motivated by our subconscious at some level.

What is your subconscious telling you? Do you constantly dream about the same day at work, the same people? We should all spend more time with people we love, exploring, and doing things that make us happy. Don’t wait for trauma to start living your life.

Why not start today, if only bit-by-bit, but start your bucket list. For many of us travelling is the main option that we choose. Travelling makes us reevaluate things, gain new perspectives, and can give us a sense of clarity. I have found that falling in love with a new place can have the same effect as falling in love with a real person.

Travelling pushes you to your limits every delayed flight, loss of luggage, the people you travel with, and the people you meet. You don’t truly know someone until you miss a flight with him or her and see his or her reaction. If you can laugh together, you are friends for life.

Travel is a complicated life to choose and many people cannot wrap their heads around wanting to live out of a suitcase and the unknown. The decisions that you make are yours and yours alone.

It is a scary reality of my chosen profession that I may not get to experience the kind of success I have set in my mind. However, with that knowledge and that fear it drives me harder and pushes me to my limits and I will try my hardest to achieve every goal that I have.

How much would it take for you to give up on your dreams? To work in a job you loathe but the pay is good. Would you regret it or would you just merely survive with the idea that you will eventually complete your bucket list when the time is right. So I ask again where do you see yourself in five years?

I don’t think comfort is the key to happiness; it stunts your personal growth and even your sanity. My dreams are not going to happen overnight, I am going to have to work incredibly hard, harder than many of my friends and spend most of my free time doing things that I will not get paid for and juggling my life to make it happen.

Life is unpredictable and nothing is ever certain, It is when you don’t know how to handle situations in your life that are anything but black and white. It is when you are unsure if you have made the right decisions in the past. Life has to challenge you: or you will remain stuck on pause and get nowhere. So surround yourself with people who complement your needs and help with the stresses in your life. The best things in life are unexpected because there were no expectations.

We are all living to die and dying to live, so choose today what you’re going to do about it….