Would you push yourself to take the plunge?

Sometimes I come home at night and I say to myself : “Wow! I totally maxed out today.  I got so much out of it!”

I love days like that and I love weeks like that too.  Looking back on this week, I feel a sense of pride.  I exhibited at the Toronto Gift fair for four days, I kept up with my social media posts, got everything in place for our upcoming BIG Sweet 16 glamjulz birthday bash, had a productive meeting with 2 amazing entrepreneurs in the community that I am teaming up with (more on that in the coming month) and met with my dear friend Nancy McMillan, Chair of the Bright Run, to discuss a new fundraising idea.

These kind of weeks make me feel like I’m moving mountains.  I haven’t always felt that I had the power or influence to make big things happen.  There was a time when I felt optimistic and had big dreams, but I didn’t have a clear picture on how I could bring it all to fruition, because, like most people,  I had personal road blocks.

Knowing ahead of time that last week would be action packed I planned a girls weekend at the cottage with a couple of my best girls.  Saturday morning we woke up to rain.  Our dreams of relaxing in the sunshine with a good book and lots of swimming did not look promising.

As we sat outside discussing how we would change our plans to accommodate the rain, we noticed 2 deer walking down the road.  We sat quietly and watched them.  They pranced across the field and over to the tree line where 3 families of turkeys were enjoying their breakfast on the wet grass.  The deer played and jumped and danced around the turkeys like they were all friends enjoying the wet grass and the feeling of the cool rain after the week of heat they had just endured.

I realized in that moment that there was no reason to hold back on swimming, just because it was raining.  We are here NOW and let’s jump IN!  So that’s what we did.  The swim was invigorating, refreshing and we felt like we were embracing Mother Nature’s prerogative.

What does this have to do with making dreams come true?

I think that a lot of times we can stay stagnant and stuck because we see things the same way, day after day, week after week and year after year.  There is a beautiful quote by Wayne Dyer, “Change the way you look at things and the things you look at will change”

The blocks that I had even a year ago came from thinking all eyes were on me and that I had to be perfect.  I feared being judged and wanted to be perfect at everything I did or else I just wouldn’t do it at all.  That kind of thinking is debilitating.

As I get wiser and more experienced I am learning how to push myself from within.  I am taking ideas and mapping out how I can make them come alive.  When the “perfection” block appears on my path I gently ask myself why that’s so important.  All of a sudden I feel like I can push through it or jump over it instead of allowing that block to paralyze me.

I realize I don’t need everything to be perfect I just need to put myself out there being the best I can be in that moment.

My facebook videos are not perfect yet, I still have things I want to improve upon on my website, I wish I could master potato dumplings like my Oma used to make and I also wish I could find more of a work/life balance.

So what?  This is what we are here for, this is the journey.  Pay attention to who you are as a person.  Take note of where you are stuck and give yourself a push! Who says you can’t jump in the lake when it’s raining?  No matter how you slice it you’re going to get wet anyway!

Monica XO