HANDRAFTED: MAKE YOUR DREAMS REAL

“Dreaming is a form of planning” -Gloria Steinem

I am in this new uncharted territory of my life. Leo just started pre-school & for the first time in over 10 years, I have 3 mornings/week with no little person who needs me to help them go to the bathroom, who wants me to play trains, or who lets me snuggle with them. I’m THE most happy, relieved, & heartbroken I’ve ever been. I get to work without interruption & to focus on what matters to me in a day, but my mornings won’t be filled with the giggles & the most wholehearted looks of love & full-body hugs that I have been blessed with & spoiled by for a decade. It’s both wonderful & really sad to me all at once. I’ve learned that I can either focus on the loss and easily get dragged under, or I can take this opportunity to dream. I can take the gift of time to figure out what is possible in my life during this life change. For me, dreaming is the first step to my creative process. It’s the fuel that I need to dive in to the unknown without worrying about messing up.

HERE ARE THE 5 STEPS I TAKE TO DREAM SOMETHING INTO REALITY:

1. Ask yourself, what would be amazing??

Answer these questions: What are you drawn to? What makes time go away when you’re in a space or doing something? What do you really enjoy? You don’t have to be good at the thing that excites you, at all, just interested. What would you do if you weren’t afraid?For me the greenhouse has always been a place that I step into and feel transported. I feel more alive there. I want to be there. When my husband & I work together we laugh, flirt, & connect. This turns into ideas and then possibilities. So making the connection between the love of the greenhouse & working together was a big first step to creating this dream.

2. Become friends with fear

When you start to go to unknown territory, your more primitive part of your brain will freak out, and try to keep you safe. This happens with all change. For me this has resulted in fear, and often stagnation. I’ve learned that fear is always going to be there. It does not mean your dream is a bad idea. Your dream is the key to making your life amazing. Feel the fear & pursuit it anyway. Time will pass either way. You can either grow into a bigger & more beautiful version of yourself in this time or you can experience life as you always have & your potential will remain untapped. Choose the dream.

3. Find Inspiration

I have never been able to create a picture in my head of what is possible without seeing what’s already been done. The only important thing here is that you go where possibilities are endless. I am a visual person, so my place to start gathering ideas is Pinterest. If you don’t already have an account, sign up, and start creating pin boards. Click here to see my pinterest. In the last year or so they have made it so much easier to organize your pins (picture ideas you’re inspired by) You can now make a pinboard with subcategories. My pinterest account is still a little all over the map, but when I start a new project such as how to make our bedroom an Oasis. I have a place to go to get inspired.

4. Figure out where you’re at now & what you need to get there

When my daughter Kate was born, my dream was to become a photographer. Looking at her little being just made me want to capture every detail, and remember how it felt. Of course the pictures I wanted to take didn’t look anything like the pictures I was taking. So I had to assess where I was at and start figuring out how to get where I wanted to go. So I talked to anyone I knew who cared about photography, and my dear friend Sarah let me know to get the creative control I wanted I needed to learn manual exposure. Well... That was like a foreign language to me. So I had to figure it out. I started searching online how to learn manual and found tons of free courses, and ones I could pay for. Each time I felt comfortable with a new skill, I let my passion drive me to the next thing I wanted to know.. light... composition... etc. I guarantee that you won’t be the only one wanting to do the thing you’re interested in. Google is your friend!

5. Work backwards from your dream to where you’re at now.

Work is so it! Commit to keep hammering away, until you get where you want to go. Fail forward. Trust me. You’re not going to get it right away, and that is ok, expect that! Take what you’re interested in and believe that you can figure out how to get there. In the case of photography, I just get shooting & studying what I shot, what my photography idols shot & took classes until it stopped making sense to take classes. I just retired a Nikon D750 with over 259,000 shutter actuations... This means I took over 259,000 pictures.. Holy Crap! You get to where you want to go by being inspired by what’s possible, committing, and working your ass off to get there. I can’t tell you a more worthy pursuit. So what do you want learn about??

What are you dreaming about!!??