If there is anything good that has happened in 2020 I would say it is that our time has become much more our own. We have had time to let go of uber busy schedules that kept us going from dawn to dark. We have loosened our commitments and seen our weekends become free. Time has become slower, quieter and given us a unique opportunity to enjoy life differently. The wishes we made for things to be simpler have come true in many respects this year.
While this year has also been stressful and filled with worry and uncertainty it has also given us pause. No other time in my life do I remember a time like this where we could just think, wonder, dream and make plans and actually have the time for it. In some respects we’ve even had the time to act on plans and birth new ideas for what is next in our life. We have had the opportunity to look at our life and assess what we want to change and start making those changes happen!
How many dreams have you packed away because you didn’t have time or you didn’t think they were possible?
I think too often in life we let the demands of trying to survive, be successful, accomplished, secure, stable and more get in the way of our dreams. We take what we can get because we need to and we forego our dreams and time in exchange for that. We stop dreaming after a while thinking it was really silly to think we could have done that anyway. It’s best to just focus on what we have and make the best of it. Sounds fun right? It makes us want to jump out of bed in the morning excited and ready to start our day.
When I started Dragonspit Apothecary I never dreamed of being an entrepreneur. It wasn’t something I had put a label on describing what I dreamed I wanted for a career or part of my life. There was however a long list of what I didn’t and still don’t like in my current career. It has not been easy juggling both of them for 3 years now but I continue doing it because of the dream I let loose. The dream that has taken shape every day when I sit to write this blog or am helping a new client on my lunch hour or after work. The dream I dared to dream when things were not so great in my life and I dared to try something new. It was time for me to see where this dream could take me.
Dreams are our soul’s way of telling us there is more to life. They don’t always give us the exact plans or map but they are telling us repeatedly what we really want in our life. Our dreams are guiding us to those deep held ideas of what our life could look like. Most of us don’t remember our dreams or don’t think we dream anymore but trust me buried underneath all that stress, worry, fatigue and burnout is a dream you have had and it is still there. Big or small we all have dreams that are held in our hearts.
If I asked you what you wanted to be when you grew up, do you remember? Do you remember dreaming about how great it would be do that as a kid? You were going to be awesome at it too! It was going to be fun and our life was going to be great. Yet very, very few of us actually do those jobs today in our adult life. We eventually lost sight of those childhood visions of being something that we thought was cool back then. Maybe it wasn’t our true calling but is what we’re doing now that calling? Does it resemble anything at all about who we want to be in life or how we want to live? Does our life inspire us and motivate us? If not it’s time to dream.
When we stop loving our life, what we’re doing is draining us and we are not happy or feeling our best it’s time to dream. It’s time to listen to our heart and allow ourselves to see more clearly what we are seeking. It might be impractical, unrealistic, crazy even but we won’t know unless we allow ourselves to try it and believe it can be done. Do you know when I started Dragonspit Apothecary I had a friend actually ask me “Seriously?” Yes I responded and I’ve not let that thought someone thought I was crazy stop me from trying it. It’s ok if no one else understands it but you.
I think what stops most of us from acting on our dreams is that we think we cannot afford them or that we don’t have time for them. 2020 has certainly challenged us on both of those factors as we try to protect our families health and financial needs. Yet it is also the perfect time, right now in the middle of a storm to ask why not now! It might be slow going. We may have to get creative with how we do it but that honestly is part of the fun. We begin to see a dream start to come alive little by little each day and as that happens our own energy rises to continue pushing ahead on it. It may seem hard but it is a lot easier than pushing against a storm of things that are leaving us drained, financially poor and at the mercy of others making decisions that impact our livelihood.
That’s the thing about dreams. We don’t always know where they will lead us but the tiny little spark they light can create real energy in our life. It’s like a light comes on and finally realize how much control we actually have in our own life. We see what we have given up and sacrificed to get where we are but we also see the window start to open on where we can go from here. We see better. We feel a stirring that gets louder and louder until we finally go see what it is about. We don’t feel the need to look back either.
It may not be overnight that all of our dreams come true. It may not even be easy to make it happen but not answering those stirrings and exploring them leaves us wondering what if…
Are you wondering what if?
Take the free Business Leader Assessment to see if the stirring you have is answered here: https://forms.gle/3z7BGme59A5puJ8w6