Dream Big

So I just recently signed up for this awesome email series that Ashley @ Nosegraze did about how to make money with your book blog. Do you guys follow Ashley? If not, you need to. She's awesome. Her email series was great and talked about how ads aren't necessarily the way to go with book blogs and how it may be better to sell a service and/or product in affiliation with your book blog. Now I don't have any solid ideas in mind yet, but this series did get me thinking about what I want to do with my life.

Every time Ashley talks about her freelance work as a designer/coder, she seems so happy. Because she is! She's doing what she loves. And I really started thinking about how I can make money doing what I love. I don't want to go into work every day for the rest of my life and not love what I'm doing. Don't get me wrong. My current job is great. I love the company. But is this my passion? Is this my dream? If I'm really honest with myself it's not. Sure, it's dependable. Sure, it's consistent. I get those beautiful 8-5 hours everybody dreams of. I get the benefits package and the comfort of knowing I have job security. Stepping off on your own is a huge risk. A huge, terrifying risk. 

Obviously I can't just quit my job at the drop of the hat. I have bills to pay after all. Being an adult sucks sometimes, doesn't it? But what Ashley taught me through this series is that I have to dream big. I have to start somewhere even if it's small. From there, I can grow and maybe one day I can make my dreams a reality. I have some thoughts bouncing around in my head that I'm not ready to share just yet, but it's a start. And of course, I'm still working on my own novel. Hopefully that dream will come true one day as well. 

Too many people go through their entire lives working mediocre jobs or even jobs they hate and that's not okay with me. You spend 40+ hours a week at work. That's 2,080 hours a year. Let's say you work from age 18-65. That's 97,760 hours at work in your lifetime. And probably more, because let's be honest, who only works 40 hours a week these days? Do you really want to spend 97,760 hours of your life being miserable? I sure as hell don't. 

I think the biggest problem people have is not knowing what they want to do. And that's hard. I was the same way and I kind of still am. I'm not sure exactly what I want to do, but I know that I want my career to have something to do with books. And that's a great start. I went to school for fashion merchandising and graduated with my bachelors in 2.5 years. At the time, I just wanted to be done with school, but looking back, I wish I hadn't rushed. I wish I had taken more time to stop and think about what I love. I wish I had joined more clubs, had more hobbies. I didn't have time for all of that when I was taking 18 credit hours a semester. But if I had slowed down, what would I have discovered about myself? Would I have seen my career path earlier? Could I have changed my major to be a little more applicable to what I want to do now? It's not a race. I know sometimes when you're in school it feels like your life is on hold and you just want to rush ahead to the good stuff. And I know you've heard it a million times from adults everywhere... "Enjoy this time because you'll miss it when it's gone." And you scoff and say never. Maybe you won't miss the homework, the late night study sessions (though I beg to differ because sometimes I really do miss it...), but take the time to figure out what you love because you're going to be doing it for a long time. If I could go back in time, I would slow down. I would take the time to really figure out what I wanted to do with my life before rushing through school so I could get to the "good stuff". The good stuff will be even better if you have a career you love. 

So in spite of the fear and the doubt, I'm going to start taking risks. They may start off small and it may take a while to reach my goals, but that's okay. As long as I'm working towards a better future for myself I'm calling it a win. 

What kind of dreams do you have and what are you doing to work towards them?