What do you do if your passion scares you? What if it scares other people? What if people left and right are telling you to stand back. This business? It’s too risky for such a little lady. Dream smaller, sweet girl. Not too much, not so soon.
Sharing your passion and building your dreams makes for risky business. Always. Passion is hot and cold–that’s the nature of it. Passion isn’t lukewarm. Passion isn’t in the middle. Passion isn’t mediocre. Passion doesn’t just go with the flow.
Those dreams of yours? Are they just fun ideas you have swimming laps in your head, back and forth? I’ve had plenty of those. Plenty of things that I thought would be fun to pursue. I think those are called hobbies. You give them up when you get busy, you give them up when they get expensive, you can move from hobby to hobby. Hobbies become passe when the next big craze hits.
But, a dream? A dream is something that makes your pulse beat quickly. Dreams are often the one way you can fill one need the world has. A dream can be difficult to shake, can grow over the years, and can sit quietly for a season. Dreams sometimes need to be put on hold. But, when they are on hold, they are still tucked in your heart…quietly waiting to see sunshine again.
I have about a billion ideas every day. Most of them have to be discarded because, really, I’m just one woman…one woman with THREE little boys. Some ideas turn into hobbies, things that I enjoy in the downtime of life…and I really enjoy them. But, there are few things that truly are dreams.
I hadn’t even noticed the threads of my dreams being braided together into a beautiful strand until recently. For the past 3 years, God has been nudging my heart and my voice to recognize a distinct need. That need can be filled with my unique perspective, I know that. But, it’s scary. How big? How soon? How much do I take on? When? For how long?
These are all questions that feel weighty and heavy in their burden. When it’s a dream, it feels important not to screw it up. But, paralysis via perfectionism just won’t do. Not this time. So, what then?
What to do when your dream scares you? When it seems bigger than you, when it seems bigger than your talents, when it is certainly beyond your resources? I guess you pray. You talk. You continue to dream. You let those strands turn into a braid, and you let that braid grow longer and stronger and more sure.
You wait and grow more sure.
Here’s a boy doing something some may consider risky–or too mature for him. Man-Cans are candles made in manly scents like sawdust, new mitt, dirt, and campfire. He has sold nearly 10,000 candles–and he’s 14 years old!
Do you have a dream? A passion? Leave an anonymous comment if it seems too scary to attach your name to. Have you felt push back because it is risky, or you are too young/or too old, or because you are a woman? I want to know how you’ve made your big dreams and big passions a reality.