Our generation is often referred to as the young and invincible–full of ambition, and ready and willing to throw ourselves headlong down the path of our dreams. Some may even call us brazen. We have entered the professional world with great expectations about what we will accomplish and plenty of energy to get us off to a good start. But how are our drive and dedication affected when things don’t go according to plan?

Recently, I have discovered that the path between our aspirations and accomplishments can be longer and more complicated than anticipated. And, as we move from inspiration to action, most of us will encounter at least a few detours and dead-ends along the way. The question that we must ask ourselves when this happens is, will we allow these obstacles to lead us off course, or will we use them as guideposts that reveal a more productive direction?

In this economy especially, roadblocks to realizing our dreams seem to be cropping up everywhere. For many, the job that they have been counting on to propel them along their career track has suddenly been taken away. For others, financially insecure times may have tempered our tolerance for taking risks and shifted our focus from what we would like to do to what we need to do to get by.

However, despite these challenging circumstances, we should be careful not to allow the changes that we make to our lifestyles now to keep us from achieving our goals for the future. When we are forced to reconsider how we meet our immediate needs, we should also take another look at our long-term goals and develop new strategies for reaching them.

This week at The Purpose Project, we decided to sit down for the latest in a series of conversations that we have had to evaluate the ways in which we have been living our dream. A little over a year ago, my colleague Matt and I decided to quit our jobs in the non-profit sector and work full time to bring The Purpose Project to life. This wasn’t an easy decision for either of us to make. We were leaving behind structure, security, and paychecks in pursuit of a much bigger reward: using our voices and skills to create a new framework for developing social leadership amongst members of our generation.

We were motivated by the prospect of developing a completely new and innovative concept for leadership development, and we were eager for the opportunity to pursue and idea that we were both passionate about. However, with the freedom to design our future also came responsibility. In the absence of established company rules and job descriptions to follow, we have had to make our own decisions and accept the consequences that have come with them. Without a boss to hold us accountable for reaching our goals we have had to do it ourselves, and to find peers and advisors to help us.

Navigating this process has not been easy. Over the past year we have grappled with many challenges that we now recognize as inherent in launching a new start-up. These have included establishing credibility in a field that holds age and experience at a premium, cultivating public interest and support, and building a solid financial base for the project. During this time there have been many occasions when our initial plans for overcoming these hurdles didn’t produce the results that we expected, and at times we experienced moments of disappointment, frustration, impatience and anxiety.

However, with each obstacle has also come the opportunity to reflect on its cause, learn from it, and make course corrections. Through our struggles, we have gained the ability to view challenges as opportunities for growth. When we have faced a barrier to progress, or fallen short of a benchmark or deadline, we have responded by developing a new strategy for overcoming it. We’ve also created a practice of setting new goals and new deadlines for achieving them.

The hurdles, detours, and dead-ends that we have encountered with The Purpose Project have sometimes felt like interruptions to our progress. But, at the same time, they have also been our greatest catalysts towards success. Today, The Purpose Project looks very different than it did at our kickoff. Our strategy and approach have evolved considerably, but these changes have uncovered more efficient ways for us to fulfill our mission of serving as an inspiring and equipping resource for the next generation of social leaders. Without them, I’m not sure that we would have been capable of taking advantage of new partnerships and opportunities for growth that have recently presented themselves.

Over the past year, I have realized that living the dream doesn’t happen once you get there, it has to happen in order to get there. The decisions that we make today impact the opportunities that we have in the future. And, the decisions that we make in times of struggle often influence our chances for success more than the ones that we make when we feel invincible.

With a fresh start to the year, most of us have set goals and made resolutions for 2009. But, it is holding ourselves accountable for keeping our dreams alive through the choices that we make everyday that requires the most resolve. How will you live your dream in 2009?

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 8th, 2009 at 2:57 pm and is filed under Progress, Thoughts and Questions. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.