I’ve been a busy bee these days trying to follow my dreams. One of them has been my long held desire to write for a magazine. Although I’m still climbing that never ending hill, I’m trying to enjoy the journey. Here is one fruit of my labor. (Sherry from Young House Love taught me this cool trick: Now you can click on the photo to magnify the image so go ahead and read away!)
Following your dreams, Freelance writing, Inspirational Stories | 
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When I left corporate life almost a month ago, I didn’t realize how different going on my own would be. I did not know for example, how freeing it would be or how I would suddenly feel alive again. I also didn’t know how emotionally challenging and financially straining it could be. I remember a friend telling me something similar about having a baby. She said she knew it would be hard, but was surprised at how hard. In this way, creating your own business or going for your dream job are a lot like having your own baby. It’s a creative endeavor that requires courage, strength, and perseverance. You love it. It’s yours but no one likes to talk about the hard part. So here’s the realistic side of going for your dreams.
Growth exists somewhere between being too comfortable and being uncomfortable. Here’s hoping that no matter where you are, you find a bit of good in the bad and beauty in the ugly. 
Freelance writing, Inspirational Stories, Life | 8 Comments »
“Walk away from the 97% crowd. Don’t use their excuses. Take charge of your own life.” — Jim Rohn
I’ve never been one to follow the crowd. I remember being in elementary school arguing with my classmates that their crayon drawing of green grass was incorrect because it did not have the brown dirt under it. Anal, I know!
And while my need to follow the beat of my own drum still stays with me today, I now see how doing so can be beneficial in the long run. Great people are the ones that makes waves and are not always the ones who passively ride them. It made me think, maybe being stubborn has its advantages after all.
In fact, whenever I decide to do something that makes people cringe and cry out, “Why are you doing that?” I kind of think I might be on the right track. I’m not saying of course that I like to be different just for the sake of rebelling. But there is something to be said about the road less travelled. If everyone is doing it, maybe you should ask yourself not why aren’t I doing it too but what else can I do?
If we spend our lives being like everyone else, walking in their shoes, we never get the chance to be the person we were meant to be. We may live a safe life. We may have the support of the majority. But we will always wonder what if. So the next time you are hesitant to stand out from the crowd, remember this. You not only have every right to follow the beat of your own drum but you were born to.
Freelance writing, Inspirational Stories, job | No Comments »
Dream chasing can be exhausting. For one, it’s like going after that unattainable pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. The faster you run, the farther away it gets until it’s out of reach. The one big worry when you attempt to fulfill your dreams? You’ll run out of gas, right before you get to the end.
To prevent dream burn out, read these helpful remedies.
There will always be challenges in front of us, more projects to tackle and people to compete with who want the same things. The best thing we can do for our dreams? Invest in ourselves.
One of the greatest challenges to success is facing ones fears. You’ll notice it’s a reoccurring theme in my blog and seen here in my previous interview with Life Coach Jaqui Duvall. The real question then, is why are we so scared of success?
On LiveStrong.com and in a post titled, “Handling Fear of Success,” licensed psychologist James J Messina talks to Jake Lawson about what those fears are and why they prevent us from success. Some of the reasons such as the fear of not being good enough, fear of not being happy once we achieve our goals and fear of being recognized when we do well, sound all too familiar to me. When someone compliments my writing, for example, I’m always scrounging around for words of critique versus praise.
But why? Why do we do this to ourselves? Isn’t the goal in life to be happy, to succeed, to accomplish all of our dreams? When we play video games or board games, how often are we worried about these same fears? We seldom think that we don’t deserve to win. But in the game of life, why is that we take ourselves out of the race, even before the competition has really begun?
It may be those self-sabotaging beliefs that motivated our actions as children such as, “nobody likes a winner” or “it’s best not to stand out from the crowd.” It could also be a deep, underlying belief that we are somehow unworthy of success because who are we really?!
The solution? Although there’s no easy solution, there are hope and love. Hope allows you to believe that dreams are possible and love involves loving yourself enough to believe that you can. Not everyone can make it to the top, but I truly believe that everyone deserves the chance to get there.
I watched Jim Carrey’s, “Yes Man” on DVD the other night and my husband and I agreed it was pretty good. Not for Carrey’s predictably unpredictable antics or the story’s plot but because it reminded us that anything is possible when you say “yes” to possibility and opportunity. It kind of got me thinking about my own life and the repercussions of saying “yes” to the unknown.
Take for example my dream career. I’ve always wanted to be a writer and a copywriter since I first saw “Bewitched” on Nick at Nite. Darren’s job seemed intriguing and I remember creating my own portfolio of commercials and jingles as a kid. Then life happened and I tucked away that dream.
But recently, I’ve been on the road to follow that path again and slowly but surely have made my way to that pot of gold. It started when I applied for random non-paying writing internships hoping that the experience would pay for itself. I ended up scoring a summer internship for an eco-friendly website. I was stoked! I got the position everyone else was jonesing for.
I took the job seriously writing about how to be eco-friendly at work and throwing clothes-swapping parties. But then, I hit another brick wall. I submitted all this great stuff and then I never heard from the editor again.
That was a few years ago. Since then, I actually got a job as a copywriter but later realized it wasn’t the dream career I thought it was. I began writing in this blog hoping I’d eventually figure it out.
This year, I became more aggressive in my job search and started marketing myself online and researching possible publications even ones that weren’t obviously hiring. I also began reading relevant books, and online resources to give me info on how to become a freelance writer.
One book, “Finding Your North Star” by Martha Beck really started the ball rolling. Beck says that when you begin listening to yourself and what moves you rather than do what you think you’re supposed to do, you will find your true calling. That’s how I ended up here writing an article for an eco-friendly magazine that I applied to.
Here’s what happened. On Friday, I decided what I really wanted to do was take another day to rest from the flu. Boy am I glad I did because that same day I received an email at 5:40 am asking me to write an article for that same eco-friendly magazine and finish it in 2 days!
It was an exciting venture one that I believe is propelling me on to more opportunities. Although this recent one has left me breathless with excitement and fear, I know that I still have a long road ahead of me. Because once we get our dreams, we have to commit to all the things it comes with, the fears, challenges and possibilities. It is worth it, however. And hard to believe it all started because I had the courage to say, “Yes I believe!”
Find yourself in a similar situation? Share your thoughts and experience by leaving a comment. And don’t forget to subscribe here if you like what you see.
