Your Dreams are Valid and How to Take First Steps to Reality

084. Ever found yourself doubting your dreams, wondering if they are too trivial or too ambitious to pursue? What if I told you there's no such thing as an insignificant dream? In this episode, I reveal how I went from a potter to a children's books illustrator through years of sweat, grit, and small steps of faith. Learn from my journey as I share how I gave my dreams a tangible form and paved the way for them to become a reality.

Imagine leaving behind a legacy just from nurturing your dreams. This episode is all about validating those dreams and learning how to navigate them toward realization.

 We delve into the importance of an incubation period, where we stress test our dreams and ideas to gauge their worth. Listen in as we debunk myths around time, money, and naysayers standing in the way of your dreams.

No mountain is too high to climb if you trust in your ability to move it, one shovel full of dirt at a time. Whether it's a baby step or a leap of faith, every move counts in making your dream a reality. Let's embark on this journey of legacy creation together.

00:00:16 Intro 00:00:57 Your Dreams Matter 00:02:08 Your Dreams Leave Legacy 00:04:07 What are your Obstacles? 00:05:19 Recognized and Validate 00:06:44 On the Porch of the Farmhouse 00:09:23 Taking the First Simple Step 00:11:20 When Dreams and Skills Don't Match 00:12:42 A Sidenote About AI 00:13:46 Creative Fruit Takes Years 00:15:47 I Validate Your Dreams 00:16:41 Self-Love is Dream Pursuit 00:17:11 Closing

Transcript

Marijanel: 0:00

I want to validate your dreams. I want to say that they matter and that they're meant to come into fruition, even if it feels like it's taking a long time. Now a little disclaimer I don't think every single dream and idea needs to come to fruit. I mean, if that was the case, my life would be even crazier than it is, because I have like five million dreams and ideas a day. But you know, there's sort of this process I call it stress testing. There's like this process of bringing dreams and ideas through an incubation time to see what really ends up mattering to you. And I truly believe that you have some dreams and ideas that matter to you to the point that they're that thing you would think about if you were on the operating table.

Marijanel: 1:06

I've shared this story before how I was having a pretty minor but to me frightening routine procedure at the hospital and just out of protocol, they hand you that clipboard that says sign your life away, like basically, if we mess up, you know he won't sue us, or you know you sign all these scary looking words away, that that give you a bit of a wake up call, even if it's a minor procedure. And I was doing just that and in the back of my mind, I was thinking the words I don't want to leave yet because I haven't put out my kids book and it's still in my heart, it's still on my iPad, still stuck on the computer and it's not out into the world yet. So this very book that I'm holding in my hands, having it in material form, it's going to pass on to my children and perhaps, if they have children and future, future grandchildren, all the way down the line, this book becomes a legacy in my family history. But now, all of you who've been purchasing it and leaving reviews which thank you so much, by the way, if you buy this book and leave me a review, that means so much. It helps the Amazon rankings. That was a side note, but here I'm saying legacy.

Marijanel: 2:24

Your dreams can lead to leaving legacy and I don't want you to ever minimize your dream. You know, I think sometimes we've heard the word dreamer said with this negative kind of loose connotation, like oh, she's a dreamer, okay, so here's the tone in my voice. All right, because I've even heard this about me Like she's a dreamer. When you say dreamer with that tone, it just almost sounds like pie in the sky, crazy ideas. You know, head in the clouds and, yes, I can see how dreamers and often creatives, artists, can come across that kind of pie in the sky way. We really can.

Marijanel: 3:15

But we are also as creatives, the gifted people who can bring dreams to life, who can make dreams become a real because we find the tenacity, the, the gumption, the determination, the push through to just keep going when it doesn't seem possible. And I believe that's you. I believe you've been harboring dreams that either a you thought are small and just like, keep them shoved away in a closet because they're not worth pursuing, or, b you feel like you have every obstacle in the way of pursuing the dream dream either singular or plural. But you have these dreams that you feel like there's obstacles in the way. That obstacle could be time, that obstacle could be money, it could be people's opinions, like not feeling that you have enough support to pursue the dream, it could be a myriad of problems that stand in your way of the dreams. And then often we harbored dreams inside of us and either we're not we're not pursuing them because we think they're small, or we have all of these obstacles, or we simply Just if we're not thinking they're small. We just think they're too big. You know, like we're, like that's a mountain. I'll never be able to move that mountain. And the smallest mustard seed of faith can move a mountain. And you can move a mountain one shovel full of dirt at a time. You can move a mountain by taking a foot in front of each other. Think of this Every time you take a step up a mountain, you're moving the mountain because it becomes farther underneath you.

Marijanel: 5:08

So I'm painting all these pictures to say that if you can recognize the dreams in you and begin to see that they're valid and important to bring out into what, into real existence, that's just the beginning. But that is such a massive start Because so many of us don't even recognize and validate the dreams. So I would say, in pursuing anything of of legacy leaving value in your life, you first have to recognize the dream and understand within yourself that the idea is worth it, it's worth at least investigating, investigating by, like knocking on doors and seeing if there's any possible way of bringing it, if bringing your ideas to fruit. So, rewinding all the way back four to five years ago, when this Children's Book weight, darling weight, first landed into my heart, which I've always said it felt like kind of a revelation from heaven that this like little story came to me.

Marijanel: 6:19

I was standing on the front porch of our farmhouse and I've told the stories of the farm and how we bought it with a dream of a quieter lifestyle. We sold it, being totally worn out from that never ending or cycle of living on a farm, and we had a big story to tell right then and there in the farm. But I was standing on the porch of the farmhouse watering flowers and we were in a season of waiting for the farm to sell and in fact we tried to sell the farm twice and I can't remember at which point this story came to me. But I, like, I don't like the period of time that is. I call it being in waiting, like when you're waiting for test results or you're waiting for word from the realtor on how a showing went, or you're waiting for someone to get back to you about something important, that that sense of just like limbo and on the edge of like what is the answer? Here I was waiting and I'm pretty sure I was waiting for the realtor to get back to us and I just remember feeling like I just couldn't wait any longer. And that's when chicken Chicken in the book was like wait, darling wait, something good is going to happen. Okay, so great. I had a story come to me, a chicken said wait, darling wait. I totally imagine a kid's book.

Marijanel: 7:52

At the time I was illustrating, or shall I say I was really learning how to illustrate. I was very new. And what happens? What happens when you get this idea and at the time I'm a practicing potter I'm like what do I do with a kid's book idea? Well, I took some baby steps to make it something. The baby steps were that I made some very, very simple illustrations and printed a very basic little book through a company called Blurb. I'm not sponsored to say that, I'm just saying what I used as far as tech. But I found this company called Blurb and they have little booklet. It's really like a, I think, a photo printing service.

Marijanel: 8:40

But I made this little book and I got a few copies and gave it to a couple of friends and I have one stored away in my illustration archive and I just kind of thought let's let it wait. I'm really happy I took the baby steps with the idea because it formed the idea into something, even if I never pursued it farther. And so one little word of advice that I give if you've been harboring a dream or an idea, is what is the simplest way you could give it its first form of existence? The most basic way if it's a song that you have, or maybe you're wanna build a huge empire, but you're like what is the simplest little form that this could take right now that I could say I did the first baby step, and I'm so glad that I did. Even I call that book a dummy book. It just paved the way and opened the door for me to see this idea a reality.

Marijanel: 9:44

Okay, and so then it sat for even longer, but through the sitting period of time I became a better and better illustrator and my pottery business ended up shutting down and I shifted into a different realm of work and I had more illustrating time. And it dawned on me, perhaps about a year and a half later, that at that point I became a good enough illustrator that if I refined that story I could redo the story and actually have something way better than the little dummy book I had tucked away. And so I really began to contemplate that idea. And then those of you who follow the show will know that. From there it's kind of history where I woke up in the year. I woke up, I started the year and by walking into a New Year's party and when we were all sharing our New Year's resolutions, I just like blurted out very unexpectedly I'm gonna make a children's book this year. And then the rest becomes history, where I had a couple of years of just like really wrestling this, because once the words came out of my mouth and I made it final that I'm doing this, I was very determined not to let anything stop me from doing it. But when I had made myself and the rest of the world that out loud promise, I was so far from the skill level, not in illustration, but in all the rest of the tech and the knowledge of making a children's picture book. I was so far from the skill level but I persisted and pursued and have been learning everything that I needed to know.

Marijanel: 11:23

So coming back to the dream and me validating your dream, I know that your dream is gonna take you work and you're gonna have to build skills and take risks around that dream. But the very first step is always acknowledging the dream and then taking the baby steps to give it its first little form of existence. And then ask yourself how can I improve and build more and more skill or create more and more capacity within myself to mature this baby step, to take it further? And that is really essentially how you're gonna move the mountains of your dreams. And I need to say this, I need to say it is not quick, it's not fast, you're not going to be able to just instantly have your dream come to fruit tomorrow. And you know, I have been becoming aware of the children's book industry and how this whole new burst of creating with AI has affected everything. And I'm watching these YouTube videos where people are creating AI generated children's books. They're creating like 50 a day. They're making illustrations and rhymes and all of this in AI and just like putting it out there, generating these books.

Marijanel: 12:47

And here's the thing I know my book took me four to five years to get out. It is made by a human, created through my heart, drawn by hand. It is not 100%. Nothing about it is AI generated. And I'm not threatened by AI, because I believe that the kids of the future are going to see the difference. I also believe that the stories of the heart are human and that humans are never going to be competed with a machine. But what the machine generated movement, what that movement is showing me is we want fast results, we want instant success. And I say this over and over that every fiber of my being goes against that kind of creation, because I know the best things in life, the best fruit from my creativity, is what takes years of incubation and maturity, of coming into this like, like, character driven story of resistance.

Marijanel: 13:58

How can I better explain this? And you know what tells that story, this chicken book. Okay, the animals keep coming to the chicken. Why are you just sitting there? And the chicken responds wait, darling, wait. As they try to, they just run away. They don't even hardly wait for the answers. Wait, darling, wait, something good is going to happen and in the end you can imagine what happens. But I do tell you to read the story because there's a little twist. It's actually kind of funny. And you know what? I'm the chicken and I'm the animals.

Marijanel: 14:30

I've experienced both the feeling of like anticipation. I don't want to wait. Why are you just sitting there? Why is this dream taking so long? I'm so anxious. And then I've also taken the form of the chicken, and my heart is quiet and still and I'm like take a breath, something good is going to happen, just wait.

Marijanel: 14:50

And I've experienced both of these to such an extent that I'm here to say that, whatever it is you're keeping in your heart for a dream, I really want you to acknowledge it and let you know. It could become the next big thing, it could become the next legacy that you leave for your lifetime and not to put down the ideas and the inspirations that are hidden in you, and that, if there's even no one else in your whole life, that's validating your dreams. I hear me this creative being over here who's lived a zillion different creative careers and entrepreneurially and reinvented myself hundreds of times, and is now on the children's book publishing route. I say to you your ideas matter, your dreams matter, they're worth taking a look at and they're worth taking that baby step into whatever form. You can simply present them to the world and say I dreamed this, I made this and it's important. So we talk about self love, we talk about finding our worth, and I truly see that one of the great ways to do it is by recognizing and invalidating your dream, because your dreams come from inside you and they're part of you. You generate like it came there out of you, and so what better way to show a little like self love and worth to yourself by saying my dream is worth pursuing, even if you can only take a baby step. So that's what I have for you today.

Marijanel: 16:42

Thank you for tuning into the Marijanel Show. All of my links are below. You can order the book right on Amazon. You'll see the link there. I'd love it if you leave a review after you receive your order. That means so much. You can find my website, blog, instagram and, yes, my art. Instagram hacked and so @marijanelart is no longer in existence but Marijanel @marijanel is me and you can find me there on Instagram. And as well, you can support the show through the buy me a coffee link. Until next time, live whole and creative.