Say ‘Yes’ to Your Daydreams & Find the Will to Thrive

One of my biggest religious beliefs is that we’re all created and placed on this earth for a purpose. That purpose is deeply engrained in us and, if we allow ourselves to listen to it, it’s what drives us forward. It tells us what our passions are - what we like doing and don’t like doing - and we don’t have to apologize for it, because it’s a fundamental part of who we are.

It’s what fuels our daydreams and it’s the whisper in the back of our minds that tells us we’ll be disappointed in ourselves if we’re working the same job and following the same unexciting path one year from now.

Yes, it’s the same voice that throws caution to the wind all in the name of passion, but it prefers passionate hardships over easy-to-manage, stagnant doldrums.

It doesn’t care that we’re human beings and creatures of habit. It just leads us to live life the way it’s meant to be lived: happily and passionately. It’s greatest fear is that we’ll rob ourselves of our hearts deepest desires that have been placed there by God himself.

I don’t just like this belief because it’s an easy excuse for me to do what I want. I like it because, even if it makes my life harder at times, my life is much more colorful and bright than it would be if I followed society’s cookie-cutter plan for a woman my age.

Discovering this drive isn’t hard.

What are your daydreams about? What do you wish you could change about your job or your current life situation? Where do you wish you had more freedom or control?

Asking these questions, if they don’t blatantly give you the answer, will at least give you hints of what this divine desire inside you is.

Take time to find your own divine purpose.

If you answered the above questions and still only have clues about your life’s deepest desire, take time to meditate on it. Set aside a few hours, go to your favorite quite place, bring a hot drink and just sit and let your imagination run wild.

Don’t let the expectations of your family, friends or society get in your way. This can be the biggest burden, especially after years of mental conditioning by society. It will be one of the single most freeing, liberating, and empowering things you experience.

And here’s some truth you’ll discover: you don’t have to be married by your mid-twenties, you’re not stubborn or selfish if you don’t want children, and if the idea of spending years climbing the corporate ladder makes you cringe, you don’t have to do it.

Make it happen.

This is easier said than done.

I was in the position of having a good job and a good title, and it still took me a while to work up the courage to just quit and leave for something that I knew I wanted but was about 80% uncertain.

But, when I was honest with myself, I knew deep down that if I was sitting in that same office one year later I’d be highly disappointed in myself for not even trying.

I also knew that my misery in work would also leak over into my personal life, so it was better to take the risk. Taking a risk, was in fact less risky for my own emotional and mental health.

All I had to do was take a deep breath, think to myself “ok, here it goes” and just do it.

Push through with your will to thrive.

Undoubtedly, the hardest part of saying yes to your dreams and no to whatever you have now is taking the first step away from whatever it is that’s holding you back.

 But even once you’ve said farewell to the old and hello to the new, it doesn’t mean your battle is over. You’ve still got to work towards what you want. After all, in the words of Cage the Elephant, “Ain’t nothing in this world for free” - even freedom.

Now that I’ve quit my job, I still spend eight to nine hours per day working. I take my laptop, mouse, notebook and lunch to a table in the back of the library and grind out networking emails, proposals, contracts, consulting outlines and articles, even when my brain gets tired and I don’t necessarily feel like it. But you know what? I like it. And it’s empowering. I’m setting myself up for the freedom I so deeply desire.

 I’ve tapped in to my will to thrive, and it’s working.