Have you ever thought…

“Why the hell am I even here?! There has to be more than this.”
“Can someone just give me the secret formula for living my dream life, please?”
“Maybe I just wasn’t made for more, maybe I was meant to just live a standard mediocre life.”

Nurse
Lawyer
Dietician
Computer Engineer
Psychologist
Family Therapist
Sex Therapist
School Counselor
Pre-K Teacher
Accountant
Medical Assistant
Radiologist
Personal Assistant

This is a snap shot at all the professions I considered. I wanted something but I couldn’t figure out what it was. I declared 6 majors, I researched more than I could count. Where could I get a degree in designing a life that I actually like?!

I went to school like a good girl. I made good grades. I excelled in courses I was good at on paper.

I was always the nice girl. The one who was supposed to be happy all the time. I was there to brighten other people’s day. It was easier for me to make other people happy than to make myself happy.

All my life I was rolling through the motions on cruise control, never thinking about what I wanted. I spent my course periods dreaming on a Pinterest board, dreaming of places that I told myself I would never get to. I would see people who owned their own business and envy them. Why couldn’t I do that? Why couldn’t I have been born into a family of entrepreneurs who taught me how to run a wildly successful business?

It was a big giant pity party for Megan running 24/7.

Every time I would even begin to go for something more, I would talk myself out of it. Complete with some story about how I wasn’t good enough to try that. My comfort zone held me still, I mean that thing has to be there for some reason, right?

I couldn’t start a business because then I will have to put myself out there and that is way out of my comfort zone. I couldn’t work online because then I might have to make videos and I’m awkward… that is way too far out of my comfort zone. I couldn’t live my dream life because that might look selfish, and that is out of my comfort zone.

^ What I thought was the best day of my life… 

So, I graduated with my shiny degree in corporate communications and I was ready to take some entry level sales job that would look good on my resume, only to put my dreams on the back burner once again. That’s how life works right, we save up for babies and retirement – when it’s time to have fun but we’re too old to actually have the fun we wanted.

All my life I just did what was easy.

Then one day, I woke up.

Why am I letting someone else define my life for me? Why am I letting someone else write my dream? Why am I constantly in my own head so freaking much?! Why am I letting myself stay in this spot? 

It was time to STOP.

It was time to reframe my comfort zone, to break out of these stories I was trapping myself with, to write my own future and to live for my dreams. So I did just that.

I learned how to build my own business around everything I loved and I bought myself a one-way ticket to Guatemala so I could start traveling the world, just like the girls in the Instagram accounts that I always admired.

Maybe travel isn’t your jam though? Maybe you want more time with your kids or more time to go to the gym? Or maybe you just want to be happy with your work? Whatever your dream is… it is not as far away as you think it is. You CAN design your dream lifestyle, you really really can.

Here is how I did it and how you totally can too…

Stop telling yourself stories

Snap out of it. The rules that you are telling yourself that you have to follow in life are not real life rules. If you don’t live your life by the book – life just might go the way you actually want it to go. Truth is… it’s your life, you can do it how you want. You’ve spent years creating limits for yourself and it is time to change those. And quit with the excuses, girl! Stop telling yourself,

“I can’t do it, because no one in my family ever owned a business.” Or
“I can’t right now because I have this test in a week and I’m probably going to start studying right now for it.” (And then you don’t actually study…. Yeah I know all your tricks girlfriend)

You know all those people you envy? All those people who have the life you want? Guess what… they didn’t have it easy either. They had to go through their own journey and it was full of getting over their own stories too.

You get over the fear.

Fear is part of being human. Fear is a part of every human’s wiring,  we all have it, we all deal with it. The trick is creating the ability to let it go.

Fear is always on alert, think of it like an emergency alert radio station. It’s constantly scanning until it needs to play those really loud sirens and tell us to take cover. We like to listen to this station, we like to listen to it scanning. It’s good background noise to keep us distracted from what we actually want to be doing.

Fear is going to chill with you through it all. If you want your dream life to happen you have to learn to say, “alright fear, thanks for the heads up right now, but I think I’ll take control on this one.” And watch the excitement flood in instead.

You take action –
Your Dream Lifestyle is much closer than you think

This is really the most simple part of it all, and yet the part we put off the most. Get your head out of the clouds! It is time to stop dreaming all about this cool life and to start taking action towards it. Create a plan for yourself and start with baby steps. Take one step at a time toward your big vision. Make goals that you really love and go after them! Don’t just stare at them and do nothing.

That’s just what I was doing and what did that get me? Nowhere. The pity just kept growing and growing. Poor me, I would never get to live a life I loved. Poor me, I was just made for the simple life even though I craved more. No one likes a pity party.

Just because the action steps are challenging doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do them. If it’s challenging you should go for them more! Challenges are where you grow.

You find the support

One of the biggest excuses I hear (and I had) was well I just can’t because no one will understand me, and no one will be able to help me get started. We live in this amazing digital world now, where we can connect with people from around the globe. People who actually want to support you! I never knew such uplifting people actually existed in this world.