When we think about pursuing a dream, we often worry about the obstacles, challenges, and difficulties that may lie ahead. I wonder how many dreams never got a shot because the anticipation of those obstacles stopped us from trying before we even started. This quote helps me. I hope it helps you, too: “When the root is deep there is no reason to fear the wind.” Of course there will be obstacles. Don’t let them make you discount your capabilities; those are your roots. You got this.
Category: dreams
Inspired: Live your life and forget your age
How many times have you caught yourself saying, “I would do X if I were younger, but…” I used to say that a lot, to myself and out loud. I convinced myself that because I’m no longer in my 20s, I had to take the sensible and practical path rather than the one that pulled at my heart. That kind of thinking only leads to more wasted time. Forget your age and think about this: you still have time left, time to reinvent who you are and to do what you love. The past is gone. Focus only on the time ahead and make the most of it.
Inspired: How far will you dare to go?
Last week when I announced that Compass Yoga would dissolve after 4 years of helping students and teachers access and teach community yoga classes, a friend sent me this quote. I printed it out to hang at my desk. I expect to read it many times over in this new chapter of my life and career as a full-time writer. If you are also about to embark on a path that is both thrilling and frightening, I hope this quote bolsters you up as you design and pursue your own daring adventure.
“The credit belongs to the [woman] who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends herself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if she fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that her place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.” ~ Theodore Roosevelt
Inspired: Robin Williams, you were one of the great ones
“You must strive to find your own voice. Because the longer you wait to begin, the less likely you are to find it at all. Thoreau said, “Most men lead lives of quiet desperation.” Don’t be resigned to that. Break out!” ~ Robin Williams, Dead Poets Society
I saw Dead Poets Society in the theaters when it first opened. I went with both of my parents, a rare family outing in my house. Robin Williams won my heart that night. That story and his performance changed me from the inside out, forever. He struck a chord within me that made me a dreamer, and has kept me dreaming every day since. He inspired me to go home that night and write a poem entitled “Carpe Diem” as a way to encourage my 13-year-old self to keep striving and reaching for exactly the life I want even though my future at that point didn’t seem very bright to me. He showed me that I have a voice, a point-of-view, a verse to contribute that matters. And that realization is no small gift.
It was with a heavy heart and tear-filled eyes that I heard about his passing yesterday, another brilliant artist taken down by his own demons. I hope from the other side he can now see just how much light he brought to so many of us who needed his humor during our own dark times. Rest in peace.
Inspired: Why I Decided to Stop Consulting
“If you don’t build your dream, someone else will hire you to help them build theirs.” ― Dhirubhai Ambani, Against All Odds: A Story of Courage, Perseverance and Hope
I’ve decided to stop consulting. When I left my corporate job at American Express over 2 years ago, I started my consulting firm, Chasing Down the Muse, to provide my business know-how to help nonprofits and for-profit companies build a better world and to formalize my freelance writing and yoga teaching. The writing and teaching has been phenomenal. The consulting has been a mixed bag. Increasingly, I grew frustrated because I spent most of my time working on my clients’ dreams and not my own.
After much deliberation, I’m pivoting. I’ve decided to complete my consulting work with my current clients and to not take on any additional ones. I did well financially as a consultant, but it’s not the best use of my passions. (For the record, I think consulting is a fine gig; it’s just not the right one for me.) I will continue and expand my freelance writing, content development, voice over work, and teaching. I also plan to continue to advise, partner with, and invest in young businesses.
This pivot is scary, though I’ve learned that the best way to overcome any fear is to do exactly the thing that frightens me. Once we do what frightens us, we’re free from the fear. The best thing I’ve done in the past two years is write, direct, and produce my play, Sing After Storms, at New York City’s Thespis Theater Festival. It reminded me how much I love taking an original idea from concept to launch with a creative, collaborative group of people. I want to get back to this kind of work full-time so I’m taking the leap again and going after exactly the career I want, fear and all!
In the coming days, I’ll be writing about and ramping up each of my new projects. I can’t wait to share the details with you. Are you taking a big leap, too? I’d love to hear about it, and support it!
Inspired: Listen closely. You already know the answer.
I wrote the draft of the blog post below over a week before I received an offer from the company I reference. My intuition knew the answer to the offer before I even got it. And I listened. Lesson learned – the gut knows. And so do our dreams.
“I have an amazing career opportunity in front of me: a dream job at a well-funded tech startup with a lot of great people in a city I enjoy that focuses on pet health. Rather, it could look amazing if I really dress it up, see it as a stepping stone only, and believe that within the mess there is opportunity. I’ve taken this action and perspective before, and I found that within the mess lies more mess.
Some people at this startup call it “nimble” and put down larger companies (like the ones I’ve worked for and with) for being “rigid” because the startup is disorganized, lacks charismatic leadership, and doesn’t have an inspiring vision. There’s a lot of finger-pointing between the tech and business teams, and their response to key questions on pricing and go-to-market strategy is “I don’t know. That decision was made before I got here.” In other words, they don’t understand what they’re selling, how it’s priced, or how / why people are going to buy it.
In a senior position, I could drive change and bring order to the chaos. I’ll likely be offered a mid-tier role charged with cleaning up a mess that is growing exponentially. With two months before launch, they still don’t agree on requirements, have no marketing plan, and no customer experience or servicing set-up. Their thought process is that the pet industry is huge (and at $50 billion annually, they’re right) and that if they build it, people will buy it. The problem is no one there has any idea what “it” actually is.
I had been tossing around all this info in my mind, trying to keep a positive frame of mind, and wrestling through ways I could make this work. Then I had a dream that my main contact there quit, moved to San Francisco because all of her friends lived there, and we ended the conversation with “goodbye and let’s stay in touch.” I already know my answer to the offer; this isn’t a dream job. It’s a nightmare dressed up like a dream. So I will politely and professionally decline the role. The paycheck would have been nice, but the headache would have been exhausting from beginning to end. I already have my dream job. I work for me on projects I love and care about. Now I have to get to work on turning those dreams into a healthy paycheck so I can invest in more dreams. That’s the job I want, and have.”
Inspired: Don’t Waste Your Time
A young man wasn’t sure what the next step in his career should be. He went to his mentor to get advice and the mentor said only this, “If you only have a year left of your life to work, what work would you choose to do?” The young man quit his job the next day, moved, and started a new career doing exactly what he wanted to do. Not what others thought he should do, not what he thought he should do. He did what he wanted, what spoke to the very deepest part of his heart. If what you’re doing right now doesn’t make the fibers of your being sing, if you aren’t at least steadily working toward that place, you’re wasting your time. And that’s not something you can afford. Make a change. Take this man’s mentor as your own. Do the work you were meant to do.
Inspired: I write down six impossible things before breakfast
Today’s impossibilities are tomorrow’s realities. That’s why I’ve been inspired by Alice in Wonderland, my favorite book, to take up a new morning ritual. As soon as I wake up, I write down 6 impossible things before I have breakfast. It gets my creative engine running right off the bat. Give it a try and let me know what you come up with!
My 6 impossible things lists so far:
7/22/14
– The ability to send people messages through dreams
– Trees that grow everything we need – even bicycles
– A composter that could recycle anything and everything – zero trash
– Grass that cuts itself when it gets too long – and we get to decide what’s too long!
– A memory bank where we could house everything we ever learn and believe and experience forever
– A way to truly understand exactly why another person has a certain opinion and everything that lead them to that opinion
7/23/14
– A system that quickly and easily moves water between flood areas and draught areas so everyone has enough water
– Fireproof trees and shrubs
– Shoes that give us energy
– A machine to turn our steps into energy that we can use anyway we want
– Self-monitoring plants that tell us when they need water and food and how much – for those like me who are green-thumb challenged!
– A machine that can take an image in my head and translate it onto any surface
7/24/14
– Compressed food that stays fresh and ships easily and grows if you add water
– A body scanner that we could use to check our vital signs everyday
– A filter that would alert us when we are about to say or write something hurtful before we actually say or write it
– An individual environment control to give us control over the temperature around us
– A way to save and review dreams after we wake up
– An automatic way to remind us of the good things in our lives when we are having a tough time
7/25/14
– A map to the end of a rainbow
– A way to instantly fix anything broken, especially in our bodies
– A way to see how our lives would unfold if we made different choices
– A way to record the world with only our eyes
– An instant language interpreter for every language so we could communicate with anyone, anytime, anywhere, even with animals
– Cars that generate their own energy without needing outside fuel
7/26/14
– Books that come to life
– Vehicles that drive, fly, and swim
– An emotion changer
– A thought releaser
– A brain health monitor we can use at home
– On-command suction hands and feet
– Breathe underwater without equipment
7/27/14
– Connect every town and city by high speed train
– A world where we can take our dogs everywhere
– Clothes that grow with us
– Hair that grows or shortens on-demand
– Instantly repairing skin
– Eyes and ears that never grow old
7/28/14
– Self-decaying tech that you decide when it should decay
– A meter that tells you how many positive and negative thoughts you’ve had in a day
– Something that makes me aware of every time I think something negative about myself so I can stop doing it
– A dog translator – canine to English and English to canine
– Instant basic knowledge of how to play any instrument
– A self-cleaning house
Inspired: Trust the Timing of Your Life
Time hasn’t passed you by. Your time is right now, today. Grab hold of it and mold it exactly the way you want it to be. Life unfolds exactly the way that it’s supposed to unfold and the timing of it isn’t your responsibility. Give your best, do your best, and live your best in this and every moment. Do that, and the timing will take care of itself.
Inspired: Plant your dreams in faith and water them
Of course you have doubts. You second-guess yourself. You wonder about the intentions of others. You question your abilities and your choices. You are human, and you are a person of integrity who reflects, considers, and maintains curiosity. You always want to improve upon what you’ve already done. Doubt is going to be there. Work through it and learn. But please, don’t turn back. Don’t give up now. You’ve come too far and worked too hard to throw it all away. Modify, pivot, adjust, change, but don’t quit. Keep going. Doubt is like the rain. It’s necessary and healthy to question ourselves and others, but it doesn’t prevent the sun from having its chance to shine. It’s a cycle. Act accordingly.
Christa Avampato 