“Dreams Won’t Work Unless You Do”

As I thought these past few days what my next post would be, I somewhat drew a blank. My last two posts were reviews, and I have interviews and features scheduled, but I wanted to share a post that was inspirational through a personal experience. Which is the central theme of my blog. I’ve written two potential blog posts, but I just didn’t feel as if it was the right time to post them. One on Friday and another last night. I have plenty of topics I could possibly write about, but I continued to contemplate if I should post them.

So today, I had a scheduled interview that we ended up rescheduling for tomorrow. It was better for the person I’m interviewing and myself travel wise; and I thought it would be a great chance for me to work on my next post that I definitely wanted to post today.

As I began to skim through Instagram, one of the first pictures that caught my attention said, “Dreams Don’t Work Unless You Do.” Immediately I said to myself, this might be good. I then took out the latest issue of Essence Magazine to see what I could find. Essence has always been one of the places I find the most inspiring and motivating pieces. So I wondered if I’d get inspired from one of the articles. The first article I read was an email written by a fifteen year old girl. She shared her story about how she was accepted into the yes we code hackathon at the essence festival this past July. Her mom was struggling to find a way for them to get down to New Orleans. They weren’t sure if they’d be able to afford a hotel room and plane tickets. After they were told they’d be able to have a dorm, they only had to worry about the tickets. However, they were too expensive. Her mother tried her best to get this done for her daughter by going to the bank and trying to get an increase on her credit card, but she couldn’t. At that moment she felt like a failure, she felt like she couldn’t deliver. Her mother then chose another option and they decided to drive. While they were down in New Orleans, the young girl worked the hardest she’d ever worked with her team to come up with an app that would help stop sex trafficking. On her way back she learned that her team had won for best social impact.

After reading this great article, the pieces began to come together. We can have all of these dreams, but it will never work for us if we don’t put in the work that’s required. And after we’ve encountered disappointments, it’s our job to find another option. Change the method, but not the goal. And the end result will be great.

These past two years have shown me this. I’ve discovered how passionate I really am about my writing. In that, I’ve created a few goals for myself. I would like to reach as many people as possible, create change, build my audience, as well as build my credibility as a writer. Now all of these things require work. If I sit back and expect things to fall into my lap, it’ll never happen. As I begun to really put in the work, things are beginning to happen. I made a decision to write more consistently, which has drawn more readers. Because of that, I’ve heard many people say how encouraged they’ve been because of it. In order to build my credibility as a writer, I made goals to share my writing as much as possible through other outlets aside of my own blog. This could only be possible if I continued to work on my writing and submit samples here and there. Things won’t always be peaches and cream. There will be disappointments when you don’t get results immediately. But when you keep working, success will come. As I continued writing, I began to get recognized for my work. My work was able to speak for me. And in that I am now doing a weekly blog in the wellness section of the online magazine, Everything Girls Love (everythinggirlslove.com). Which was one of the personal goals I set for myself. People have also begin to reach out to me for services regarding my blog. And this is just the beginning of my dreams being unfolded. Had I been asked two years ago if I’d be here or going down this path, I don’t believe I would’ve said yes. But because I realized that work is required in order to make things happen, I am.

So I encourage you today to put in the work. Whatever your dreams are, it’s possible for you to fulfill. But you have to do something in order to make it happen. When things come up against you that lead to disappointment, don’t stop. Keep going and see where it leads you!