Motivational Tune Tuesday: Reach for the Sky

As far as inspirational songs go, this one is probably one of my all time favorites. I love the message it sends–aim high, reach for your goals and live the life you want because tomorrow isn’t guaranteed. And as much as I hate to say it, this is something that I’ve become all too familiar with lately (the tomorrow’s not guaranteed thing, not the reach for your goals thing).

For a very long time, I didn’t have a ton of goals. Well, that’s not exactly true. I had a lot of goals, I just didn’t want to say them out loud. Well, that also not exactly true. I would share my traditional goals but keep the dreams to myself. Because I was taught to believe that dreams are just that–dreams. Not something to strive for or even admit except in one of those wistful late night conversations that we all have after we’ve consumed too much wine or are completely sober and reflecting on what could have been. Dreams, I believed, were best kept in our head and in what we perceive as our “ideal” lives (another unattainable feat). As I write that, I realize how absolutely pathetic it sounds.

But then something happened. I’m not sure what exactly, or when the defining moment happened, but one day I woke up and realized that line of thinking was absolutely ridiculous. There is no good reason to have goals beyond getting to the next vacation time earned milestone at your job. There is no good reason not to pursue a dream, no matter how absurd it may seem to someone else. And there is no good reason to think that it’s okay to spend your life shuffling to a job that you hate just for a paycheck.

So I stopped doing that. And now that I have, I can’t imaging doing anything else.

I hope that makes sense.

Anyway, if you have about 4 minutes to spare, listen to this acoustic version Social Distortion’s “Reach for the Sky”. This version doesn’t really do the song justice but it’s the best video I could find. So tune that part out and just listen to the lyrics. They’re really good.