Dreams costs! Here's where you start paying.
I love a good dream. Who doesn't? But even as I child I never bought into the idea that wonderful things would just be bestowed upon me. Sure, Daddy called me his pretty princess, but without a throne or a principality to rule, it was like being a royal in exile.No one curtsies or showers you with gifts.
But that has taught me to be a pragmatist. Yes there are beautiful, wonderful things in the world, and everything is possible, but that requires effort; sometimes, massive, herculean effort.. And that's what I remind myself with every chapter I read, experiment I perform or test I take. In order to achieve my dreams, I have to put the hours in. And that's not a bad thing and it's something more people should expose.
It would be easy to feel jealous when those around me are getting more publicity or sales, or social media interaction, but I know that none of it came easy or for free. Overnight successes generally take a lot of sleepless nights, hard work and creative thinking. It involves declining invitations, letting your housekeeping slide as you finish an order and learning curves as you try to employ an ap that will supposedly save time, increase exposure or track your orders. It's figuring out ways to lower your expenditures and increase your sales. It involves tears when you don't think you'll ever be good enough and want to throw in the towel, and tears when someone's confided in you that a product you made helped them with a skin condition and made them feel better abut themselves. It's failing and falling down and getting up, again and again, and unwaivering belief, that this is your purpose.
To paraphrase Debbie Allen, Dreams cost and here where you start paying. And when I'm finally at the next level and they ask if I've paid my dues, I'm handing them a wad of receipts.
