Sis Get Up You have Dreams to Chase

(upbeat music) - Hey ladies, thank you for tuning into my podcast. Today is Monday, and a couple weeks ago, I told myself I was going to request today off of work. The reasoning being, I really just needed a mental health break. The last few weeks felt very chaotic at my job, things in my personal life, so much to do. My mental health really has not been the best, so I decided, Carla, you really just need a day off to kind of focus on your personal goals, focus on the things that I've been needing to get done, my errands. I have been writing a book for about five years now, and each month I tell myself this is going to be the month that I am going to sit down in a quiet space and finally finish my book. In honesty, my book is literally about 75% finished. I just have to write, I'd say, two to three more chapters. So you would think that I would be able to get that done in a week or less, but in honesty, I just have not been motivated to finish my book. I think with everything going on around me, I kind of keep telling myself one day I'll get to it, eventually I'll finish it. It's only two to three more chapters, so it's not that big of a deal. I can just finish it before bed, or I can wake up early and finish it before going to work. But the problem is I tell myself those things, but I never actually get to it. So my goal today is to finally sit down, maybe go to a coffee shop, put my headphones on, play some music, and finally get this book finished, y'all, and published. Yesterday I went to the pool with some friends, and it was honestly such a good time. Some people are introverts, some people are extroverts. Your girl is definitely an extrovert. I love being in social settings. I really just love getting together with friends, if it's a potluck, if it's going to the beach. I love family reunions. I just love being in social settings, and kind of being in community. Those are the things when I am going through a really rough time in life that helps me to feel re-energized, and helps me to kind of get out of whatever depression or slum I'm going through. As I'm at the pool yesterday, I decided to go under some sun. There was a lot of sun on the right side of the pool, with like a little bank with some water. So I went over there, and I told myself, I'm going to try to do a self-care activity, where I was going to kind of lay in the water, close my eyes, and tell myself, I'm about to be 26 years old. If I could stop for one moment to be in the present, and think about what my dream life at 26 years old looks like, what will I see? As I'm laying in the water, I have my eyes closed, I'm feeling the breeze on my skin. I start to tap into that imagination of mine, and let me tell you, my dream life at 26 years old was bougie, y'all. I am living in a big city. I walk into this beautiful apartment that has a beautiful view of the city. It's like on the seventh floor. My kitchen is huge with granite countertops. The living room area has windows that are just humongous. I have a dog, my furniture is very modern. There's a room in the apartment, my own little podcast studio with my desk. It's pink, it's pretty. There's a section where I have all my published books kind of on a bookshelf, and I'm working as a life coach, helping other females and empowering them in their personal life. A sparkling engagement ring on my finger, and I am just living a very happy, healthy life. While imagining these things, my boyfriend eventually comes over, taps me on the shoulder, and makes me aware that all our friends are packing up, and everyone is going to be leaving soon. On the ride back home, I was having a moment of reflection. I realized a lot of the stuff I was imagining are actual dreams of mine that once upon a time I was or am still pursuing, but got stuck in life and started believing I am not qualified or good enough to make my dreams come true. Therefore, I might as well give up on them. If I'm being honest, this is one of the main reasons that I have not even finished writing my book, because the negative thoughts in my mind tell me what's the point, or what's the rush, in finishing your book. Even if it's published, no one is going to care to read it. No one cares about what you have to say. No one cares about what you're writing about. Sometimes I even delay recording a podcast episode because I feel that same exact way with my podcast. What's interesting, though, is a lot of the times we can have all these negative thoughts when it comes to our personal dreams, our goals, the things we want to pursue in life. Yet, when we look at the actual facts, the facts are so far fetched than the things we are telling ourselves. In my dream world, I had a pink girly podcast studio where I was consistently posting every single week, and I was just a very successful podcaster. Yet, in reality, I personally so often delay recording an episode because I feel as if no one is going to listen to whatever I post, or it's not going to be great, and people are going to make fun of me, people are going to give negative ratings. Yet, in reality, each time I open up my podcaster app, my views, streams, star ratings have increased. A lot of the times we hold ourselves back from pursuing the things we want in life because somewhere along the road, a person, place, or thing made you feel or told you you're not good enough. And if you're currently in a season where you're starting to believe those words, I want to encourage you and say, "Girl, get up because you have dreams to chase." There really is no such thing of you being out of your prime. You don't have to be 18 again to make your dreams come true. I know it's probably really cliche to say it's never too late to start over, but I genuinely stand and believe in that statement. While listening to this audio recording, you are breathing, you have air in your lungs, which means you are currently alive. Open your front door and realize the world is filled with endless opportunities. You can be a full-time mom and start that successful business you've always been dreaming of. You can be divorced, yet driving on your way to the Realtor's office to sign papers on your very own house. Have a YouTube channel, release your first album, go back to school, change careers. Your dreams aren't out of reach, they're just waiting for you to get up and pursue them. And what does that actually look like? It looks like you giving yourself permission to go for these dreams of yours, even when the odds of life are stacked up against you. Choose to show up when you're tired, choose to show up when you're in or out of that relationship when you're employed or when you're unemployed. You have to chase your dreams and believing them. This means even when no one else does. If you are currently working at a job that you hate with a passion, walk into that job with a positive attitude. Wake up in the morning if you have to listen to a podcast, to encourage you to get through the day. If you have to do some meditation before going into your shift, if you have to listen to some self affirmations, girl, do what you have to do before walking into that workplace. But make sure that when you walk into that workplace, you are walking in there with your head held high. Walk into that environment knowing, even though you currently hate working there, that is not your forever. You will one day be able to put in your resignation letter because you have finally landed that dream job that you've always wanted, or your YouTube channel has finally blown up to where now you're able to make money off of it or quit your job and pursue that channel full time. But these things aren't going to happen if you're just kind of waiting for life. The Lord or the universe to put it on your lap. You have to go out there and put in the work, put in the action to make these dreams of yours, these desires of yours come true. And oftentimes that is not an easy thing to do because it means you having to put in extra hours of your day when you're probably already exhausted from all the other millions of things, calling your attention or requiring your energy. It might look like you having to stay up late after you just got done working an eight or 10 hour shift. It might look like you having to wake up two hours before your scheduled shift. It might look like you having to tell your friends, no, you're not able to hang out with them this weekend because you have some personal goals in your life that you want to accomplish, that you need to put the work in in order to make those things become your reality. All of this to say, "Hun, you can be a content creator who makes money off of your videos. You can quit your eight to five job to be a full-time podcaster, successful author, singer, artist, attorney, business woman, professor. You can be whatever the heck you want to be. It is possible regardless of the world, people, places, or things around you telling you that it is impossible. But you have to be willing to get up and do something about it. Post the videos even if you're only getting one or two views. Apply for the job even if you feel as if other people's resumes are a bit more qualified than yours. Put in the extra hours and believe in your dreams even when those around you don't. These are your goals, visions, dreams, aspirations, and creativity. Are you going to capture them or watch someone else capture them instead? Are you going to live the life you've always been wanting to, or are you going to spend your life watching someone else through a phone screen living that life for you? The opportunities are out there, sis. And it really just comes down to what are you going to do about it? If this episode resonated with you, go ahead and click the follow button, leave a star rating. Not only does this help Spotify to advertise and promote it more, but it also helps this podcast to reach other females like yourself or I who just need some girl talk, need some encouragement to help them get through the day and as I mentioned, to get up and chase their dreams. Moving forward, I'm also really excited to say that I'll start posting these episodes on a consistent schedule now that I have a bit more free time in my personal life. So feel free to go ahead and hit that subscribe button if you want to get updates on when I do post an episode. Thank you guys so much for listening and I will see you in the next episode. Bye. (upbeat music)