Oh yes, if you choose to follow the dreams in your heart, your life will most definitely be hard. You will cry more than you ever knew was possible, feel alone more than ever, be heart broken continually and most days question why you choose to start down this path as you force yourself into action. Well that is how I feel anyway. If you see my social media sites or see me in public you won't see that side of my journey. Unless you are my husband, one of my mentors, or in my bible study, you probably have no idea the struggles that I faced to get to where I am today. Or the ones that I battle now. I know what I feed survives, what I focus on grows. I always focus on the good. You see the highlight reel. I am so focused on where I am going that I don't have time to slow down and talk about how hard it will be to get there. I already know. You may not. I want to be real with you for a second, I think it's important to share this. I hear people discredit successful people and it drives me nuts... "oh they are lucky, they have this talent, their family did this... they were born into it.. must be nice... " I'm totally guilty of it too before I started on this path. That's just the hurt, jealousy and the fear coming out. "Why don't I have the courage to follow my dreams too?"
Let me tell you about flip side to the coin, the thing that makes the hard worth it. The thing, that for most of us dream chasers, is what drives us to wake up every morning and continue to jump back into the fight even though our face is bloody, our heart is broken and we are tired from the night of fighting before. It's our burning purpose, our WHY, our story, our preferred future, our vision, our calling. Whatever we call it, it burns so hot inside of us that nothing will stop us from pursuing it. And we surround ourselves with people, books, and ideas that add fuel to the fire. I believe everyone has a burning flame, it may be small or smothered but it's there.
Somewhere around the age of 25 or 30 most people forget what it is... we take out student loans, buy a car, buy a house, start our families, start paying bills, get into a routine, watch hours of TV that reinforces our lost hopes, Eat too much, drink too much, pick up the kids, drop off the kids, pay more bills, busy, busy, busy, face in our phones, live an acceptable life as deemed by society.. . We bury those dreams deep down and convince ourselves that money is evil, successful people are lucky, dreams are for kids and this is our best life. You have heard the quote, ''Most people die at 25 and aren't buried until they're 75.' I know this because I did for a while. I know better. It sounds easier to just live in auto pilot. Believe me, if I did not seek out and create such an amazing support system and constantly fill my mind with positive thoughts, I would be working a 9-5 and binge watching American Horror Story right now. But that is not the life I chose.
See when I think about how hard it is to build the dream that's in my heart, I remember how much harder it was to feel sick to my stomach on Sunday afternoons thinking about walking into a job I wasn't passionate about. When I think about how much it hurts to fail at goals I set, I remember how much it hurt to not have any and end up somewhere I did not want to be. When I think about the pain of discipline to get out of debt and become financially free, I remember what it felt like to call my parents as a grown woman and ask for money. When I think about how tired I am from driving 4 hours to a meeting and back, I remember how tired I was from being up all night worrying about how we were going to feed the family, put clothes on the kids and get out of the mountain of debt we built. When I don't feel like picking up the phone and calling one more person, I remember what it what it felt like to be scared to answer my phone because it might be a creditor calling. When another person tells me I am a pipe dreamer and building a house of cards, I remember how I had to tell my kids 'NO' because we only $10 in our bank account until pay day. When I cry because the kids were being crazy toddlers all day and messed up my schedule, I remember the tears running down my face when I thought about dropping them off at daycare. When a teammate I poured my heart into gives up on their dreams and decides to quit, I remember how much it broke my heart to give up on myself and my family every day. When I have to make tough decisions and don't want to, I remember what it was like to not have any choices.
My current dreams, the ones that make all of the hard stuff worth it... We will be financially free so that all of our decisions can come from our hearts instead our bank account. We will be consumer debt free by the end of next year. We will pay off our mortgage over the next 7 years. We will be YES parents. We will take the kids to see Mickey Mouse without a budget. We will travel the US in an RV for a year with the kids in the next 5 years.
The house that we just bought started this way, a dream, a vision, a decision, sticky notes and a picture cut out of a magazine.
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| One of the many sticky notes, we had up in our old house |
I felt it, I knew what it looked like and I knew it would happen. I did not have an idea on how, except I was going to have to grow, work and push through some adversity. Gosh, I underestimated the adversity part. But let me tell you this, I am sitting here tonight, in this house I dreamed about years ago. Just as real as it is right now, this house was real to me 5 years ago when I was walking into pawn shops selling everything valuable that we owned. Here is another lesson, as hard as your life may seem right now you have what it takes to make it what you want. You are one decision away from a completely different life if you want it. I promise it won't be any easier on this path, but it will be worth it. It is so worth it! Find out what makes you come alive, find your passion, explore what it is you truly want. And then take some actions to get you there. It's not a coincidence you want those things. YOUR life matters. It matters that you live in those passions. Life is going to be hard no matter what you choose, doesn't it make sense to make it worth it? And maybe even bring some people with you along the way?
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| Move in Day |
