I am at a place in my life where I am just ready to go for it. I have been in the workforce fulltime since 1996. Whatever work you do, you are working for God, not man. But if He has placed a dream in your heart He really wants you to pursue it. I do not believe we were meant to just work and pay bills…and die. Your dreams are not silly aspirations. Things do not just randomly pop into your head. You are a unique individual with a unique plan and a purpose. For example, I do not paint. I am not creative in that way. So that dream is not in my head. I do however have a deep feeling that I need to be an encourager by sharing my life. You might be private in that sense but you might be inspired to paint. And if so, I say PAINT! And share it with someone.
I have been guilty of sitting around dreaming about everything I want to do in life and not getting off of my butt and acting. I fell into the trap of putting my dreams on the back burner and instead supporting the dreams of significant others I was with for nearly 20 years. I had a serious boyfriend for six years who dreamed of being a screenwriter and movie director. He was intelligent, talented, motivated and I had a feeling he could do just about anything he wanted if he had the fortitude to truly pursue his dreams. I worked my day job and in my free time I supported him. I helped him get in contact with movie studios and authors. I actually made contact with my favorite musician’s movie company as well as my favorite author to inquire about screenplay adaptations etc. It excited me and it helped him. Then I married my first husband. His “thing” was traveling and concerts. We went everywhere and we saw tons of concerts. It was exciting. I do not regret a moment of my travel experiences…I actually crave them. But I allowed him to make all of the plans and I went along for the ride. It was his thing. I was in a long-term relationship after my first marriage ended that totally shut me down emotionally. He was not in a good place in life emotionally at that time and my dreams got swept under the rug and my main focus became trying to make him happy. In the process I was destroyed. Living your life to make someone else happy never works. And finally…my second husband was a musician. I fell in love with his music immediately and just knew my efforts would aide in progressing his career. I helped him gain thousands of followers on his band’s Twitter page when he first started it. I helped promote his band on my own page. I traveled to all of his shows and worked the merch table. I even helped with booking shows. I LOVED it. And it helped him.
But the common thread with all of those relationships was this: THEY ENDED. So, I was left alone with nobody to “help.” That is when I began writing.
Writing became therapy after my second marriage ended with Mr. Musician. I was SO LOST. I created this blog and just started writing. I had started writing a book before I met him and threw it in the trash while we were together along with the rest of my life’s belongings. But when I picked up my pen again after he left, I had no idea where my writing was going. At the same time I started tweeting positive quotes on Twitter. I had been promoting his band but since that was gone from my life I began tweeting for me. I soon realized something was happening inside of me. I felt a joy I had not ever felt before in my life. I was putting goodness into the universe. I felt God telling me to keep going. I slowly began receiving messages from readers and followers with beautiful words of encouragement. Many thanked me and asked me to please keep going. Some suggested, “You should write a book.” Those words put a fuel under my butt to move like I never had before. I was finally following MY DREAMS. I had no idea what my dreams were for so long because I had been so focused on supporting the dreams of the men in my life. I have some big goals now and I know I am capable. I just have to decide to keep doing it. I don’t regret my past…it led me to this place of freedom. And well, I do have a lot of CRAZY stories to write about in that book. 😉
God knows what He wants from you. Those feelings you have inside of you are real. You might feel insecure and worried about what others might think if you go for it. I am asking you to stop thinking about what everyone else thinks, okay? Everyone is NOT walking in your shoes. Everyone else has their own dreams and desires that probably look nothing like yours. Look above for advice. Ask God for the strength you need to get off the couch and live your dreams. If you don’t, you do not trust Him and His plan for your life. I am all about His plan. My plans didn’t work out so well…mainly because I didn’t think I was good enough to do my own thing. I hid behind the dreams of others. I lost myself. I am HERE now and I am telling you this…life is short! I talk about this a lot but I have a really intense feeling in my bones about how short it really is. The future is right now. Stop dreaming. Stop waiting until your situation is perfect to begin (it never will be). Start now…the world it waiting for you. He is waiting.
John 14:31 “But I will do what the Father requires of me, so that the world will know that I love the Father. Come let’s be going.”
Get going…
Blessings,
Stacey ~ iamalive