If Your Dream Is Taking Longer Than Expected
I had a perfectly good book picked out to share with you today. I chose it weeks ago and have been making loads of notes to get ready to write about it this morning. But earlier this week, as I was reading a certain daily reader I can’t get enough of, I ran across a powerful quote about big dreams. The words stuck with me all week, and as I found myself going back to them morning after morning, I found myself thinking again and again, I wonder if someone else needs these words just as much as I do and knew this week’s book would have to wait.
I won’t make you wait for the quote—here it is:
“It’s been my experience that the very moment I feel like giving up, I’m only one step from a breakthrough.
Hang on long enough and circumstances will change, too. . .
Most of the time we wait much longer for a dream to manifest itself in our lives
than we ever imagined we’d have to at its conception.”
Followed by a bit of advice for the waiting:
“Be extra kind to yourself while waiting,
making it as pleasurable as possible.
Remember, the longer it takes for a dream to make itself manifest,
the more comfortable you’ll feel owning your talent.”
And a little more for those of us prone to dawdle:
“We must be doing something about bringing our dreams into the world every day,
even if we only have fifteen minutes out of every twenty-four hours to concentrate on our calling. . .
You’ll be amazed at the power of fifteen focused minutes.”
I have to ask— do you need that as much as I do?
Is the business you want to create, the new career you’re trying to step into, the place you want to move, the trip you want to take, the book you want to write, the life you want to live, taking a lot longer than you expected to become your reality?
Is your dream feeling farther and farther away more often than you’d like to admit?
Do you sometimes wonder if you’ve gotten altogether lost along the way?
Let me tell you a little story. . .
I’ll never forget the day I stopped playing around with my big dream and decided to become a real writer. I sat down at a picnic table and stared out at the water, opened my journal, rolled out the lead in my pencil, and took a deep breath. I knew the commitment I had to make to myself, and I knew it would be difficult. I did it quickly, like ripping off a bandage that had been stuck to a wound for far too long (after 15 years of trying and failing to become a writer, maybe that’s what it was after all). Moments later, I looked down at the words on the page staring back at me:
I’m ready. I mean it this time. I'm ready for what comes next.
Then I stood up, closed my journal, rolled the lead back into my pencil, and went home. The entire ordeal took less than 15 minutes, but 15 minutes was long enough for the transition to complete itself. I had sat down at that picnic table a woman working as a philanthropy software manager who sometimes wrote and stood up a woman living and working as a writer who sometimes managed philanthropy software. It was done. All that was left to do was watch it take shape.
A year later, as luck would have it, I sat down at that very same picnic table for my first professional photo shoot as an author, smiling ear to ear, watching my photographer friend trying to capture just the right shot for the back cover of my first book ⤵⤵⤵
And as they say, the rest is history.
Isn’t that the way it always goes with dreams? The very minute we make a decision to really go for it, everything changes and we find ourselves watching the world change around us.
Actually, no.
It rarely goes that way.
Usually, big dreams take way longer than expected to come true—and cost way more, too.
Despite what it looks like on Instagram, those people you follow who are already living your dream life didn’t just sit down at a picnic table one day and write down their vision and then suddenly start living it.
They sat down again and again and again, day after day after day, and made it happen.
They ran into problems.
They had setbacks and disappointments.
They failed.
They tried again.
They’re still trying, failing, falling, overcoming. (They rarely post that part, but it’s true.)
It feels like a dream to be able to tell you that around this time four years ago, I actually did get serious about becoming a real writer and then proceeded to publish my first book a year later and another one a few years after that. But there's a lot to my story that doesn't show up, no matter how I tell it—the truth is, I’m still becoming a writer, even all these years later.
I’ve run into problems.
I’ve gotten off track.
I’ve had failures and falls, setbacks and disappointments.
I’m still trying, failing, falling, overcoming.
Sitting at that picnic table all those years ago, mustering up the courage to admit I wanted to be a writer took everything I had in me. (It still does.) And even now, I still don’t earn most of my income from my writing. I’m okay with that. I’m still ready. I still mean it. I'm ready for what comes next, no matter how long it takes to get there.
“The bottom line is not how fast you make your dream come true, but how steadily you pursue it.”
Whatever dream you’re working toward today, I hope you can be okay with wherever you are on your way to it.
I hope you’re kind to yourself in the waiting.
I hope you see your progress along the way.
I hope your dream finds you steadily pursuing it every day.
And I hope these words leave you with enough courage to keep hoping, keep dreaming, and keep stepping forward.
Don’t give up now—you might be one step away from your breakthrough.
Here’s to you going after your biggest dreams for real today & always.
💛
(All quotes taken from Sara Ban Breathnach’s Simple Abundance: 365 Days to a Balanced and Joyful Life — Read all about it here.)
💛
P.S. If you need a novel to get lost in this weekend and haven’t yet read (or listened to) Jennifer McVeigh’s Leopard at the Door, I would drive to the library right now and pick up a copy if I were you. I just finished my second reading of it and fell in love with the story all over again. (I highly recommend the audio, by the way—the narrator is stellar.)