Making Dreams Happen: Chapter 2

The big 5: You find the right answers when you ask yourself the right questions.

Leaving a stable career for the complete unknown isn’t something for the faint of heart (or the lazy). You can only survive in limbo for so long before your wallet empties out completely. And since I didn’t want to return to the corporate world, I had to start brainstorming ways to up my cash flow, and fast.  

There were 5 questions I asked myself when determining my next steps:

1. What do I love doing? 
2. What am I really good at that people will pay me for? 
3. What process/grind am I willing to endure? 
4. Why do I want to do that? 
5. What impacts will I make and will they be enough?

My answers looked something like this:

1. Writing, reading, traveling, eating good food, listening to country music, volunteering, talking to people
2. Writing/content creation
3. I DON’T want to go through the 9 to 5 corporate ladder-climbing grind. I DO want to stay up until midnight, typing away on my computer, making sure my clients are happy. I DO want to survive off coffee and 10-minute catnaps. The “freelance entrepreneur grind” sounds exciting to me—not draining. 
4. I want to do that because it feels authentic and I’m good at it. 
5. The impacts I can make are endless—as a freelance writer my audiences can span multiple platforms and different demographics. Yes, that will be enough. 

After writing everything down and chewing my answers over a few times, it was clear: I need to be a writer. I ama writer. 

Walk it talk it: To do is to be. 

The first step in becoming something is verbalizing and believing that you already are. For instance, before becoming a writer, I needed to believe in my soul that I was a writer—and I needed to tell people that I was. 

For some reason, when you don’t have a cushy job title handed to you from a superior like “associate marketer” or “digital editor,” it’s difficult to put into words what you are and why you deserve that title. 

Before, when family members asked what I did, I didn’t have to think about it—I was a marketer—my boss told me so. Now, who I was and what I did was up to me—I am my own boss. 

Getting used to feeling the words “I’m a writer” roll off my tongue took time. But eventually, I learned to love the way they made me feel. 

And I embodied them. Fully. 

I started acting like a writer. Going where writers go. Talking how writers talk. Thinking how writers think. Doing what writers do. 

It’s funny how much your words follow your thoughts, your actions follow your words, and your life follows your actions. 

Think it, speak it, act it, and it shall be. 

To be continued…