I know my blog is usually more about adventure and where to go or the places you don’t want to miss but I’ve thought about it lately and want it to be a little more than that. I don’t want to confuse you as to what you can expect to see but I want this blog to be an outlet of encouragement or inspiration as well because lord knows I need it! Maybe if something is on my mind, it’s on yours too. Sometimes reading another’s thoughts out loud gives us permission to think about our own and know that it’s ok.
My message today—Don’t give up. I have to tell myself this on a daily basis. Life can throw you for a loop sometimes or just make you question why am I even doing this. If you care about it, if it sets your soul on fire, even just tiny little flame, don’t give up.
Although this blog is fairly new, I haven’t been writing for years but it does mean a lot to me. I love to write. I’ve always loved to write and right now I’m doing something that I love. I would also love more than anything to take it far. Far into a world where this is what I do. I see and have talked to people who have done just that and I think, oh ya, I can do that too! And then I look where I’m at currently and think oh well nothing big is happening yet, maybe my ship for this has sailed.
Have you done that? Maybe you’re wanting to start a new career, build a business, just make any change and you can’t help but think you’re too far gone.
You’re not alone. When it comes to bloggers out there and people in the digital space, there are SO many. But in most industries it’s the same and for some crazy reason we look at that and think the markets saturated, this is just a crazy pipe dream of mine why even bother.
Why we do this to ourselves, I don’t know. We can really be our own worst enemy and the only one standing between ourselves and our dreams.
The road to our dreams can be very tricky and not a clear straight path. There are challenges, self-doubt– Can I do this? Am I good enough? When am I going to make some progress? It requires a lot of patience, hard work and determination. It requires up to never give up.
Our dreams are committed to us so we need to commit to them. I think this is so important and we have to ask ourselves are we truly committed. We say we are working hard but are we? Did we put off writing that blog post for a few days or bypass the research of how we can be better in what we’re doing? All because maybe watching Netflix was much easier and we just didn’t feel like it. I know did.
In fact I’ve done this a few times but I’ve realized very quickly that is not hard work. Yes sometimes your mind just needs a little break. Being creative all the time is not easy. And some days you’re just not in that zone but then use your off days in one area for another. Make use of the time you have in the most productive ways you can. If we give 120% all the time, we’re going to get it back. Putting the hard work in the right ways will always reward you in one way or another. If we put in 120%, 80% of the time, we will be headed in the right direction but you’ll be needing that extra patience all the way. I truly believe we get what we give.
It’s hard. I know, but we’ve got to give it our all to make it work. This isn’t coming from a perspective of someone who has had their hard work ‘pay off’ either. I haven’t had a photo published on the front cover of lonely planet, or get featured in Phorbes magazine. This is coming from someone who is there right along with you. In the beginning stages of wanting to build something great. I could easily throw in the towel too but I’m here to tell you, don’t. I’m not going to. Even when I wonder if I should, I won’t so don’t leave me hanging, stay in this journey with me.
“The future belongs to the those who believe in the beauty of their dreams”.
One of my favourites. When you believe in your dreams, you work hard for them, you commit to them and you embrace the patience that is needed to get to them.
At the end of the day, we really don’t know where life is going to take us. If we give up now we will never know. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. It takes hard work to get to where we think we want to be. And funnily enough, when we get there, we’ll want to go some place new. That’s what dreams are and that’s what they do. They let us believe there are no limits that we can do anything. I don’t know about you but that’s something I want to keep believing in and never give up.
xo.Lauren