Dusting Off Your Dreams—Do Something Today!

The past few days, I’ve been thinking a lot about dreams—as in deeply desired pursuits. In elementary school, I began writing a book called, “Mom and Me”—with the express disclaimer that it was “not about my mom and me”. With that promising beginning as a writer (having your title NOT be what the book is about), I was sitting with my daughter the other day at the computer. My marketing director had sent me the link to Amazon.com. Seeing my book on there took me back in one of those tunnel vision, return in time moments, to my early writing attempts. Fast forward to the screen—there it was, in full view, a realization of my dream.
It was surreal.
I turned to my daughter and showed her the listing. “And someday, your book will go there too,” I said. She smiled and I knew a kids cookbook was clicking away in her head, just as real to her as my “Mom and Me” had clicked in mine.
What are YOUR dreams? Do they need a little dusting?  Women struggle to feel permitted, and then able to pursue personal dreams. I know from personal experience it does require clear parameters on time and the protecting of your family life. But it isn’t an all or nothing decision. Dreams are the lifeblood of our daily dos, the dangling carrot that keep us looking at the stars while our hands are in the soapy dishwater.
Ask yourself these questions:
What dreams have I always wanted to pursue? (when you were young, now, in the future)
What’s stopping me? (negative attitudes from friends or yourself, situations, finances)
What is one thing I can do this week? (call someone who also does the same dream, make a space in your home to spend time on it, write it down and post it on your wall).
I encourage you to do just ONE thing this week—one call, one written goal, one journal entry about it. You will be amazed that once it’s brought to the front counter of your mind, how often you will find something ready and waiting.
And age is nothing. If anything, it’s a blessing, with its added wisdom (we hope), means, and abilities.
Check these noted people who achieved at all different stages in life:

• Bill Gates was only nineteen when he co-founded Microsoft; 12 years later he was a billionaire
• Coco Chanel was thirty-eight when she introduced the Chanel No. 5 perfume
• Julia Child was in her sixties when she began cooking
• Frank Lloyd Wright was ninety-one when he finished at the Guggenheim Museum.

Time is relative, except that it passes. So try something today and chip away at it. Enjoy the process, and live your dream as you go. One day you will wake up—or sit at a computer—and realize you’ve achieved it.
All my best,
Connie