4 Steps to Have it All

1- Dream It

The old adage if you can dream it you can do it is true! Here is where I reveal my love of white boards. I have not 1, not 2, but three in my kitchen alone. So if you like me need a white board in front of you make a bucket list of dreams. I've mentioned this before but one of my big dreams is to rent a cabin on the coast in Maine and write for a summer. Trust me it's on my dream list. But I have other ones too like having a sustainable farm, and creating a place people like to get away too. Most of my dreams are centered around my family and friends creating experiences. So first things first pic up a pen or in my case dry erase marker and write them down. Mirrors also allow the use of dry erase markers! 

2- Research and Developement 

Figure out how far off your dreams really are! They could be right around the corner and if you didn't ask you'd never run into it. If your dream is to learn a foreign language my town has business lunches during the week where groups get together to study a language. It would only cost you lunch once a week. If your dream is to make your own cheeses there are websites or books you can read to figure out how to start your own production of cheese. Cheesemaking for Beginners

3- Make a Plan

This can be as detailed as I found the towns close together that have wineries and I'm going next weekend. Or as complicated as I am giving up my full time job here to teach English in Thailand for 3 years. Teaching English

I know someone who went through this program! That type of a life change might take more strategy.

Life is a many splendid thing and should love and breathe as you dream and grow. This part is crucial because you want your plan to be as detailed as you need to so the steps are manageable. What other obligations do you have? Are there financial obligations you have? Are there skills you lack? Make sure you also ask how can I overcome those deficits? I loved to travel so I worked 2-3 jobs. The sacrifice was worth it for me because I could go on a trip every 3-4 months. Money to travel was worth my exchange of time. Don't be afraid to barter for things too. If you know someone who has a camper trailer you want to take to the Gran  Tetons who also needs their roof redone maybe that's a good use of a weekend to trade. While I nannied I had a hair dresser who would barter child care hours. It was a perfect exchange of services. 

4- Execute Dream

This is the fun part. Take the first step! Go ahead, Do it! Make the call, sign up, or make your reservation. Your life is calling.

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Kill the Cow, Keep the Dryer

You know what these are, the things maybe habits or items we can't live without. Our sacred cows of life. I'm reminded of a girl and her industrial strength hair dryer, but I digress. Sometimes your sacred cow is as plain and as unknown as the nose on your face, something your eye is trained to ignore.

I would challenge you to ask a friend, spouse, or coworker what your ticks are. To be brutally honest my biggest tick was an "Adult" job 9-5 Monday through Friday. I don't know if I thought the world was going to end if I worked outside of those hours but I know my most productive times do not always happen between 9 am - 5 pm. Somehow I decided that people who worked these hours had made it. After much reflection I have decided Monday through Friday 9-5 doesn't work for me. So with one sacred cow down and the other soon to be down. I have a new standard of "arrival". I want to work minimally without my income being dependent on my presence in the office. When the cow no longer stands in the way you are free to redefine and adjust expectations.

The other was comfort. I liked a predictable ( insert safe) standard of living. I was terrified first with what would I DO if i no longer was a work-a-holic? What would happen if I stepped out to the unknown and fell flat on my face? I was too comfortable in my commitments like rent and car payments and a delightful cell phone bill. These demands were an unkind task master.

Challenged by an honorable man, I was given the task of following a rabbit trail into the what if's of the world. What if I didn't fall on my face? What if I succeed at my heart's desire? What if I did become an author? One of my dreams from a tender age. But it gets better! Not only did I dream of one day writing a book, I specifically wanted to write a book on the coast of Maine in a sea cottage on the beach. So my journey down the rabbit hole continued. What if I COULD write a book in a sea cottage on the coast of Maine with the ocean as my soundtrack and a lighthouse for my bearings. Life just looked better and better. Well first things first I had to believe I had something to write! Its difficult to be a writer without stories. But I assure you I have no shortage of words and even ideas, but a story??? So I have beaten back the beast of a sacred cow to try my wings outside of comfort and though the journey is in its infancy, I am delighted to say its been quite the success.
The land beyond your sacred cows is bright and full of promise and risk. But all of the best things take a bit of faith.

What IF? Yes!

My big question has been what if? Not in the sense that something terrible is waiting around every corner, but what if everything I've desired could really take place. For a long time I've had these amazing pie in the sky dreams, to be a writer, to be a coach, to own properties. Up until now, they've all seemed so impossible!

Now I know what you're thinking, and no, I didn't come into this amazing inheritance, I just opened my eyes to some exciting options, and said yes. Yes is the place where fear comes knocking, and your dream is so close while its never been further away. You have just set in motion a different outcome for your choose your own adventure book. Saying yes to your dream begins to unlock potential. You'd never expect what is waiting in the place of YES! That place makes a beautiful knot in your stomach and pulls your shoulders back and draws your head high. It takes confidence and trust in who you are to really build in the vulnerability that is where your YES begins. This is my journey, discovering all that Yes entails, building in the vulnerable places. And maybe, just maybe seeing dreams become reality.