How to jumpstart your dreams

Recently I asked my Instagram followers “When was the last time you did something hard? You know, on purpose?”

Only two people responded.

One had handled a tough communication exchange (brilliantly) and one of them had just had a baby.

Both. Hard. Things.

Since I didn’t get many responses, I started asking some of my friends the same question.

Most of them honestly couldn’t remember the last time they had willingly and purposefully done something really challenging either.

Now I am intimately aware that this past year has been incredibly hard.

My bestie even said, “I think we’ve had hard things put on us.”

Yes. Indeed. No question.

It’s been a hard year in many ways.

Even so - life continues.

Regardless of covid.

Regardless of politics.

Regardless of all the things we have zero control over.

Life continues.

I feel like most people are waiting for things to get better.

Which I get, to a degree, and I am too, but our lives are still happening right now.

Even if they look completely different than any of us planned.

Ya know?

Here’s the thing about not actively choosing to do things that you know are hard:

Your self-esteem stops growing.

You stop realizing what you’re capable of.

You stop feeling proud of yourself.

You start to feel kind of meh.

(Or very meh…)

And you stay in a place of pain instead of moving to a place of power.

I know the rhetoric right now is to say “Life is hard. Covid is hard. Homeschooling is hard. Just rest, just hold out and sit tight.”

Well, I disagree with that statement.

We’re now a year into covid and I think we’ve had enough of resting, waiting, sitting tight.

Does covid still suck?

Yep.

Is there much we can do about it?

Besides being a responsible member of society, nope. Not really.

So what does that leave you with?

Your dreams. Your goals. Your choices.

Still sitting in the back of your mind.

Still sitting squarely on your heart.

They’re there waiting for you to get going on them.

Now let me tell you something…

Going all in on your dreams can be REALLY hard!

But also, ALSO!

Not going for your dreams is the kind of hard that causes pain.

Not going for what you want feels incredibly meh because you’ve got nothing pulling you forward into the future.

When you move from a place of pain to a place of power by taking action on what you want, it feels so gratifying!

(hat tip to Susan Jeffers author of Feel the Fear and Do it Anyway - READ THIS BOOK Y’ALL)

You get some MOMENTUM and it BUILDS on itself.

If you can start to link up the idea that doing something hard equals a better life for you, you will find yourself going after the hard things more readily.

Again—I’m talking about going for and focusing on the hard things (dreams) that you WANT to do, and not focusing on the hard things that are happening around us.

(Remember that there are a lot of hard things we can’t control.)

Let me tell you one secret about that:

When you’re fully focused on doing something that’s hard for you, but that MATTERS to you, the tough parts about covid, lockdown, homeschooling, you-name-it, will have less of a hold on you because you’ll be jazzed about what you’re doing.

You’ll be in a powerful action state instead of a painful paralysis state.

Make sense?

Okay.

Your assignment for today (and every day going forward) is to do one thing (for starters) that feels hard in the moment.

If you’re feeling like starting with a dream, GO FOR IT.

If you’re like “Eh… TOO HARD! TOO HARD!” Don’t panic. Start with something that isn’t dream-related and build up that muscle.

Some part of you will eventually say, “Okay, let’s do something that matters. Enough of this piddly stuff!” Trust me. It will. If you keep it up.

(Remember, doing hard things builds your self-esteem and then higher self-esteem helps you to do more hard things. It’s a beautiful cycle when you understand how it works.)

Examples of hard things to do (dream and not-dream related):

• Making a phone call at work to discuss a conflict instead of passive-aggressively fighting over email (you know what I’m talking about)

• Cleaning out your junk drawer, but not in a half-assed way. (again, you know what I’m talking about)

• Enduring the emotional discomfort of sitting down to write (and POST!) your first blog post or the latest chapter of your book

• Buying some weights and starting to work on your upper body strength

   

• Really digging into your finance to see if you can buy a new home

• Pitching your business to a local news station for a human interest spot

   

These things are hard, but they’re not impossible by any measure.

Chances are you may be out of practice in doing hard things, that’s okay.

Be uncomfortable and start.

Starting is a hard thing, so start with the hard task of starting.

Do what my personal trainer used to tell me right before a tough set, “Stop thinking about it and just do it.”

So that’s what I’ll end with.

Give yourself zero time to think, do something hard, congratulate yourself when you’re done, and then move on to the next thing.

I’m proud of you already.

With big encouraging love,

Rebecca*

PS: Are you interested in a group reading? They’re seriously the BEST. You get the value of your personal reading, but THEN, you also get the value of what’s coming through for the others in the group. It’s AWE-some.

If you’re interested in checking it out, contact me and I’ll get you on the list.