This week we celebrated Martin Luther King Jr and remembered his legacy. One of my favorite MLK quotes is “Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase” because it’s simple and to the point, yet we all have a hard time taking that first step.
We all want to live a beautiful, happy and successful life. But most people don’t take the necessary steps to achieve the results of living their dream life. Most people are just surviving life and not really living. For a long time, I was in survival mode and I didn’t know how to get out of it. I didn’t have the tools or knowledge on how to lead a successful life. After college, my only the goal was to get a job in corporate America and achieve financial stability, something I was not privy to when I was young. Once I achieved that goal, of landing the full-time corporate job with a great benefits package, you would think I would be happy. But unfortunately, the happiness only lasted till my first paycheck.
Soon, I realized that I wasn’t moving forward in my life. I felt stuck, like a trapped animal in a cage or what is known as a cubicle. Everyday felt like a prison sentence with no end in sight.
One day I found myself crying in the shower thinking, “I have to do this till I retire? That’s 40 more years.”
I felt hopeless and yearned for more. Still, I didn’t know where to begin. Fear kept me in that cubicle. Fear that I wouldn’t find another job, fear that I would fail at anything new, fear that I won’t have enough money to survive, fear that I was making a mistake by quitting. Days would go by and I would give myself deadlines on when I would quit. But I never did.
Then my father died unexpectedly.
I remember that day vividly, I was at work when my sister called to tell me she was going to visit my father in the hospital. He had been taken there in the middle of the night because he had severe pains in his abdomen. I remember thinking, he was going to be fine and I couldn’t leave my job because I didn’t want to miss my deadlines. My sister pleaded with me and I left work to be with my father. Never knowing that was going to be the last time I would ever speak to him.
His death opened my eyes and sparked something inside of me. Before he died, I was just coasting along. I stopped learning, I stopped making new goals and I stopped dreaming. I had made it to the top of my mountain and I thought there was nothing left to climb. I was so wrong. I was actually wasting time, making excuses and blaming others for my unhappiness. I knew I needed to make a change. In one week, I quit my job, packed up my stuff and moved to the beach. I had no plan, no job and little to no money but I took the first step.
That was 15 years ago.
And in those 15 years, I failed many times but I also learned so much. To move forward in life we need to keep dreaming. We need to continue to set new goals and climb new mountains. We are never done. If we stop learning and stop making new goals in life, we become all we will ever be. You see, people who are living their dream life are no different than you or me. The only difference is they are constantly just taking that first step towards their dreams. They can’t see the entire path or the whole staircase they just have faith that it will unveil itself as they move forward.
We all have this magical force within us that guides us, my husband likes to call it our internal GPS or God Pushing Softly. We all get the nudges of our soul. We know what to do and what not to do. Your soul either feels small, meaning you are doing something you aren’t supposed to be doing or you are surrounded by the wrong people. Or your soul feels expanded, meaning you are on the right track and are surrounded by love and bliss.
If you yearn for more joy, bliss or love or if you know that you are not currently living your dream life then do the following:
Figure out what areas in your life are lacking. Are you happy? Are you healthy? Are you financially stable? Are you surrounded by people who love you?
Find out how you can improve those areas in you life, make a plan and then take the first step.
Everyday, you can choose to improve your life with mindset shifts, setting small goals and expanding your knowledge. We are living in the best time. Free knowledge is literally at our finger tips. Taking the first step has never been easier. Decide how you want to live the rest of your life and start designing it. Don’t let your dreams die with you. Just take the first step.
