Living your Dream Limbo? Just Keep Swimming!

One of my biggest missions for “6 Months to Live” is to inspire and empower people to create lives they love, so it’s important to me that I am a cheerleader for people and their dreams. I want others to know that dreams do come true, that everything is possible, and that magic and opportunities are everywhere.

As the blog continues to grow exponentially and in my effort to encourage people, I have to admit there’s a part of me that’s felt an internal pressure to be all smiles, positivity, and full of life when it comes to blog posts. But this blog started and continues to be an experiment in living. I began by chronicling my personal journey and discoveries along the way and thankfully, you joined in and continue to share your experiences! 

Keep an eye on your goal! Wall of China 2008

After a few conversations with friends and clients this week, I realized that it’s important to talk about all aspects of life, not just the rosy parts. If you’re hitting some rough patches on the road to your dreams, that’s 100% normal. I’m creating HUGE dreams right now–they’re bigger than I could have ever imagined even a year ago. I’ll be honest–not every day is unicorns and rainbows. Choosing to live your dreams is not for the faint of heart. Your desire for your dream has to outweigh your fear or the tough spots. Which will you regret more: not doing everything in your power to create what you really want or not taking the chance(s)?

• January 2009: I moved to San Francisco on New Year’s Eve with a little over $1,000 and a place to live for a month during the recession. When I wrote this post, I had not found a job yet. Many twists and turns to that story but 5 weeks later, I had landed my dream job. 

• October 2012: On my path to sailing in Mexico, there were multiple times it looked like it wasn’t going to happen. My original plan was to stay in San Francisco and crew for a skipper heading to San Diego and then onto Mexico in a well known annual race called the Baja Ha-Ha but that wasn’t materializing. After waiting in San Francisco a month, I left and went back to stay with my family in Atlanta. I felt defeated, but I didn’t give up. There are more twists and turns to that story, but it all worked out. It would have been easy on the days were it didn’t seem possible to give up and say, “That was a nice dream, but oh well.” If I had, I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to have one of the best experiences of my life or swim with wild sea lions for that matter. 

• Present Day: BIG DREAMS! Again, not everyday is rainbows and unicorns. There are some incredibly high highs and some low lows. This week has been fantastic but Sunday I was definitely walking the overcast beach in sunglasses listening to one of my favorite songs while crying. By the time I got to the end of the beach, I felt better. As Scarlett O’Hara said, “After all, tomorrow is another day” and it was.

If I had given up, I would never have swam with wild sea lions in Mexico

The blog continues to be an exploration of life for all of us. Whether you’re reading, writing a guest post, interacting on Twitter/Facebook, leaving comments, you’re part of this exploration of what life can be when we choose our own paths together. It’s like Dory says in Finding Nemo: “Just keep swimming! Just keep swimming!” 

The best part of life is the people that enter our world. If you’re creating a dream and there are some rough patches, you’re not alone. There is help. There are classes. There are communities. There’s this community. I can pretty much guarantee that most people reading this are awesome, so reach out–to me, to other people who comment, to those interacting on Facebook or Twitter. We are not alone, and together we can create amazing dreams. It may not all be unicorns and rainbows, but there are definitely some parts that are, so keep going!