Dreams - Working to Make them Come True

If you've been reading my blog for some time you'll know that I love to be creative.  Ever since I can remember I have enjoyed being creative, I love dreaming up ideas in my mind and then seeing those ideas comes alive through creativity.  Although I love my job I have always wanted to be my own boss and pursue my creativity but to me that's a really scary step to take. 

My parents always supported my creativity and my dreams but when it comes to pursuing this specific dream I didn’t feel the same support. I felt they had an expectation that in order to succeed in life I would need a 9-5 job, work hard and have a steady income in a job with benefits and security.  I have challenged my parents on this a number of times and I understand now that they also fear that running a creative business is not only challenging but scary and unpredictable.  They explained it wasn’t that they didn’t support my dream, they just want what they thought was best and they were worried that I would struggle as a creative business owner.

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Putting my fears behind me, I took a leap of faith and strive to reach my goal.  I am taking it slow and learning along the way but I’ve set goals and I'm work hard to reach them. 

I have been working toward my goals for a few years but it was only a few months ago I started to see real growth and that’s because I implemented a few key things that I think we can all benefit from regardless of the goal we are striving for.  So this is what I did, I got myself a binder, and some page dividers.  I divided the binder into different section ‘brainstorming’, ‘schedule’, ‘to-do list’, and ‘goals’.  Having a plan written down has really helped. 

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I started brainstorming, this is an area I write thoughts, ideas and concepts. I recently started carrying a journal with me everywhere I go because I seem to get crazy ideas in the most random places, so with my journal I can write my ideas down regardless of where I am, so I don't forget.   A lot of my goals stem from my brainstorming.  Then I go to the goal section of the binder and jot down my goals, I have long-term goals and short-term goals.  The long-term goals are my big picture dreams.  Right now my goal is to start my own creative business but once I achieve that my long-term goal may be something like “Build my business so I can quit my day job and do this full time”.  So really the goal will be forever changing.  Some of the short-term goals would be things like, start a blog, create items to sell, open an online store.  The most important thing is to set deadlines and even though they may change I work as hard as I can to try and meet my goal deadlines.

Once I had some short-term and long-term goals, the ‘to-do list’ and ‘schedule’ became my best friend, this helps me keep on track.  The to-do list helps break the goal down in to bite size pieces.  Maggie over at Gussy Sew wrote an amazing advice post and said, “Write down your to-do list! It’s never as overwhelming on paper as it is in your head”.  It’s so true and I am glad I listened!  Once my to-do list is nice and long I start to arrange the tasks in my schedule, and I get to work.  Some weeks I have more time then others depending on other commitments to family and friends but at least I am still working toward my goals.

Just remember, even when you working hard to reaching your goals and fulfill your dreams … HAVE FUN!!!