Sticking with ideas...long term

Seeds don't become oak trees overnight. Seeds must go through a process and that process is called commitment.

It's 2020! And it's March. Wow. This year is really going by. I know most of us made goals at the end of last year and it's important that we resurrect those forgotten commitments, if they've been forgotten or lost the energy to follow our goals through. Let me tell you this today, it's never too late. (Imagine a girl with sandy curly hair in front of a microphone yelling) IT'S NEVER TOO LATE!

Me being me, I bought a vision board from my favorite store #hobbylobby and filled my basket with sticky notes, motivational quotes to stamp on my wall, a whiteboard, you name it. I figured looking at my dreams everyday was the best first step towards actually completing my 2020 plans. But... I had to firstly think in my bedroom before my whiteboard, black marker in hand, what the hell was I going to stay committed to, and could I actually stay committed to these goals and ideas.

I wrote down three points I wanted to make as I proposed plans down and I'm going to share mine with you.

“It's never too late to start working on an new idea.

Whatever comes to mind, stick with it!

I'm sure you've heard that line before. Trust me, I have. My freshman year in college I took English 1 and my professor thought it was a good idea to hang inspiration quotes all around the classroom. Literally, every little bit of wall said something like "hang on in there" or "use your imagination". Looking back now, my professor knew what he was doing.

Okay, let's say today is the day you sit down for an hour, at least, kids have been put to bed, turn of your phone, toss away the remote, tell your significant other you're busy, close the door to a quite room in your house or apartment or go to a silent field. Take a deep breath. I want you to grab a pen and paper, and again, don't use your phone to take notes. You'll see an alert or a text message and feel obligated to answer. It's not about your friends or family right now, it's about your future.

Now, think.

What's something you really want to do or haven't done in your life that will make a positive difference in your life. Is that getting out of debt, buying a house, going to college, starting a business, learning a new skill, spending more time with your family, it doesn't matter. Write down something and don't over think it.

On my whiteboard I wrote: payoff credit card, write at least four books this year, get back into running (I had surgery on my foot in November and am recovering), build up my social media platform, and sell 100,000 books I've written (I am an independent writer).

I listed all those things. Writing down my goals was the easy part. Let's dig a little bit deeper and I'm sure you all will get here, how do I shift my idea or dream from imaginary to physical.

With help from the internet!!!! Have you ever heard of a little media platform called #youtube? Sure you have, you're on there all the time looking up stuff. This platform can also be used to teach you new skills or give you a clue to what step 1 of following your dream looks like.

Start there, or go on Instagram and ask someone in your hoped field or who is doing what you want to do for advice. I'm sure someone will respond and help you if you can. The important thing is that you are not limited. There are no excuses to be made because we live in the greatest time period in the world called connectivity. Get connected, do your research, feel out your gut, and commit to your ideas.

During the hard times, the best lessons are learned

Alright. You've written down your goals, hopefully, or at least you're very aware of them. That's a start. If you're like me you've done your research, called a few people, watched YouTube videos, all that nitty gritty work. Where do you go from here.

YOU START!

I'm a writer, as I mentioned before. After years of debating, I decided to take up the skill to be a career move and haven't looked back since. Once I agreed to this title "author" loving the thrill of saying it when my friends asked me what I wanted to do after college, I'd smoothly say, "author". Yes, I claimed being an author, bought turtlenecks, cute slides for me feet, trendy class, fancy coffee cups with catchy phrases on them, I felt ready. But I wasn't an author yet, until I started.

Look at it like this, would you let a doctor operate on you if the doctor never studied medical and went to school for her knich, hell no! I wouldn't. This same ideology applies to you my friend. You want to be debt free, but you're not making any moves to pay off your debt, want a house but aren't saving for it, dream of being a YouTube start...but you don't post anything on your channel.

I hate to break it to you, you can't make something out of nothing. Life doesn't work like that. You gotta dig a hole to plant a seed, so you have to do work to get somewhere.

Then while you plant this so called seed, this dream, you hover over it, expecting your dream to happen simultaneously. Again, life does not work like that.

Life hits us in different ways. You might be saving up to buy your first house and your car breaks down and now you have to dip into your savings account. Dream of running a marathon and sprain your ankle, want to open a restaurant and the city says the building you purchased isn't up to code and you have to hold back your grand opening.

Understand this, life will come for you. Life doesn't care about your age, how much money you have, your race or religion. The bad times will come, but all that matters is how you react to them. My point, when life gets hard and following your dreams or working on your idea becomes uncomfortable to where you want to give in. don't. DON'T!

The best lessons are learned during your worst trials. Sticking with your idea is like signing up for an unpredictable marriage. When it's good, you put in more effort and reap all the rewards. When it's bad, you contemplate divorce without working things through and committing to battling out this hard season.

I will say this, ideas are like seeds. You plant a seed in the ground, water it everyday and never stop.