My big fat BIG dream

Five years ago I probably answered my big dream as being successful. Today this dream feels more and more unreal unless I was to explain what exactly I define as success.

Well I have a dream to be financially independent and live a comfortable life in that sense. I have a dream of growing in my career to be challenged to my full potential while enjoying at least 60% of what I do each day, being creative and active. I have a dream to move back to my home town to start a family and raise my children in a safe environment.

I want to keep learning, keep growing as a person and a leader, making time for others and improving the lives of the less fortunate through fulfilling my cause on earth. 

I want to smile and laugh everyday and make someone else smile too. I want to be the shoulder for my family and friends to cry on and a rock for them to hold on to, I want to be the friend, the daughter, the sister, the mother and wife to the best of my ability. I want to be an example as a child of God that live up to my reason for being.

I don’t want to be controlled by worldly things but rather appreciate the little miracles each day holds. I want to be one with nature again as in my youthfull days and get out of the nasty routines of rushing through the days, working so many hours that one forgets to live.

I dream about living a day to the full and enjoying every moment of it…

Conventional is a good fallback position, isn't it?

The conventional to me refers to the background of our culture our belief system and that what our parents has taught us how to behave and show respect. To be grounded in the conventional, is what you will fallback to. In any situation this is what will guide your decisions and set the tone in case of failure. Don’t change these beliefs, this will form the guide to your personal life, while you take the risks of still thinking out of the box in your working career you will always be grounded in the conventional that puts you in your cultural group and distinguish you from the rest while being backed by your family and friends.

Keeping up with the Joneses

Yes I am so going there, it is time that we all seriously start looking into ways to help our financial situation in these challenging economic times. We don’t know how long the ripple effect of the recession will last or even if it will get worse, but experts suggests that the sooner we can start saving for retirement, the richer we can be. We find that our budgets has been cut to such an extend struggling to put away our savings. It is difficult to cut back any further as providing solely for our basic needs is becoming a challenge. The reality is that we are now at a critical age in our 20’s to already start saving for retirement. SARS and Sanlam have joined in to encourage us to save with high interest rates on a retirement account. To have more   money in your pocket you need to manage your budget and control youre spending, is this really easily said than done? Come into the habit to set aside as much as you can each month into a retirement savings plan. It’s the best thing you can do to keep up.

The shocking story about your weight

Whether this is fact or fiction the truth stills stays hidden amongst all, your weight is a reflection of yourself, more than you would think. Your ability to be committed, goal driven and live with respect to yourself is all communicated to your public not only by the way you dress, your makeup, the smell of your perfume or the style of your haircut but also by your weight. See your body as a brand, portraying an image to the public to win clients and sell yourself as the person that top business organisations would want to employ. If you where a business your image will be the building, the front reception desk, the furniture, the corporate stationary, etc – things that big corporate spend large amounts of money on to maintain a set quality standard because it is the first image people see.

Even though you cannot be discriminated against because of weight, your first impression is critical as people tend to create their perception of someone within the first few minutes of meeting, which is mostly from a visual influence – looks to facial expressions and eye contact. Therefore your image together with your weight shockingly enough reflects professionalism, trust, commitment, dedication, mental health and confidence - characteristic to maintain a balanced lifestyle and a balanced healthy weight, because we all know it is hard work. Getting your image right according to whom you are and what you stand for does include weight and will earn you respect for yourself and in business.

Chasing two rabbits at the same time

When we find ourselves hit by the inspiration to take on a task it comes with many opportunities that can cause us to get distracted along the path either through lack of confidence, information overload or opinions by others and self-doubt. The will power and focus is lost and you end up with not one task pursued and only completed half hearted while your dreams suffer as consequence. 

Keeping focus is very important to complete tasks and achieve success. To keep focus it is important to make a thorough decision by considering all pros and cons and committing yourself to that decision.

Decide at the beginning what you are aiming at so to have a reason for your focus.

Make a commitment to yourself that you will not give up. Keep focus by doing a little bit each day and learn from your mistakes.

With focus and support from others you can chase that rabbit!

I wish I knew how it would feel to be free...

I wish I can break all the chains and say all the things that I want to say - say them load, say them clear for the whole wide world to hear!

I wish I could remove all the thoughts that keep us apart and share all the love that’s in my heart!

I wish I could be a bird in the sky, how sweet it would be, if I can find I can fly! I will soar to the sun, and come back down to sea just to feel how it would be, to be free!

Keeping the lyricks to this song by Lighthouse Family close to my heart while dreaming of freedom from the shackles of earthly things holding me down.

The backdoor is not an option...

Why settle for anything less. When you are committed to a goal there should be no other way than forward, to achieve that goal. There will definitely be hard times but just when you think you have reached the end of the road another door will open.
Success does not come easy; it’s a battle of knowledge, experience, commitment and passion that determines the end result. How much are you willing to push forward? Even if it is taking smaller steps during the up hills, the backdoor should never be an option!