A huge topic on my heart these past few months has been… courage. It’s easy in the social media world to get caught up in thinking everyone has their act together, everyone is so ballsy to put themselves out there, to compare our behind the scenes mess with everyone’s highlights reels, and to appear much more courageous than we really all are.
[pullquote width=”300″ float=”left”]If there’s anything I’ve learned from the Bible, it’s that if David can conquer his giant with a small pebble, I can certainly conquer mine with a slingshot of prayer and red lipstick.[/pullquote]
As my husband and I courageously said it was time to say no to continuing photography so we could courageously explore other dreams, I’ve been realizing just how much courage I don’t have. To let go of everything I’ve been comfortable with career wise the past decade, it leaves me feeling way uncomfortable as I adjust to new routines, new schedules, new ways of doing what we had grown comfortable doing as business partners in our three years of marriage. To switch things up, to start fresh with new ideas… there have many days I have wanted to crawl back into bed and not face the things that scare me… like starting over, learning a whole new business, having to promote myself in order to market my new services, put myself in the line of fire for criticism, both external and even worse, internal. Chasing new dreams is not as easy as social media makes it look in my highlight reel you see. While I have always tried to be as authentic as possible in my blogs, there’s still a lot of shaking in my stilettos that you don’t see as I nervously take on this giant of a new dream in front of me and cast care to the wind as I pursue it, and attempt to conquer it. But if there’s anything I’ve learned from the Bible, it’s that if David can conquer his giant with a small pebble, I can certainly conquer mine with a slingshot of prayer and red lipstick.
One of my new favorite songs lately, “Nervous Girls,”is by Pretty Little Liars star Lucy Hale on her new album. In it, she sings:
“I’m scared and I’m brave, or somewhere between the two.
I’m beautifully strong, and tragically confused.
Yeah I’m that girl, that’s just like you.”
So I share all this behind-the-scenes-of-the-highlight-reel to let you know, I’m just like you. Deep down, I’m a nervous girl faithfully taking steps toward a dream, not really knowing what’s waiting for me at the end of this journey, but continuing to courageously take one more step… and one more step… trusting/pleading/begging that God knows the bigger picture, and for now all He calls me to do is faithfully keep moving forward. Sometimes I think half the battle is simply deciding to take that first step and gather the guts to pursue the dreams we often times keep talking ourselves out of. As Mr. Disney said above, we CAN make ALL our dreams come true if we simply first pursue them.
What dreams are stirring in your heart? Take that first step and put it in writing. Leave me a comment below and tell me, if you could wave a magic wand and make a dream come true, what would it be?
I think you are awesome for following your heart & taking a leap of faith to try something different. So what if people think you’re crazy. It’s your life to live the way you want. You can at least say you tried which is more than what most people can say. If this new venture doesn’t work out- it’s not a failure. The only failure is to not try. Good luck, you have my support!