Do It Today
11:40 AM
On Facebook this morning, I shared this image I came across while browsing. It really struck me, and is so applicable to my frame of thinking these days. Last night I was talking to a friend about this exact issue! So often it's like "oh, i'd like to someday do this..." or "I'd like to go here" or "I'd like to make this much money" and yet our actions TODAY don't reflect those goals.
How exciting would it be if each day you just took ONE step forward. Just one. After one year, you'd have taken 365 steps....and that will have changed your distance to your dream significantly.
What is one step? A conversation, a chapter of a book, a podcast, a to-do list completed, a network connection made, an article read, an hour of solitude and prayer/meditation, attending an event, meeting for coffee with a mentor or someone you look up to. Our goals are achieved one step at a time by the choices we make each day. Don't overwhelm yourself with the destination and the long road ahead. Look at what you can accomplish today and do that!
Marry the process. Don't worry about the outcome, but take great care in doing something, anything, each day to be productive towards your dreams!
For starters, my dreams are to provide support to my community in a leadership capacity, to achieve Royal Crown Diamond within my Young Living network marketting business, to write a novel, to have my husband be self employed and work in a flexible schedule, to turn my run-down home into my dream home, to always be true to my vision and purpose as an artist, and to be an excellent mother.
Let's tackle these dreams a little more in depth. There are 7 dreams listed here. 7 is my favourite number, so I probably naturally roll in 7's.
1) Community Leadership
I don't desire to be a leader in a typical sense, but a servant leader. Someone who says "how can I help?" but is just as willing to be the first one to put the shovel in the ground, throw a meeting together, get the website flowing, listen when someone needs to be heard, etc. I have a vision for my town that is crazy, and I am happy about that. I believe dreams worth dreaming are crazy ones. I want to see my town's reputation and image transformed so we can see healthy mentalities and fulfilled purposes lived out here. I see people reaching their goals and dreams coming true. I want to see the community support entrepreneurs and artists. Great mental health support. Great community events. Great children and youth investments. The list really never ends...but I believe in this dream.
How do I spend my days investing in this dream? Emails, reading articles, researching, learning local politics, getting familiar with municipal by-laws, talking with townspeople, attending meetings, hosting meetings, shopping locally, greeting people with a smile. It's an uphill journey, but as John Maxwell says, everything worth having in life is uphill.
2) RCD with YL
This is another outlandish crazy dream. Royal Crown Diamond is really just me setting my sights on reaching the top. The reason? At the top, I will have the finances possible to fully support all my other dreams and therefore, support a lot of other people and their dreams. Best of all, I love Young Living and sharing about my oils and wellness products is one of the highlights of my day. I sit here, life changed, loving the opportunity to help pass this on so other lives can be changed too. And when I reach my goal, I will just have a wider spectrum to continue sharing blessings and helping others reach their own goals.
3) Write a novel
Most days, I am writing. Lines to poems or songs, blog posts, concepts for a story, a great quote that comes to my head, etc. This is likely my 1st or 2nd most neglected dream but I know too that there is a time and season for everything. This can't be my first focus right now and I am okay with that. That being said, this is my LONGEST running dream. My mom would have to say how long this has been a dream of mine...as soon as I could write and spell I began writing stories. My earliest recollection of this was about 6 years old. This dream will never die...and I truly believe one day it will come true! I don't nurture it as effectively as my other dreams but it's on a much longer, slower track and that's okay...I certainly will never give up on it.
4) Husband Career Plan
My hubby Scott works his butt off and we both make a lot of sacrifices to work towards this goal. Right now, he works an almost 4 hour commute from home and is away Monday-Friday. On weekends, he is currently working a side job 2 hours away from home and stays there. So if you followed along with that math, you can see pretty quickly that we get almost NO time together right now. It really sucks. I don't pretend this is great and I don't easily recommend this to anyone! But all I can say is this...I know it's a risk and it isn't a cool one either but he is doing it for a good reason. He isn't off fighting a war or touring with a cool rock band, but he IS chasing his dream. He wants to own his own company. In order to do so, he needs to complete his apprenticeship as a licensed carpenter. His current job is going to pay to put him through school and they train him and treat him great. His side job is so he can start building a portfolio and recommendations so that his business will already have some traction by the time he is done his schooling and licensed. It's one of those situations where you really can't have it all at once, and he has to choose work right now instead of home. Thankfully, there are no kids in this mix. That would reach a point where I might just tell him to get a new dream because the sacrifices wouldn't be worth missing your children...lol. I don't want to say it's worth missing your wife, but I am less dependent and can do okay on my own! I keep very busy and our house is a big task to stay on top of. We cherish the moments we have together and dream of more. I still believe this option is better than him suffering away at a job he hates, coming home miserable, and having the realization that he will never see his dream come true hit him every time he is home. So this dream requires sacrifice, but we are willing to take the risks and sacrifices for the chance that in the end, it will work out. I always believe in life you've gotta take the risks if you want the dream.
5) Emberly House Project
This dream is another slow and steady one. One day at a time. To work away at it requires maintenance, budgeting, planning, dreaming. It's really a 10-15 year plan unless I hit RCD faster than I planned :) Haha
6) The Artist
I am a photographer and after reaching and realizing many of my career dreams in photography, my new goal is to turn photography into a hobby. Isn't that funny and sort of ironic? What I mean by that, is not that I will not continue working, but that in everything, I will love what I do. I never wanted to turn photography into "I have to shoot this" or "I have no interest in that but I'll do it anyway." As an artist, you have to protect what is sacred and special about your craft and why you fell in love with it. I never fell in love with photography to make money, I fell in love with it because I love documenting emotion and nature and how the human experience is so directly intertwined with nature. That's pretty much my purpose. Have I stayed true to that purpose? Nooooooo way. I have shot everything, and enjoyed most of it, but there were a few instances where I chose a profit over a gut feeling that said no. I paid big time. No money is ever worth selling out, or compromising your vision and who you are. I booked solid and lost my "me" time, lost my dreaming time. Now I am claiming that part of my life back. I want photography to be a hobby, something I love, something I do to connect with myself and others. So I am setting my sights on becoming a photographer who shoots what they love and that's it. If I've booked a shoot with you, guess what - you're awesome :)
7) The Mommy Life
As I've been pretty open and therefore most of you probably know, Scott and I have struggled through years of fertility issues. Right now our biggest issue is lack of proximity to eachother hahaha. But for real, this journey and dream has been the hardest road to travel and the craziest experience of my life. Always remember when you walk through fire that it will refine you, if you let it. Most people dream of being a mom like "I want to have kids, I want to decorate nurseries, I want to buy cute clothes, I want to take them on trips and raise them up!" Which is awesome and totally normal. I've had a little extra time to think about parenthood and dream about who I want my kids to be. Maybe I'm just a little obsessed at this point, but when I dream of mom life, I am a little cray. For example, today I started pondering about the lessons I want to create for teaching them about other countries and how their politics and customs are different from ours, and what things are similar between us all. I want them to be able to find a main country in Africa on a map, show me their flag, tell me what kind of food they love and language they might speak, what issues their country faces, and what those people hold dear and what they lack, if anything. Basically I want them to know about the world and know about people and global issues. This was a curriculum idea that came to me on the toilet this morning. Like seriously, what is wrong with me? Haha. I really want to homeschool despite my fear of my kids being awkward weirdos...but I promise I won't let that happen. I may even decide to send them to school and yet also do segments of homeschooling. Either way, I don't believe in education only happening on the school property and in homework the school sends home. I'll see what works for us when the kids get here ;) Regardless, I know kids and parenting can make you feel loopy and like your brain is operating at 50% of what it once did. So, I use my free childless time to plan ahead and come up with schooling ideas. It's fun for me to brainstorm and to visualize my dream of children and plan for their lives. I am okay with being a little obsessive and crazy.
So those are my goals....and hopefully you can kind of see which I prioritize for right now and which I know are more in the distance but either way, that I try to take baby steps in each one as often as I can!
I'd love to hear your goals/dreams. Comment and share if you'd like!
I want to leave you with this beautiful verse I found today.
"From them will proceed thanksgiving and the voice of those who celebrate; And I will multiply them and they will not be diminished; I will also honor them and they will not be insignificant."
- Jeremiah 30:19
1 comments
You're amazing! I love this post, I love your dreams and your heart! So inspiring!
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comment! :)