Category: dreams

dreams, faith, time, youth

Beautiful: Today’s Reality Was Once Just a Dream

Christa Avampato
From Pinterest
From Pinterest

No matter where we are in life, there were internal and external battles we had to win to get here. If I’ve learned anything about people over the many years I’ve spent elevating people watching to a high art, it’s that everyone, everywhere, is fighting something every day. Always healing. Always overcoming.

I’m proud of the life I’ve built because of what I had to live through to get here. It’s so improbable on so many levels. If I were to go back and talk to a younger me, 5, 10 or 20 years ago and tell her what life would be like at 37, I’d never believe it. To make a living as a writer, to live where I live, to be blessed by amazing people in my life, to love and be loved so deeply and with such conviction, to have healed so much so I can offer the opportunity to heal to others, I wouldn’t believe it. 17-year-old me would never have been able to fathom it. I can barely believe now, in the midst of living it. It was a journey I never imagined.

When I think of all the dreams I have now, they seem improbable at best. They are so big, much bigger than me. And in those moments, my journey over the past 37 years is a great comfort. I close my eyes and I try to hear the wise voice of 57-year-old me, telling me that all the dreams I have at 37 are only the beginning of what’s in store for me over the next 20 years. I imagine her telling me about incredible things I will do that I have not even been able to fathom because right now they are actually impossible. Someday, and someday very soon, they won’t be because our world and our capabilities are changing, accelerating, so fast. The future is going to be amazing.

Then I open my eyes and take a full deep breath. I feel buoyed by confidence rather than weighed down by too-heavy dreams. I remember that today’s reality is so much more than any 17-year-old me in a tiny rural town ever thought possible. And that keeps me going. I may not be able to see around the bend, but it’s enough to know that someday I will.

determination, dreams

Beautiful: Make Your Own Sign

Christa Avampato
From Pinterest
From Pinterest

I’m a big believer in signs and I’ve found that they are all around us. We never have to wait for them. We only have to open our eyes and ears to see and hear them. And if at times my signs fail me, if I just can’t seem to find the ones I’m looking for, then I get out my laptop and make my own. That’s what this blog is, for me and I hope for you. Here’s the sign you’ve been waiting for no matter what you’re trying to do. Now get out there and do it. Make it happen.

And a happy birthday shout out to my sister, Weez, another keen eye-spying sign spotter.

career, commitment, dreams, Second Step, writer

Beautiful: With Time and Commitment, We Get the Lives and Careers We Want

Christa Avampato
From Pinterest
From Pinterest

About 10 years ago, my sister, Weez, had a difficult health issue. (Don’t worry – she is completely healed, healthy, and sassy now.) In those scary days, her doctor said something that has always struck me as quite possibly the best thing that any doctor has ever said to anyone facing an illness. “I don’t fish. I don’t play golf. I am a doctor. This is my hobby. It’s all I do.” For all the talk about balance between work and life, this doctor’s maniacal focus on his work was exactly what my sister needed to hear.

Rather than building careers that we need a break from, that wear us out and deplete us to the point that a vacation is the only remedy, what if we find a way to build careers that build us up and give us energy? What if we all had careers that mattered so much to us that a separation between work and life was unnecessary, unwanted?

I know this may sound like la-la land to some people. It certainly did to me a few years ago, though now this is exactly the career I have. I wake up every day and write. What I used to do as a hobby on the side is now my focus. I write early in the morning and late into the night. I shut it down when my eyes grow tired or when Phineas lets me know it’s time for his late evening walk before he puts himself to bed, whichever comes first. I work a lot of hours, every day, and I don’t mind at all because I work at the craft that helped me build a life I love, no balancing act required.

I want you to know it’s possible. Even if you have a lot of difficulties, even if all you’ve known is difficulties, it can happen. The only reason I can say this with such confidence is because I came from very tough circumstances. Every step on this journey was tough and took a great deal of effort, and that’s okay. I wanted this enough to work hard for it. It takes planning, patience, time, and passion. I have to commit every day to this path, and it’s still not easy. It is always worth it. Every day, I wrap it up and say thank you because I know just how amazing it is to finally be right here, in this place, doing exactly what I love. I’m a writer, a working writer, exactly what I always wanted to be.

books, career, commitment, creativity, dreams, Second Step

Beautiful: Don’t Hedge. Commit. Be Yoda.

Christa Avampato
From Pinterest
From Pinterest

A few weeks ago, I watched an interview with Bryan Cranston of Breaking Bad fame. When he first started out, he met a lot of people who said they were giving their creative dream a shot for a year. If they didn’t have any success in a year, then they would pack up and go home. “That was amazing to me,” he said. “It takes so much longer than a year to realize a dream.” 

This is exactly the reason I’m working on a new book, Your Second Step. You’ve taken your first step – you’ve identified your dream and you’ve started working on it – maybe part-time, maybe full-time. Maybe you haven’t seen the success you’d hoped for in the timeline you planned. So should you pack it in? Should you start to work on something else and come back to it later? In other words, should you hedge your bets?

Put aside any disappointment. Go back to the dream itself. Does it still matter to you? If the answer is yes, then don’t hedge and don’t give up. Commit. Double down. Invest more time and more energy, not less. Be Yoda. Don’t try. Do. And keep doing. Don’t back down now. You’re closer to your dream than you think.

dreams, history, photographs, pictures, writing

Beautiful: I Dream About Recording History As It Happens

Christa Avampato
From Pinterest

Yesterday I sat up in bed before my early alarm, grabbed by iPad, and wrote down this post as it gushed into my brain:

“Snap your pictures. Get down these lines of text. Record history as it happens. Some day you’ll need this to see how far you’ve come, to bring you comfort when you feel like you still have so far to go, when you feel like everything is lost.

Time is a plastic surgeon. It does funny things to us, to our memory of yesterday. And all the yesterdays that came before. It covers the bumps and bruises and scrapes. It dulls the pain. It sands the rough edges and rounds out the sharp and jagged corners that were so hard to navigate. It makes everything soft. When we record our days as they happen, when we literally chart our experience, we get the real story.

And we need the real story. We need to remember what we’ve been through so we can fully appreciate where we are and all of the people who made the journey possible.”

I’m not sure where this came from, but I’m sure glad these words and the ideas they convey arrived.

creativity, dreams, writer, writing

Beautiful: Inspired by Julia Child, I’m Following My Dream of Being a Full-time Writer

Christa Avampato

3c52d8c67468e7c4da66be625f3b9becWhen Julia Child was 37 (the age I am now), she began to cook because she loved to eat. She had no prior experience in the kitchen, and yet she gave herself over fully to the craft that captured her imagination. It took her a long time to reach the success she ultimately had as a cook, but she kept at it even in the most trying times and circumstances.

Julia Child was lucky financially in that her husband had a very good job and she wasn’t on the hook for her own rent. I have to keep a roof over my own head (and Phin’s) and food on the table (and in Phin’s bowl.) So I will have to continue to work in the vocation of business (which I love) in order to do that – for now. But here’s the difference going forward – it’s all in service to my craft as a writer.

I’ve been writing every day, on the side, for 6 years and I’ve loved every second of it. This summer, I wrote my first full-length play and worked on full outlines for several other writing projects. The goal is to eventually write full-time. I don’t know long it will take to make that happen but that’s what I’m working for and towards. I don’t know how long it will take – it could be a dream many years in the making – but that’s the mountain I’m climbing, small step by small step. And I’m fine with however long this journey takes. That clarity is liberating and empowering.

Here’s to shooting for the moon!

creativity, dreams, fear, feelings

Beautiful: Fear Can Be a Path to Free

Christa Avampato

494ab1219a79b1ae0d7cab6dcea48107 With just over a week to go in LA, it’ll be back to life and back to reality very soon. Some of my old familiar fears are beginning to seep in: Am I on the right track? Am I going the right way? Are these sacrifices really worth the potential rewards? And if they are, and I don’t ever see those potential rewards, will I still think of this path as one worth taking?

Too often I’ve associated freedom with lack of fear. With a year out on my own under my belt, one of the biggest lessons I’ve learned is that if I waited for the fear to subside before pursuing my dreams, I’d never pursue them at all. The road to freedom is paved with fears, and lots of ’em. I don’t banish my fears, but I use them like our bodies use carbohydrates, like cars use gas. I burn through them and part of that process means fully feeling them, looking them in the eye, and not flinching. I press on with those unrelenting fears at my back, and they only subside when I face them and live to tell about it.

And I don’t think that being afraid of something means that I should definitely do it. For me, it means that I should put a lot of thought and consideration into the decision. Facing fears is difficult work; it’s often painful, plagued by hardship, and there is no guarantee of success. All of those facets have to be weighed in totality. I have to ask myself, “Even if this path is difficult, do I still feel in my heart that it’s the best way to spend the precious little time I have?” If so, I use the fear for fuel. If not, I’m grateful for that realization and I pursue another dream.  After all, I’ve got a list of dreams that never seems to have an end. If this one doesn’t work out, there will always be another.

Up tomorrow: An exciting announcement about my company

dreams, time

Beautiful: Use Your Time Wisely – Build a Dream

Christa Avampato

This applies not just to second graders, but to all of us. Time spent building a dream, no matter what comes of it, is always a good use of our energy and effort.

dreams, family, friendship, happiness

Beautiful: The People in My Life

Christa Avampato
From Pinterest

Life’s too short. Period. We’ve got a tiny window to soak up everything this world has to offer and then find a way to give something back to make it a better place than we found it. The trick to really having an impact of goodness? Surround yourself with people who believe in love and compassion and kindness just as much as we do.

Ditch the energy vampires, the negative naysayers, and the people who care more about what they have than who they are.

Find and keep the dreamers, doers, believers, and thinkers close. They will support and sustain you no matter what circumstances life throws your way. Life can be a tough haul from time to time. The people in our lives make that haul easier to bear.

adventure, beauty, California, creativity, dreams

Beautiful: Day 1 of My Creative Break in Santa Monica

Christa Avampato

This photo perfectly captures the serenity I’m feeling in Santa Monica. It’s my first glimpse of the Pacific Ocean on Day 1 of my creative break. Pretty remarkable. I can barely process that I’ve come this far in my life, a place I never thought I’d be.

For my album of photos from Day 1, please like and visit this blog’s Facebook Page by clicking here.

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