Writers 
Our dreams were once so easy to understand. We believed in a better future, saw ourselves doing great things, thought if we worked hard enough everything would fall into place. We dreamed, but not knowing what lay before us. Today a lot of us have the same dreams, but the reality is much different than it was when we dreamed.
After that, it was a dream coming true. Well, now we dream with experience.
It's easy to get the sense of success being simple when we were younger. Education was taken for granted to be followed by a good job, hard work to be rewarded in a timely fashion, and an opportunity to open up the right door in the future. We had a plan, a time and some hopes. We thought that our life would go the way we had planned it.
But, life changes the plan.
Dreams from years gone by are still being sought after today. Others have turned around because of circumstance. Some have gone beyond what they dreamed of; others are still waiting for a chance. People who thought that at a certain age they will have it all figured out, then realize that life doesn't have a set schedule.
Sometimes it's not necessarily the dream that differentiates then from now. Sometimes, it's the person who's transporting the dream.
Experience changes us. Experiences of failure give lessons that cannot be learned from experience of success. When things don't go our way, we become more patient. Being responsible changes our thinking. Those things we once thought we would never experience may just be the things we need for the future that we want.
Maybe you aspired to be something great, to have a career that would succeed, to own your own business, to help your family, to travel the world, or to make a difference in your community. Those dreams might still be alive, even if it was longer than expected.
Don't get the idea that you are a failure because your past expectations were different from your current reality.
Sometimes, progress is hard to see as it's not always what you think it should be. You might not be where you think you'd like to be, but you might have gained knowledge, matured, lived through and even acquired skills that you didn't have when you were younger.
Then He gave you the dream, now He gives you the wisdom to go for it a different way.
The key is to not get stuck in the old ways. Make changes to the old plan if it is no longer working. In case of the original path being blocked, take another path. If you have gained new insight about yourself, then let that insight guide you in the next step.
Dreams can stay constant whereas strategies change.
Things you experience today are not necessarily the end of your story. It has been a long time coming doesn't mean it never will come. If your trip is different, your destination is not.
Reflect on past experiences, but don't beat yourself up about it, just be proud of where you've been. Do this in a positive way, not with false hopes, but with courage, wisdom and determination.
The dream lives on then and now. At times, the new reality is merely a way of getting ready to do the dream job in a better way.