Do Work That Counts, Chase Your Dreams, Have it All
I was thinking last night about what I’d want to do if I knew I only had 6 months to live. There’ve been a few stark reminders of late, for all of us across the world and also specifically in the online ‘celebrity’ world, of how swiftly life can be taken away and it’s natural during such times to question if WE are truly living the life we want, intended to, and feel we were born for.
It’s so easy, in the online space, to get caught up in all of the bells and whistles of what we can do – must do! – to get ahead. To stand out. To get ATTENTION and Be a Success.
Nothing wrong with all that … I love marketing and selling as much as the next person (albeit in my own weird and fairly random crazy way) … but I think it’s also critical that we stop and check in from time to time on what Being a Success actually means to US personally.
I don’t know about you, but for me what it really comes down to is I want to do work that counts, based on what I feel I’m CALLED to do, and I want to leave a legacy that matters to ME.
Now just to be perfectly clear: I want to make millions and reach millions. I want to be the single wealthiest and most well-known transformational author, speaker and asskickin’ success mentor of our time. I’m already on my way and I WILL get there. That’s my “ultimate dream” for expressing my message and living the life I feel I was called to, and I chase that dream daily.
But if I knew my time here was limited to, let’s say the next 6 months my IMMEDIATE focus would be quite simple:
1. Get my message out there as much as I humanly can within said timeframe, and absolutely holding nothing back that I believe needs to be said; try to get it across as many powerful platforms as I can.
2. Leave an incredible legacy of love for my children and husband. Daily time on memory-building, fun and adventure, simply BEING together and giving and receiving love. I’d also set up a financial legacy via step-by-step instructions on how to maintain and grow automated income from everything I’ve created, and how to create their own automated income and powerful brands in the future 🙂
I journaled on this earlier today and I realised something that scared me.
When it comes to the second point above, it feels TOTALLY like something I can do now. Right now, I can start spending daily quality time with my children and my husband. Right now, I could sit down and write out a step-by-step overview of how to continue growing my business and the legacy of my MESSAGE as well as how to create and grow a personal brand and/or online empire from scratch. I really should have already done this I guess 🙂 … well, I HAVE done it in the form of SO much stuff I’ve created but I haven’t specifically done it applied to how to keep growing my business, should something happen to me.
Anyway. I must admit I do NOT currently spend daily quality time with my kids or husband … and I don’t want to say it ‘has to be daily’ or I failed as a Mum or something. I’m doing a good job as a Mum; I’m proud of the life I’ve created for my family and of how much together time we have as a result, and I definitely am working to create more of a habit of ATTENTIVE and ENGAGED time. All in all: I feel like I can pretty easily bring this area of my life to a standard I’m TOTALLY happy with and aligned with.
But as for getting my message out there as much as I humanly can … as for somehow making sure EVERYONE hears what I have to say and really GETS that they can have it all as well as is empowered to DO so …
Well.
That scares the ever-living fuck out of me.
Not because I’m scared of SHARING the message; heck no. I don’t exactly have a problem with saying what I think needs to be said and holding nothing back! What scares me is the overwhelm of how BIG it is.
Do you ever feel this way?
I know it sounds arrogant … ridiculous even! … but I honestly feel as though my message is so important that the WHOLE WORLD NEEDS TO HEAR IT – now! – be SHAKEN with it – now! – have it EMBEDDED INTO THEIR CONSCIOUSNESS – now! – and that if I can’t get it to EVERYONE, and INTO everyone, then I’m failing.
I pretty much just want to lock up the whole world and brain train you all to know that WHATEVER you desire, no matter HOW insane, you CAN have, so long as you’re willing to do the work.
And the OVERWHELM of this need within me to get my message to the WHOLE FUCKING WORLD … and not only that but to make sure they truly HEAR IT AND GET IT … is terrifying.
Because I guess I have to admit (so annoying!) that I will NEVER get it to the whole world, and that no matter how effectively I present my message so that it is clear and able to be ACTED upon, even those who do hear it won’t ALL act.
And the truth is that I struggle with this truth. I struggle with knowing that there are people out there who can have everything presented to them, explained to them, even support offered and told exactly how to do it and have it all just RIGHT THERE TO ACT UPON and yet they’ll still choose to live a life they DON’T love, where they DON’T chase their dreams, where they don’t LISTEN to their calling, where they don’t even have a go.
I feel HEAVY with responsibility for the world. I KNOW this is ARROGANCE, as who am I to think my message is needed BY the whole world?!
But yet I do.
THAT’S HOW MUCH I BELIEVE IN WHAT I HAVE TO SAY.
And I think that’s kind of the point, don’t you, of actually HAVING a message? We’re not talking here about building a business based on what will make you MONEY (even though hell yes we’re going to make a LOT of money in this community, and we do!). We’re talking about doing something we CAN’T NOT DO.
The ironic thing here is, that so often the pressure and the sense of responsibility we feel to change the world, as creators / artists / leaders with a TRUE message to share, is so great that it’s easier to not start at all.
Or instead to teach something that we’re quite good at, and don’t mind at all, but yet it’s not our true work.
Or to busy ourselves day after day with Very Important Things which must be done but the doing of which consumes our time and our energy so that there’s none leftover to DO that true work.
It’s easier, sometimes, to pretend we don’t really know how … don’t have the time … or that maybe it’s not your real thing anyway and besides, who would listen?
As Marianne Williamson would say (and I paraphrase slightly) –
“Our greatest fear is not that we are inadequate but that we are POWERFUL beyond measure.”
Let me ask you something:
Does the idea – the KNOWLEDGE, because I know you have that knowledge, deep within – that you are POWERFUL BEYOND FUCKING MEASURE scare you?
It scares me!
It excites me as well .. but it scares me with how BIG it is. Because I know that as much as I produce more content than ANYONE I know; I think I might even be one of the highest-content-producing people in the WORLD in the personal branding space, it’s still not enough.
And as many PEOPLE as I reach, it’s still not enough.
And as many PLATFORMS as I’m on, no matter how great those platforms are, it’s still not enough.
It’s a heavy burden to walk around with! And I do say that with a little smile at my own high opinion of myself, but the truth is it’s not an opinion of ME it’s an opinion – a KNOWING – of the message that comes THROUGH me. The message I know I HAVE to share with the world, day in and day out, to the best of my ability, until my dying day.
But here is the reality:
Whether that day is in 6 months or 60 years all I can do is SHOW UP TODAY, share from the heart and do the best I can TODAY to get my message out there, in a way that those who receive it GET it, whilst also living the LIFE I want to live outside of the work I do as a creator, a leader, a MESSENGER.
I can try to write the best and most definitive book on ‘having it all’ (and I intend to do so), but even then – some will read it, some won’t. Some who read it will get it, some won’t.
So in some ways it’s not really UP to me to try and force the message out in a way that it works for EVERYONE, because there’s no such thing.
All of which is a rather roundabout way of saying (and using this blog to remind mySELF right now) that there’s no point holding off on saying what needs to be said TODAY, because you’re trying to figure out the best way –
The most effective way –
To do it RIGHT –
And change the world.
In the end, when the end does COME, all that will matter is did you show up?
Did you show up, every day, as best as you could ON that day, and take a stand for the things that matter to you?
ARE you showing up, right now, today and every day, and sharing your truth as best as you can? Awkward … fumbly … crazy … whatever!
Or are you telling yourself you first have to figure it out … get prepared … make a better plan so that EVERYTHING WORKS PERFECTLY?
There’s nothing wrong with thinking about what you want to create, for your business and your life. Of mentally chasing those dreams and deciding the best way to make them happen!
But if you’re not also ACTING, right now, today … if I’m not acting right now, today, on getting my message out there as best as I can and on leaving the legacy I desire for my children and husband .. then all the planning and dreaming in the world is futile.
There will come a time, if you’re not careful, when you look back and realise you had a lifetime to act and to press play NOW, and that what you did instead was plan –
And wait –
And while you were busy getting ready, those who you look at and wonder at how they dare to be so courageous sharing their truth, or how they’ve managed to truly already LIVE the life that matters to them, were TAKING ACTION.
Imperfect –
Messy –
But ever moving forward.
Your life is not built on the things you dream of.
And you won’t get to perfect by trying to plan for it.
There’s NO better time than now to start living as though your every day counts. There’s no better time than now to start just sharing what’s on your heart. There’s no better time than now to show up as though you KNOW your time is limited and as though you actually want to make it count.
So do work that matters – to YOU.
Chase your dreams by actually LIVING them.
And make it count baby.
You’re going to pass the time anyway … make money anyway … make SOME sort of difference anyway … might as well just chuck in all the shoulda/woulda/couldas and all the shit you DON’T really care about and start working on the work you believe in, and doing so from a place of living the life you want to ONE day make happen.
\
