This past weekend I was lucky enough to spend the entire day going on a road trip with 11 amazing women. Our destination was an inspiring retreat centre on Gabriola Island – a small Gulf Island within a couple of hours drive of Victoria, where we live.
The whole day filled me with ideas, hope, inspiration and joy. I’ve never had so many authentic conversations. It was day full of connectedness between women. And someone asked me a question which made me think about how long some of my dreams have been in the making. The question went something like this:
“How can you do this thing you’re doing now – starting a business?” one of the amazing women asked. And then she added, “Your eyes light up when you talk about it!”
In a split second I knew the answer to that very simple question: that I’ve been thinking about this business for a very, very long time. And the time is now to do what perhaps I was always meant to do.
How do I know this? Partly because I remember how long I’ve dreamed about doing something like this and partly because I started journaling when I was very young. I have written proof! Last year I went on a solo retreat and took a stack of my old journals to read while I was there. I rediscovered over and over again all the hopes and dreams that I had written about over the years. It was the first time I had read back my words about what I wanted for my future life. And many of the same themes kept coming up again and again.
At one point in my reading, I even stumbled across a journaled list where I had imagined 23 things that I wanted in a future job. I had written this list eight years prior. And I realized that I had 22 of those things in my current job! I cannot explain to you how powerful that moment of discovery was to me. Had I visualized the work (that I still continue to do) into existence?
This weekend that simple question really made me think. How long do you wait to follow your dreams? Five years? Ten? Until you’re absolutely and positively ready and the moment is absolutely perfect? Until you have all that money in the bank and feel supremely confident in all your abilities? Or, is it when you realize that you’ve been dreaming about something for so many years that it is simply time. You can’t spend another day not doing what it is that you were meant to do. LEAP.
I wish I could see your eyes light up when you talk about what it is that you want, but I’ll have to settle for your words. How long have you waited to do what you were meant to do? Can’t now be the time to start?