I spent the past week in sunny Los Angeles recording the audiobook for Joy Seeker. There was a moment when I was reading through it, and I had an overwhelming sensation of gratitude and love for myself and life, because I am doing what I love. I get to live my joy and purpose every day. I feel so blessed and honored to be actively living my happiness.
The funny thing is, the entire week’s theme was joy. Everywhere I went I met people who were actively pursuing or living their dreams. I worked from coffee shops and overheard movie directors talking with actresses and producers about their feature films. My sound editor for the audiobook was creating her own first feature film and my Airbnb host bought a tiny house and set out to travel the United States full-time.
Everywhere I went, people were living their dreams and it was super inspiring. The one that stuck out the most to me was an amazing woman I met at a coffee shop. She’s an aspiring actress who just moved to Los Angeles from Austin, Texas, to follow her heart and become an actress. She’s been in LA for only a couple months and is already landing her dream acting roles. We became fast friends as we shared our dreams and celebrated life together. She was glowing, her passion and enthusiasm for life were so infectious. But something she said really stuck with me.
She said, “I feel so lucky to be able to do what I love every day, but I wake up each day and I feel bad. I feel undeserving and guilty.”
I asked her, “Why?”
And she said, “There are so many people who don’t have this opportunity. Where I come from, people don’t get to go after their dreams. They don’t get happiness. It just doesn’t happen for people like us.”
I listened closely and looked into her eyes and said, “But you ARE here, you did it. You rose above your circumstances and found it within yourself to follow your heart and have the courage to go for it.” I mentioned to her, that you being happy doesn’t take away another person’s happiness. If anything it can give them hope by showing what is possible. We all have the ability to choose joy and find the courage to go for something better. Living a life that feels good is available to all of us, but not all of us choose to go for it.
Can you relate to this?
So many of us believe that we can’t be happy because it’s selfish, or we will somehow be taking it away from someone else. We feel undeserving of what we truly want.
But I want to remind you that your happiness is what uplifts the world and it is exactly what the world needs right now. When you follow your heart, you are putting more love and joy in the world, and the world needs more love and joy right now.
Ask yourself if you’ve been hiding from your dreams, or putting them on the back burner because you are afraid to rock the boat or go for what you want most.
As I share in my next book, Joy Seeker, one of the reasons we don’t go for our dreams is because we are consumed with the how.
Enjoy this excerpt from my book:
We want to know the how. How will it happen? When will it happen? How do I get from here to there? How can I feel more balanced and joyful? HOW??? I will be honest with you: the how doesn’t matter. There is no one way to do anything. Your how is totally different from someone else’s how. There is no direct path. It is all part of your own journey.
That’s why in my author mentorship program I never tell an author exactly how to get a book agent or land a book deal, but rather how to trust the guidance coming to them so they can honor their own path with the Universe. Of course I share industry standard practices, but I know that we all have our own how. For example, one client met her agent at a writers’ conference, whereas another pitched multiple agents and, after a year of rejections, landed her dream publishing deal without an agent. Another client landed her dream book deal after a television appearance on a national talk show, and still another’s self-published book got picked up by a mainstream publisher. Same result—the desire to have a book deal—but all different ways. The how is not as important as we make it in our minds. It is the Universe’s job to do your how.
So I would be doing you a huge disservice by telling you how, because there is no one how. It is about honoring your own path and discovering your soul’s unique language. You can learn the tools and I can show you ideas, but the exact how is between you and your higher self. The how is already inside of you with the guidance you are constantly receiving. So it comes down to trusting and believing in yourself. When we align with our true self, we can never go wrong.
The steps we take now are the how, but they must be inspired by our inner guide for true success. There are spiritual lessons you need to learn, and your how will be of the highest good for your own soul’s growth. And often it looks nothing like anyone else’s. So many people get overwhelmed about moving forward because they feel they lack the clarity. They focus on the how, and what steps they should take to move forward on their dream, but this “needing to know the how” is another sneaky ego trick. It’s keeping you playing small. So instead of asking how, get busy focusing on inspired action now. Of course we can get inspiration from others, but it’s important to honor your own path by knowing the how is in the guidance you are receiving now.
Furthermore, the how is not really anything we need to concern ourselves with because the how is the Universe’s job. In Rhonda Byrne’s book The Secret, she talks about the how. “How it will happen, how the Universe will bring it you, is not your concern or your job. Allow the Universe to do it for you. When you’re trying to work out HOW it will happen, you are emitting a frequency that contains lack of faith — that you don’t believe you have it already. You think you have to do it and you do not believe the Universe will do it for you. The how is not your part in the creative process.”
So simply relax into your life just a little but more, and instead of needing to know the how, trust the now.
Here are resources to help you take the next step toward your dreams.
If you want to get unstuck and discover your purpose, check out my MBG online course here.
If you dream of writing and publishing a book, check out my mentorship programs here.
If you want to turn your passion into profit, see my entrepreneurial business mentorships programs here.
If you dream of accepting yourself more, check out my book The Self-Love Experiment here.
If you want to live with more meaning and joy, preorder Joy Seeker here.
I’d love to hear from you in the comments. What dream are you ready to make a reality?
