What's Next?

I had dinner with some friends a few weeks ago. One of them was telling us about a promotion he had received a few months earlier. We all congratulated him and then I asked, “So what’s next?”

I told him I was thinking of something I heard Oprah Winfrey say once, “What do you do when your dreams come true?” And her answer was, “Dream bigger dreams.”

So I asked my friend what his next, bigger, dream job would be. And he had no answer. That didn’t surprise me too much, but what did surprise me was that no one else at the table had any vision of what their next job would be either. All of them were working but none of them were working toward any goal except receiving their next paycheck.

Fortunately all of them were fairly happy where they were, but I find the happiest people in life, whether we’re talking about jobs, or relationships, or health, or anything, are those people who feel that they have power to run their own lives. We can’t always assert control in every situation, but when we can, becoming an active participant in creating our future leads to spiritual health.

Instead of just letting the future happen to us, we can help create our future: a particular future that brings us joy, that reflects our values. But before we can achieve our dreams we have to have dreams. Do you? Can you see it? Can you name it?