Peterson 1

Nathaniel Peterson
Prof. Kimberly Strickland
English 2010
9/30/15

Dreams: Possible or Useless? (Position)

In the realm of dreams and goal setting there are several problems that
may occur that could serve to derail you and send you off into a state of
depression for not reaching your goals. The people who fail to realize their
dreams are namely those who set goals that are too high to be achieved,
and those who are simply too lazy to even reach for their dreams. These
two groups make up the people who would argue that you should
ultimately give up on your dreams because they became depressed and unmotivated to reach any further
beyond their current capabilities. I feel bad for these people as they will never taste the sweet nectar that
comes from accomplishing a long sought after goal.

Peterson 2

To better show you what I mean by setting unrealistic dreams, let me spin you a tale. Jonathan
was an ordinary farm boy who spent most of his teenage years
taking care of animals and throwing bales of hay twice as
heavy as him into a shed to feed the animals. One day, after he
was fed up with cleaning up after the horses, he hid himself
away in his cramped room and pulled out his journal and set to
work coming up with a plan to take over the world. Hed
decided no teenager should go through the hardships of working on a farm, so his first law as ruler of the
world would be no more farms. Whenever asked about it, he would merely exclaim, This is the dream!
And run off to further develop his kingdom. It was fifty years down the road when hed realized hed
thrown the majority of his life away and he was still taking care of the farm that his parents entrusted to
him.
So what was his problem? Was it that his will was not strong enough? No, of course not. It was
simply the fact that hed set an unrealistic goal and later was depressed that it never came to pass. Learn
from Jonathan and dont end up like him.
And now you may be asking, Hey, so what about those lazy people? Goals cant be that hard.
Well Im glad you asked. The truth is, dreams require a considerable amount of patience and dedication in
order to come to fruition. This time, Ill use myself as an example. I aspire to become an animator. In
order to achieve this goal, there are many steps that must be taken and in this case the statement practice
makes perfect has never been truer. Now, if I were to sit at my desk and stare at a piece of paper with my
pencils beside it and think to myself, Gah, Im getting tired of drawing that human form. I think Ill just
take a quick break and watch some anime. And then proceed to do that every time I sit down to draw,
then do you think I stand a chance in the animation field? If you nodded and thought to yourself that itll
all come naturally down the road, bop yourself on the head. The answer is no, I wouldnt stand a chance.

Peterson 3

So do you see my point? In both cases I stated, Jonathan and I will not complete our goals due to
unrealistic expectations and laziness. But how do you
know if youre setting an unrealistic goal? I was just getting to
Sometimes, our goals may not be so blaringly obvious
or not they are possible or bogus. Heres some ways you

that.
whether
can tell for

yourself:
First and foremost that I see a lot of people trip up
on is setting an unrealistic time frame in which to complete their goal. Like that pretty pink picture near
the beginning of this paper, If you plan to lose weight and want to do so overnight, you will more than
likely be disappointed unless you happen to have a fairy god mother. Someone close to me, struggles with
this very problem and they end up giving up on losing weight because they dont get the results they want
in a short amount of time.
Second is not being able to take failure. If you havent factored into
your equation the multitude of times you will most likely trip up or make a
wrong decision, then you are doing it wrong. There is no such thing as
perfection, and expecting as much will leave you flustered and annoyed. In
fact, it is wise to keep in mind those failures. Failure is how we learn and
grow. Thomas Edison was a very smart guy, but he failed many times at
inventing the light bulb. Instead he maintained a positive outlook and saw it as I just found 2,000 ways
not to make a light bulb. And he kept going until he found the 1 right way.
Lastly, dont let other people influence your goals. Now this has two sides to it. One is looking at
a person that is maybe rich or famous and setting goals to be exactly like them and have exactly what they
have. And the other is simply letting people talk you out of or into a certain goal. Your goals are your own

Peterson 4

and if someone is discouraging you from it (if it is a realistic one) then you should stop hanging around
such people as they probably failed their own goals.
I hope you realize now that everyone should be able to attain their dreams if they take a second to
set one that is realistic and have the ambition to stay with it to the end. Too many times I have seen people
give up for stupid reasons and often enough it is after they are already heavily invested in it and they get
discouraged because something doesnt go their way. Dreams are very possible and saying they arent just
says you are a pessimistic defeatist. Keep your chin up old chap.

Citations
Image 1 ~ http://www.quotehd.com/imagequotes/authors32/tmb/brian-eck-quote-many-set-unrealisticgoals-that-they-cant-stick-with.jpg
Image 2 ~ https://nutritionwelldonewithasideoffitness.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/losing-15-pounds.jpg
Image 3 ~
http://www.hercampus.com/sites/default/files/styles/full_width_embed/public/2014/09/30/ambitious
-unrealistic-goals.jpg?itok=WH3Flh5J
Image 4 ~ https://searcherpost.files.wordpress.com/2013/12/photo-1.jpg
Tools Team. "Eight Common Goal-Setting Mistakes: Achieving Your Dreams the Right Way." Mind
Tools.
Mind Tools Ltd., n.d. Web. 30 Sept. 2015.

Peterson 5