Chasing the dream

I've always been a dreamer, maybe to a fault..if that's a thing. {I would rather dream too much than not enough!} I can get caught up in my own daydreams of how I want things to be, how I envision my future to be. I try to stay grounded and realistic but I dream big. My dreams inspire my goals. My goals get me excited. When I really think about how amazing it will feel to achieve my goals, I can barely stand it. I get this feeling in my stomach. I feel a rush of adrenaline. I can't sleep at night.

I like living in that space, it makes me feel good, hopeful, optimistic. The other night in a Power Yoga practice, the instructor spoke about preparation. She mentioned that we tend to see people who have it all [or at least appear to] and think that things just fall perfectly into place for them. But in most situations it's not that they're lucky at all. It's that they prepare. They work everyday on bettering themselves, bettering their circumstance, working towards their goal. They set up their life so that when the next big thing happens, they're ready.

It's amazing how the universe puts you right where you need to be, when you need to be there. That message was incredible. I was meant to hear it. It spoke to my soul, spoke to where I am in life. This reminder was a necessary one. Daydreams are awesome, but they need an action plan. There's a journey to be had before we arrive at that destination. A scary journey. A challenging journey.

If you don't prepare, if you don't persevere, it's going to be a long, long path. And it probably won't lead you to where you want to go. It's easy to get anxious awaiting that extraordinary end goal. Some days I just don't feel motivated. Sometimes the task at hand is hard, it's overwhelming. Or it's just plain boring. There are times when it would be so incredibly easy to give up, to be complacent, to settle for the status quo, for the average, for the comfort zone. There are times when I feel discouraged or experience doubt. Some days it's just really hard to persevere.

It's these times where I realize that I'm spending too much time focusing on the action plan and living in reality and not enough time remembering the dream. When I reset and focus on the end goal, I get excited again. It's like a burst of energy. A renewed sense of purpose. Remembering the reasons why I'm doing what I'm doing, remembering where this journey is taking me..that's what keeps me moving forward. My dream is what gives value to the hard work and preparation. My dream is what gives me the courage to recommit to the process every day.

At that same yoga practice, during shavasana, our instructor played Wild Horses {Wild horses I wanna be like you...throwing caution to the wind...} and I'm pretty sure both my best friend and I had tears streaming down our faces. We dream big. And then we're left to face fear and chase our dreams. We throw caution to the wind and hope we fly.

Climbing Your Mountain

I had a great one on one coaching session with Julie, my life coach, today. I was reminded of the importance of "not going it alone." For the past couple of weeks, I've seemed to go through everything in life a little ho-hum, just accepting the status quo, which isn't exciting for me at all. After talking with Julie about changes in my life since our last meeting, she brought fresh perspective to where I am. We talked about how to use where I am now in certain aspects of my life as stepping stones. We talked about how I want to use these stepping stones and where I want them to take me. In reality, all experiences in life are stepping stones and life coaching is there to help us figure out how to use them, I guess I had just lost sight of that for a brief moment. This coaching session was just what I needed today to reenergize. I left feeling very excited and motivated, with a reset focus on purpose, plans and goals.

In life coaching and in her studio, Julie focuses on The 7 Life Miracles. There was one in particular that themed my life this week: Climb -- Conquer your mountains. May was crazy busy for me and I did not stay as committed to my workouts as I prefer to. When June came about, I knew I had to get back into the workout routine. This habit of not working out regularly does not serve me. I need to stick to my routine for me, because working out keeps me healthy and it makes me feel good. For June, I also had some extrinsic motivation as well, including my California vacation coming up next month! [Gotta get bikini ready ;)]

So, this week I hit the ground running, literally. I ran almost every morning. The days I ran, I also lifted and did my ab work. The days I didn't run, I did Pilates or Yoga. Because it had been a month since I had exercised almost every day of the week, this was definitely a challenge.  There were moments when I literally felt like I was climbing a mountain. I had to stay focused on that goal of attaining what was there at the top. I had to encourage myself to push through. Julie taught my Pilates classes and was an amazing leader, keeping me motivated to power through. The rewards are so worth it, though. Feeling your body push itself and attain higher levels of fitness is a great feeling and makes the effort exerted worthwhile.

Julie & I talked in our session today about how it seems as if there a lot of things in the works in my life right now that all could lead to something great. It's like I am right at the cusp, at the turning point. If I put a few more things in motion, or let some things play out, I'll find myself reaching the top of that mountain. It's uplifting to see months and months of work and action finally start to take shape and lead to some of my long-term goals.

We also talked about how we mustn't stop climbing just when we think we've reached the top. For me, I may attain a business or personal goal, but that may only be temporary. Maybe that business success will lead to a future goal. Or maybe my business will face adversity that will propel me into something bigger & better that I otherwise would have never reached for. Maybe a relationship won't last forever. But all of our mountains are there to teach us something, and they are there for us when we need it most in our lives.

Climb. Have fun and enjoy the journey. Have 20 seconds of insane courage and something great will come of it. Risk leads to reward. Reach towards your goal. Conquer your mountain.