Investing In Your Dreams (guest post by Brigitte Lyons)

Investing In Your Dreams (guest post by Brigitte Lyons) Ive Got the Dreamers Disease by ParadaCreations Hi there! My name’s Brigitte â€" and we have some things in common. First, I read When I Grow Up Coach, so there’s that. I’m also obsessive about sussing out and living my life purpose. If you’re a fan of Michelle’s, I’m thinking it’s a fair bet you are, too. In that spirit, Michelle invited me to share some thoughts on a topic that is…well…it’s all I ever seem to think about lately: investing in your dreams. You see, I am notorious for having huge ideas that go nowhere. I’m pretty familiar with that look. Maybe you’ve seen it, too? The look of the furrowed brow and, “there she goes again.” It used to bring me down. A lot. Until I read some pieces that suggested entrepreneurs and otherwise creative people find that one grand idea by working through â€" and discarding â€" loads of mediocre ones. That sounds about right. I’ll leave it up to Michelle to help you figure out your grand idea. I’m more interested in helping you get through the meantime. Because, far too often, we wait until we have that supreme idea to start investing in it. Traditional thinking goes: 1. Have grand idea 2. Make a plan 3. Work the plan 4. Reap the rewards! Take it from me…don’t waste your time on this process. If you wait for the amazeballs idea to strike, you’re likely to get stuck in a long (and excruciating) gestation period. If you’re reading this blog, bets are that you know you want to make a change in your life. You’re primed for a personal revolution. You feel it deep inside your marrow. So why wait? Start investing in your dream â€" and now! Even if you don’t know what the change is just yet. Your investment can take so many forms. · Take a class or otherwise gain a new skill. Is there something you “always wished” you knew how to do? Go learn it! · Meet some people. Is there a field that interests you, but you don’t know the first thing about the day-to-day of it all? Go to an event, or simply find someone who blogs in the industry and introduce yourself. · And, do save your pennies! Go big and set up a specialized savings account with a dream fund. It’s beyond empowering to know that you are setting aside something, anything, for your big dream. This is exactly what I’m doing in my own life. I’ve taken up sewing, photography and I started a blog that I became amazingly committed to. I learned something rather surprising about myself in the process. I’m some sort of creative person. Hand on my heart, I never considered myself creative until this year. Even though I always wrote. I have a degree in creative writing, for pete’s sake! So…my personal experience: invest in your dreams, pick up new hobbies, and learn something about yourself that’s always been there. Through my blogging, I’ve met loads of new people. People totally outside of my social circle. And in that time, I realized how deeply I’ve changed in the last five years. Somehow it’s easier to shake old patterns with new friends. Imagine that, right?! I’ve gestated more than my share of mediocre ideas in the last five years. But the more I talk about them, research them and work my way toward them, the closer I creep towards clarity. Some of those ideas aren’t even mediocre…but they’re not right for me in this moment in time. So I keep saving my pennies, writing (and writing and writing), and taking up new hobbies. And I keep reminding myself, over and over, to enjoy the meantime. Because my life is already better than I imagined it could be, even if my grand idea isn’t born just yet. Don’t wait until you have that grand idea to start working toward it. What can you do this week to invest in your dreams? Brigitte writes at Covet about the intersection between life, joy and purpose. Her latest project has been a process for creating budgets that bring balance to your life in a 6-week series called Warm Soft Money. (Michelles note: Shes the coolest! Thanks for being here, Brigitte! )