"FINDING
YOUR PERFECT WORK" by Paul & Sarah Edwards
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This Book
=============================================
Additional thought
of Graham White in highlights.
This
book contains many, many resources that are exceptional if you are looking to
begin a new career or start your own business. If that is what you are
in the process of doing, then purchase this book.
Life should be more
than working for a living, but often after work, there's not much left for
living. Reclaim your life, rekindle your dreams and start putting the
pieces of your life together so that what's most important to you comes first.
Find a path that,
like the Energizer Rabbit, will keep you charged up and motivated so you'll
keep going and going and going, until you get where you want to go.
Work for your
dreams, not for someone else's; and the work you do becomes part of the life
you enjoy now, not someday. The moment you decide to pursue this route
to your dreams, your attitudes toward work and making a living shift
forever. You can replace the saying "After work there's life"
with "Through work, there's life."
A
Formula For Success:
Desires: Combine
what's motivating you (your passion, mission, or other compelling goals that
are driving you to create a new life.)
Resources.
Use your gifts (talents, skills) and assets (job and life experience,
education and training, personal contacts, equipment, facilities and other
possessions).
Opportunity: Aim
to meet specific needs in the world that people will pay for.
Means: Work
in a way that achieves your desires and supports you on the path of your
choice.
Work For
Others
Work For Yourself
Your
life is after work
In work there is life
Work
is what you
do Work is
an expression of who you are
Work
is
unpleasant
Work itself is an enjoyable part of life
Work
and life are separate Work is an integral part of life
Freedom
comes
later
Freedom is now
Security
comes from others Security is dependent on what you do
Others
control your work You control what you do
Your
boss assigns work Your customers
needs assign work
Leisure
comes after work. Work can resemble leisure
There are four
distinct paths people take to find their perfect work and creating a
successful life. All can get you there and each have their own
advantages and disadvantages.
Finding your
perfect work, be it to follow your gift, passion, mission or assets is only
one side of the coin. No matter how passionately you love what you do,
no matter how deeply you care about your work or how socially important it is,
or how outstanding you are at what you do, how good your intentions or what a
deserving person you are, no matter how much you want a better life, if you
are to have it, you must find some way to match your gifts, passions,
missions, and assets to opportunities that people need and will pay for.
Until you find such a match, your journey to the life of your dreams will be a
long and hard one.
Dreams Born Of
Crisis
Any time you make a
dramatic change in your life, it can feel at first like going backward instead
of forward, like having to give up too much to risk what you might gain.
That's probably why so many people don't make a change until they
must!
40% of people who
become self-employed do so in response to some kind of crisis that forced them
to take back their dreams and find new ways to live them. They got
fired, their spouse died, the became too ill to work, they got divorced, were
rejected one too many times at work, were passed over for a promotion, retired
with no income, were broke or couldn't find a job.
Dreams Born By
Choice
For some people,
there is no crisis that catalyzes them to pursue their dreams. They
simply decide they're no longer willing to compromise, delay, or forego what's
in their hearts and souls. They wanted more freedom and to be their own
boss.
Dreams Born By
Chance
20% just "fall
into" their new life by chance. They encounter a previously
nonexistent opportunity and realize it could be a route for doing what they'd
always wanted to do. They had an idea start growing on them, people
started asking them about something they did as a hobby, an idea hit them, it
began as a distraction from their job.
Nearly 50% of the
best home businesses today didn't exist 20 years ago. Over 40% of the
best home businesses today provide services that corporations now
outsource. 50% of the best home businesses primarily serve other small
businesses.
In today's economy,
what would have been pipe dreams in the past are now practical
realities. To forego whatever security and confidence you've attained
from the way things have been, and set out to pursue your own such dreams, you
too must believe that the dreams you're seeking are no longer pipe
dreams. You must believe that times have indeed changed and that not
only can others achieve such dreams, but you can as well.
On one hand,
technology is taking away jobs by enabling companies to downsize, restructure,
and reengineer. On the other hand, new technology is also putting
powerful tools once available only to large organizations into the hands of
individuals. While good jobs are increasingly scarce and salaries are
down, self-employment opportunities like those you've been reading about in
this chapter are on the rise.
Three Traps To
Avoid
When we say we'd
like to live life on our own terms, be our own boss, it's almost like saying
we want to win the lottery. Of course we want it, but we don't think it
will actually happen, why should we take the time and energy to decide what we
really want? We probably won't achieve it anyway.
Most of us have led
lives that revolved around our jobs or school or family demands, squeezing
everything else we want to do into "after working hours and
weekends." And even in our free time, we may not get around to
doing the things we'd really like to do because either we have to catch up on
pressing odds and ends or we're just so worn out that we need a chance to
sleep in, goof off, or live it up. Most people these days feel there
just isn't enough time for many of the things they'd like to do, sometimes
event he most important ones. As a result, when you set out to create a
more independent life, you risk making one of three common mistakes many
people make in their search for what kind of work to do.
Ending up stuck
in a rut.
If the life you
create for yourself is just as stressful, pressure filled, financially tight,
dull or boring as the one you had when you were working for someone else, why
go to all the extra trouble of starting a new one?
Get Burned by
what's hot
Unfortunately,
whenever you're chasing something, you end up at the rear and you never get a
chance to go where you want to go.
Draw a blank
People who are
successful in personal development or financial investment ventures do so
because they were ready for that step. They started out asking the right
question - the one that led them to the success they experience.
Don't ask
"What could I do?"
Chance are you'll
end up lost in a forest of endless possibilities. There are thousands of
ways you can work independently. Chances are there are hundreds of
things among those possibilities that you could do, and still more
possibilities that are unique to you. Asking yourself what you could
do is often more overwhelming than helpful.
Don't ask
"What should I do?"
You may never see
how you could make what you should do sufficiently interesting or motivating
to actually do it.
Don't ask
"What's the BEST thing for me to do?"
What might look
most lucrative might be at odds with what you would enjoy most, or what you
enjoy most might look too difficult.
The question to
ask is "What do I really WANT to do?"
Before trying to
figure out what to do, figure out what you're doing it for. Decide right
here and now what you want from life and what you want your life to be
about. Then you can literally build your work around what's most
important to you instead of the other way around.
The response
"All I want is..." usually arises from some sense of desperation or
frustration. It almost always is far less than what you really want, but it's
what's foremost in your mind. As soon as you attain it, you will quickly
move on to all the other far more desirable things you want.
So lets get your
answer to "All I want it..." out of the way right from the start,
because you probably won't allow yourself to consider anything that doesn't
address this immediate need in some way. But don't let "All I want
is..." determine the ultimate decisions you make about the life you want
to create for yourself on your own. If you do, within no time, you'll be
disappointed with your choices.
Recognizing
Discontinuity / Signs of Discontent
-
Complaining,
nagging, whining and bitching
-
Worrying
about how you'll keep things together
-
Feeling
chronically tired, lethargic, and listless
-
Low
a sense of enthusiasm, bored or restless
-
Nagging
doubts about yourself and the course of your life
-
Losing
interest in things that once engaged you
-
Difficulty
motivating yourself to do routine tasks
-
Wishing
you were someone else
-
Feeling
mildly depressed for days on end
-
Overeating,
using alcohol and drugs to feel better or escape
-
Not
wanting to get out of bed.
-
Difficulty
sleeping or oversleeping
-
Having
frequent bad dreams and nightmares
-
Getting
frequent headaches, stomach upset, aches and pains
Remember
when you were a child and you'd have a special feeling waking up some mornings
with a sense of what was new and exciting? Remember the sense of
possibility you had? It's the memory of such feelings that lie buried
beneath the discontent we're feeling.
Our childhood
fantasies are metaphors of the person we know we are inside - the person we
can become. They provide clues about what we can contribute, the ways in
which we can help, create, build, lead, problem-solve, or better organize the
world around us.
We're all striving
for something - be it love, money, power, fame, acceptance, a good time,
independence, peace, beauty, survival - whatever we value most.
What we believed
was that earning a living requires us to make compromises of many kinds.
That's why the magic slowly seeps from our lives.
To recapture the
magic, our most desired goals and values need to become central to our life
again. We must find a way to earn a living that will provide support for
our needs and values in three key areas:
1.
Personal Needs- Nurturing, enjoying and developing our mental, physical,
and spiritual well-being.
2.
Relationships- Loving, caring, and sharing with the significant people in
our lives.
3.
Meaningful Work- Contributing to the world in a gratifying way that
supports ourselves and those we care about.
Finding
Balance Between The Three Areas Of Life
Traditional
Male Role Traditional Female
Role
P
= Personal
O=
Others
W=
Work
We no longer have
to settle for the compromises of the past. Unfortunately,
our consumerism has driven us to a new imbalance with both parents working
long hours outside of the home. The high rate of divorce also comes as a
result of our enlightenment that we can have more, that we don't have to
settle for the compromises of the past. Women's opportunities to enter
the work force are not limited to the choices of 1950, they now have the
opportunity to do virtually any job a man does.
Two-Career
Couples
Typical Single Parent
We no longer have
to settle for experiencing only part of our lives. We no longer need to
try to be someone we're not and have no desire to become. We can
customize our lives to meet our needs like a custom made suit of clothes.
A
More Balance Life
We're
seeing a steady evolution towards living a more purposeful life. That's
why so many people feel dissatisfied and yet their parents tell them,
"You have everything a person could ever want. Why aren't you
happy?"
Most
people tend to make the same compromises their parents have made without
actually realizing it. What compromises did you grow up watching your
parents make?
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Deciding
what you really want:
Despite
the fact that we live in a nation where anything is possible, the idea that
most people can't have all they truly want is very deeply ingrained in our
culture. It has been driven into us by our parents and into them by
their parents.
Our
grandparents worked incredibly hard to provide us with the opportunities that
we enjoy today. What they didn't realize and couldn't tell us was how
much the world has changed. The fact that they worked hard and did
things they didn't want to do in order to make the sacrifices for future
generations has paid off! Now we are reaping the benefit of their hard
work in the form of being able to choose a life of purpose.
Changing
Needs
Eight
of the things people say they want most from their work would not have been
high priorities for workers just one generation ago - and they al become
immediately possible the moment you go out on your own:
-
Working
with people who treat us with respect
-
Interesting
work
-
Recognition
for good work
-
Chance
to develop new skills
-
Working
for people who listen to our ideas
-
A
chance to think for ourselves rather than mindless work
-
Seeing
the end results of our work
-
A
job that's not too easy
Take
a moment and fill in the two circles below in the way that you have been
living your life and the way you would like to live ideally:
How It Has
Been
How I Would Like It
P
= Personal
O=
Others
W=
Work
Ideal
Lifestyle Worksheet pg 82 & 83
Finding
The Path To Your Perfect Work
People need to be
successful in their efforts about 75% of the time in order to sustain
motivation. Becoming successfully self-employed is much more like
sailing than surfing. Instead of waiting for a wave that will carry you
somewhere, you must seek out and use the wind that will carry you to the
destination of your choice. The work you choose to support yourself and
attain your ideal life should be sufficiently enjoyable and consistent in and
of itself with what you want so that it's not only worth the effort but
actually meets your needs along the way. That's what finding your
perfect work is all about.
Those who are
successful could be identified as having taken one or a combination of four
specific paths to their perfect work:
-
Capitalizing
on Your Assets. For most, the path is to capitalize on their
assets and current circumstances, doing what comes most naturally to
achieve the other important goals in their lives.
-
Implementing
A Talent. For others, the path of choice is to harvest a gift,
ignite an innate talent or an acquired skill at which they will shine.
-
Pursuing
A Passion. For still others it's to follow their heart, earning
a living doing something they love passionately.
-
Following
a Mission. And finally, for some the path of choice is to answer
a calling, follow a mission or a sense of destiny they believe it's their
role and purpose to undertake.
Capitalizing
on Your Assets
Almost half of all
people living a life they enjoy have ended up where they are by capitalizing
on their assets. They didn't set out to pursue a personal passion or
feel they are on a particular mission. They are happy living their life
in a way that allows them to use the skills they feel most competent
at.
They have been able
to create the lifestyle of their choosing through leveraging their expertise.
Sometimes it's not
job experience or educational background that provides the most promising
assets for us to capitalize on. Often other life experiences and life
circumstances can provide a rich array of assets. Their may be other
things in our life, such as a home computer connected to the internet or an
old family recipe that provide the beginnings of a rewarding enjoyable life.
What job
experience, education, or training have you had? All such experience can
be useful in finding and pursuing your path to independence. List your
experiences and possibilities you might want to consider for civilizing on
them here:
Job
Experience
Possible Careers You'd Love
________________________
__________________________
________________________
__________________________
________________________
__________________________
________________________
__________________________
________________________
__________________________
Education/Experience
________________________
__________________________
________________________
__________________________
________________________
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________________________
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Training
________________________
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________________________
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What types of life
experiences have you had? What type of things have you done outside your
educational and job experiences? What kind of circumstances have you
found yourself in that others may also experience? Any such experiences
and circumstances could be useful in finding and pursuing a path to
independence. List your experiences and any possibilities you might want
to consider for capitalizing on them here:
Life
Experience
Possible Careers You'd Love
________________________
__________________________
________________________
__________________________
________________________
__________________________
________________________
__________________________
________________________
__________________________
What contacts have
you made through previous jobs or with other activities? What circles of
friends or associates are you affiliated with? Also consider the
contacts available to you through your spouse, friends, or relatives.
How might you serve or relate to these contacts?
Who Do You
Know
Possible Careers You'd Love
________________________
__________________________
________________________
__________________________
________________________
__________________________
________________________
__________________________
________________________
__________________________
What equipment,
facilities, property, tools, or other possessions do you own or have access
to? How might you use these in the process of supporting yourself?
Physical
Resources
Possible Careers You'd Love
________________________
__________________________
________________________
__________________________
________________________
__________________________
________________________
__________________________
________________________
__________________________
Now review
these lists and circle any careers that particularly capture your
imagination.
Don't capitalize
on your assets simply because it's the easiest solution.
Taking this path
may tempt you to grab for the "easy way," a way to make money that
supposedly won't really involve much time or energy. People who make the
choice for this reason are more likely than any other group to fall prey to
"get rich quick" scams, cons and schemes. By seeking the
so-called easy way, people who try to take this path may be tempted to get
involved with some multilevel selling program or to buy some business
opportunity or franchise because they assume it will be an automatic
"moneymaker."
Know what you're
working for. The more compelling your reason for wanting to take this path is
to you, the easier and more likely it will be for you to succeed.
It is virtually
impossible to make money from an income opportunity without investing your
time, energy and knowledge. If you sense you are making a decision
because it seems like an easy opportunity, take some time and ask yourself if
this is something you would enjoy doing even if you weren't getting
paid. Things may not go as planned and if you end up struggling for a
while, you will regret making the choice because it seemed like easy money.
Write down all
of your options and consider which ones are most financially viable.
Compare that against a second list of what you would enjoy doing most.
What are the two common options that rate highest on both lists? That
may be a starting point for you.
Harvesting
A Gift
A talent is a
gift you are born with; a skill is a gift you give yourself.
About one out of
six people becomes successfully self-employed by taking advantage of a special
talent or skill he or she has that others value and willingly pay for.
These people have tapped into a gift, something at which they shine, that
others can readily recognize and want.
Many people miss
out on the opportunity to harvest their gift, because they don't recognize it
or they discount its value. In fact, a gift often comes so easily or
naturally that those who have it that they either assume everyone can do it or
that it has no particular value. It's so much a part of who they are and
what they do that they think there's nothing to it. That's undoubtedly
why, unlike the other paths, people most often discover this route to
independence only by accident, happenstance, or serendipity.
Discover the latent
skills and abilities you've long forgotten or taken for granted over the
years. Don't overlook things that you seem average at compared to
others. Simply because you're not the most brilliant in your
field doesn't mean that you're not good at it. You may be able to
combine what you do well with something else that you specifically understand
to create your niche.
Your talents may
lie in areas that no one actively pointed out to you, or you may have even
been discouraged from pursuing them because your teachers or parents didn't
think they were valuable.
Write down what you
think are some of your gifts and rate your interest in each on a scale of
1-10. Add a second number to indicate how well they would match the
lifestyle you want. Feel free to record the same gift under more than
one heading.
Things your
frequently complimented on:
____________________________________________
___ ___
____________________________________________
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____________________________________________
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____________________________________________
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____________________________________________
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Things people
ask you to help them with or do for them:
____________________________________________
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____________________________________________
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____________________________________________
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Things people
have told you you should get paid for:
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Things you've
always thought you're good at:
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Sometimes your
gifts can actually get in the way of finding and committing to the kind of
work you really want to pursue. Just because you're very good at keeping
files organized, ironing or doing taxes, for example, doesn't mean that you necessarily
enjoy doing these things. Even if you do enjoy them, you might not want
to do them day in and day out. Just because everyone says "You're
so good at this, please do it for me" doesn't mean you should feel
compelled to earn your living from it, unless it's something you genuinely
want to do.
Don't get stuck
doing something simply because everyone else has pegged you as being
"that person". Don't get sucked back in because someone waves
a bunch of money at you and you've done it before. Find something that
ignites passion in you. Remember, you're not aiming to just make a
living; you're creating a life. In order to create the life you want to
live, you'll be best served by pursuing those talents and gifts you enjoy
doing.
Pursuing
A Passion
Unfortunately, we
have been taught to think of work as something that's supposed to be
unpleasant and not for our own enjoyment. There are some, often artistic
types that aren't willing to settle for doing work they don't love.
About 1 in 4 people are driven to pursue the "fire in their
belly." They want to earn a living doing something they love.
Sometimes it arises from a lifelong hobby, others spring from interests
developed later in life.
You don't have to
be exceptionally gifted when you're exceptionally motivated. Just
because you have a passion for something doesn't mean you're gifted at
it. You may love it but not necessarily be the very best at it.
You can educate
yourself and build your competence. When you love what you're doing,
usually you're automatically motivated to work at it long enough and
frequently enough to develop sufficient competence. When you love
what you do, usually you want to learn from every mistake and correct it to do
better.
Also consider that
you don't have to do what you love to be part of what you love. You can
be involved in earning a living from your passion in a number of different
ways without actually being the key person doing it.
Ten different
ways to do whatever you love:
-
Do
what you love.
-
Provide
a service to others who do what you love.
-
Teach
or help others to do what you love.
-
Write
about what you love
-
Speak
about what you love.
-
Create
a product related to what you love.
-
Sell
or broker what you love.
-
Promote
what you love.
-
Organize
what you love.
-
Set
up, repair, restore, fix or maintain what you love.
If
what you love doing is something many others would love to do, for example:
acting, playing golf, etc., do not beat your head bloody against closed doors
while trying to do what you love most. Your challenge is to find some
way to do what you love that plenty of people are willing to pay for, or to
find a job that allows you to do what you love in your spare time.
Nine
out of ten people who successfully pursue what they love don't even try
getting in the same door everyone else is pushing to go through. They
find an alternative route.
If
what you love doing is something people dearly want or need but absolutely
hate or have no time to do, pursuing your passion could be remarkably easy.
It is easy to
settle for next to nothing when you are desperate for money or when you love
what you're doing more than the money it pays you. Avoid the temptation
to work for pennies unless earning a reasonably good living is a very low
priority in your life.
Whenever we care
passionately about something, we become more vulnerable to blows to our
self-esteem. When we've intensely invested in something, and care about
it passionately, we tend to identify with it. It's our "baby,"
so to speak. An attack on it feels like an attack on us. If our
work is rejected, we may feel as though we've been rejected. If it's a
failure, we may feel like a failure.
Successful people
handle rejections and setbacks by redefining success. Instead of
measuring their success in how many sales they've made, they may measure their
success in how many sales calls they've made. Rejection is part of life,
especially in selling. If you are easily dissuaded by rejection you will
find it difficult to blaze your own path.
Not everyone wants
to earn a livelihood doing what they enjoy as their pastime, hobby, or
interest. Sometimes we enjoy these things because they are a
diversion, an escape, or a novelty in contrast to the rest of our life.
If this is the case, trying to turn these pursuits into a livelihood would
take all the joy out of them for you and they'd just become another form of
work you can't wait to get away from. Kind
of like dating a long-time friend only to find it doesn't work out and losing
the friendship you enjoyed for so long.
Following
a Mission
The enjoyment of
following a mission often comes not so much from what you're doing as from the
ultimate benefits or results other derive from your work.
Following a mission
involves knowing that you're doing something that goes far beyond making a
living. It might involve righting a wrong, championing a cause, or
creating something new and original that no one believes is possible.
Earning you living following a mission provides you with the satisfaction of
knowing that the world is a better place because of your work and because of
what you've contributed.
A mission may
spring from an inspiration, a deeply held social belief, a traumatic life
experience, a problem you've overcome, or an injustice you want to correct.
To help decide what
might be your mission, write down the answers to the following questions and
rate your interest in each on a scale of 1-10. Add a second number to
indicate how well they would match the lifestyle you want. Feel free to
record the same gift under more than one heading.
What personal
tragedy, illness, or loss have you experienced that you could educate or
otherwise help others to avoid or cope with?:
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What problems
have you overcome and see others struggling through that you could help them
with?:
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What injustices
have you experienced or seen that bother you so much you'd like to do
something about them?:
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What ideas do
you have for doing something a better way?:
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What would you
like to prove is possible?:
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What could you
do to make the world a better place?:
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What do you feel
strongly about wanting to preserve or restore that is being lost in our world
today?:
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____________________________________________
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The Pros &
Cons of Following A Mission:
While following a
mission is the least traveled path to finding one's perfect work, it can be
the most rewarding. The gratification that comes from knowing you're
making a difference in the world, the sense of achievement that comes from
doing something no one else has been able or willing to do, the peace that
comes from knowing you're following a destiny of some kind are the rewards of
this path.
It is important to
take steps to avoid burnout. Because you are so passionate about what
you are doing, it is easy to become imbalanced in your pursuit of helping make
the world a better place.
It is also
important to remember that you have to make a living. Because what
you're doing seems so much more important than money, you may not place enough
monetary value on what you're doing. It's hard to get anything
accomplished if you're broke.
In taking this
path, you undoubtedly have strong beliefs about your mission. Don't hold
on to your vision to tightly that you become rigid and inflexible. You
need to discover a way to package what you want to do in a way that will meet
someone's need sufficiently to enable you to pay your bills. Being
flexible does not have to mean selling out or compromising your standards, but
to succeed will mean being open to the needs, concerns and circumstances of
others.
Sign on for the
long haul. You will need to be prepared to put in long hours, overcome
failure and continue working long after others have gone home. Remember,
it's your mission. Don't expect everyone else you're
working with to have the same passion or work ethic as you do. If you
demand it, you may soon find yourself alone on your quest.
When you're
connected to what you want to do, your drive, your desire will carry you a
long way. Your efforts become alive, desirable and productive. But
unless you connect what you're producing with something that's wanted or need
in the outside world, nothing much will come back to you from those
efforts. The work may be initially gratifying, but ultimately
barren. On the other hand, when you're connected to some need or desire
in the outside world, your efforts immediately bear fruit, but unless they're
connected to some desire within you, that fruit may soon wither and die on the
vine.
Work with a
coach or mentor.
Beginning
The Journey
Start talking
and taking action. That's how you'll actually carry out the process of
casting forth, connection and feeding your ideas and plans.
Now that you're
poised to begin, you must do so. You must take at least the smallest of
beginning steps toward your new life. If you don't begin now, if you
delay, if you hesitate, you will most likely begin to feel a creeping sense of
depression. You will begin to feel drained and weary. But even the
smallest action steps will energize you. With each step you take, no
matter how small, you will feel your confidence and enthusiasm build and, as
you proceed, your path will unfold with increasing clarity.
Don't say,
"I'm thinking about...". Say "I want to tell you what I'm
doing. I'm..." And you'll find that you will start getting a
wealth of reactions that hold clues as to what your next steps should
be. You must weigh those reactions and suggestions, of course, but many
will be helpful and fruitful. Discard those that aren't and follow
through on those that could be. In may ways, launching your journey will
be like following a trail of clues.
Read everything
you can.
It will provide you
with the information you need at each step of the way. Go to the nearest
bookstore or library and surf the net. Head for career and business
sections. Look for the resources you've seen and thumb through those
books. Pick those that seem to provide the information you're seeking in
order to take your next step. Review as many books as you can.
Read them all, if need be. Visit the author's websites. If you're
not seeing anything helpful at your plans in one source, move on to other
books and sites that are.
Take courses and
attend seminars.
Ask for help.
After you have read
and attended courses on getting started, you will be well prepared to start
asking for help. Avoid the temptation to start asking for help before
you have done the reading and taken the courses that will enable you to ask
the right questions of the right people. Generally people are eager and
willing to help if you ask them questions they can respond to. For
example, you will probably not get a particularly helpful response if you ask
a colleague a question like "I want to become a wedding consultant.
Where do I start?" You will get a much better response to a
question like "I was reading that wedding consulting can be seasonal in
nature. Have you found that to be true for you? How have you
handled that?"
One thing is for
sure: if you don't proceed, if you wait for something to happen, nothing will
happen. Remember you must cast forth, connect and feed your ideas and
intentions before they will quicken with a life of their own.
Will your journey
be easy? It may be. It may be easier than you ever imagined.
Will it be difficult? It may be. It may be more difficult than you
ever imagined. But if you have chosen your path well, it will be filled
with such magic that whatever effort is required will be worth it, because
you'll know you're on the road to your dreams. If you must stop for a
while, that's okay. Do so. If you must take a detour, that's
okay. Do so. But never forget where you're going and never give up
the journey. Along the road that's filled with the magic of your dreams,
as long as you continue walking forward in the direction you want to go,
anything is possible, anything can help.
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