Happy Monday from West Texas!
As I type this, we’re driving away from the bustling hotspot we stayed in last night, Pecos, Texas, and toward Tucson, Arizona, our Day 3 stopover. (I know, I know, we’ve picked ALL the gems. What can I say, I-10 doesn’t leave you with a lot of options...)
Tomorrow will be our last day on the road, and then Wednesday is our first day in our new house! The day I’ve been dreaming about for nine months is finally almost here.
In a lot of ways, it still hasn’t fully hit me yet. I feel like I’m in this strange in between realm of my dream world and reality.
The dream world part of it is so easy and simple: I fantasize about decorating our new house and making it a home. I envision margaritas by the pool on gorgeous California summer days. I think about meeting awesome creative women and forming a small but strong community of other soulful creatives in my new city.
Every night I fall asleep and that is what I dream about.
But the real world part is starting to come into focus too. The fact that I won’t be able to have dinner with my family whenever I want. The idea of feeling lost driving around a new city, the roads and landscapes no longer feeling familiar as Jacksonville always has to me. The notion that I’ll have to build my daily routine from the ground up again.
Big Change in my mind? Exciting! Big Change in real life? Scary as hell.
Big Change is like telling people you’re going to skydive out of an airplane. You sound super cool for a while and like a total badass, but then you get up there in the plane and you have to finally come to grips with the thought, “Oh crap, I actually have to do this now.”
The feeling reminds me a lot of how it felt to make the jump from my advertising job to working for Jason's company back in 2011. All I’d known until that point was a “corporate” structure - lunch hours, vacation days, benefits, a boss.
In the weeks leading up to leaving, I was dreaming about how it would feel to make my own hours, have all that new freedom, work with Jason every day. But as I got closer and closer to the edge of that plane door, looking down at the great unknown before me, the fear of actually going it alone started to set in. “What do I do for health insurance?” “What if it doesn’t work out and I have no money?” “Can I really handle this?”
But, fears and all, I DID jump out of the plane. I made the leap from the corporate world I knew and into the unknown of my dreams. And it was the best thing I’ve ever done.
So, how do you bring yourself to actually go through with Big Change?
You decide.
Big Change happens when you decide that you want the dream more than you fear the reality.
“Big Change happens when you decide that you want the dream more than you fear the reality.”
You put one foot in front of the other, you dive head first out of the plane, and you remind yourself to enjoy the ride.
The fearful thoughts in your head will be there no matter what, but your job is to give them a stern look and a hearty SHHHHHH when they start acting up.
I truly am beyond excited for my own Big Change. The notion of starting a new chapter with almost everything about our daily lives transformed has my mind frenzied with possibilities. Who will we be when we emerge from this chapter? There’s no doubt we’ll be different, but in what ways? What new friends will we make? Where will go next?
All of those questions light me up beyond belief.
And so, despite the fact that I know the reality will be harder than the dream, it is a dream come true nonetheless.
So here’s the lesson that I want you to take from all this:
Whether you’re like me and choose to be blissfully ignorant of life’s big changes until they arrive, OR whether you’re painfully aware of life’s big changes and the fear is enough to leave you paralyzed and stuck in your ways - I want to encourage you to do the scary, dreamy, Big Change thing anyway.
Sure, dreaming about it is easy and living it is hard, but looking back and knowing that you won’t be wondering WHAT IF forever trumps all.
That's it! Next week I’ll be coming to you as a Californian!
