Lessons Learned From a Year Spent Working Towards My Dreams

It’s the end of the year, which means it’s time to look back at 2019 to reflect. Without further ado, here are the lessons I have learned from a year spent working towards my dreams. 

1. Do something that scares you (every day) to remind yourself how awesome you are and how much you can get done 

OK, I’ll be honest, I don’t do it every single day. But when the opportunity comes I try to grab it. Some examples? Six months after giving birth I ran my first 5KM race despite not being a sporty nor super trained person. Want another one? This year only I invested thousands of pounds in training. And in case you are wondering, yes investing money can be scary! Do you want a third example? One of the last things I’ve done in 2019 has been reading the first chapter of my book to a room full of (inspiring) people. It was terrifying and yet so fulfilling! 

And if you are still not convinced, think that fear and excitement give you the same manifestations. 

2. Don’t do what makes you feel uncomfortable but don’t use this as an excuse to avoid new, challenging things

This year I threw myself into reading again and one informative book has been Captivate by Vanessa Van Edwards. The book is about body language and how to understand people so that you can interact with them better. But it’s also about how you can put yourself in situations that let the best part of you come out. In fact, one thing Van Edwards mention is to choose environments that make you thrive. 

In the past I have forced myself to go to private events I felt uncomfortable in and networking events where my reflective being did not feel at ease. But this ended this year! Because there is no point in forcing yourself to do something, not doing it well and then beat yourself up because you weren’t at your top shape. 

However, this cannot be an excuse to avoid challenging situations either. For instance, this year I started filming videos for my social media pages, where I give suggestions and tips on communication. It should be said, videos are not my thing (or it didn’t use to be) but I gave it a go anyway and I’m loving it. 

By the way, have you seen my first try at LinkedIn Live? 🤦‍♀️

3. Surround yourself with people that charge and inspire you 

Our bodies are made 70% of their weight of water. We need it to survive. In the same way, in order to survive as side hustlers, changemakers, social entrepreneurs, we need a community around us that will charge us, support us and occasionally guide us. Who are your special people? 

4. Being yourself is not easy but gosh is worth it 

This is the one about authenticity. It can take practice to be yourself and it can be scary because of all the what-ifs: what if people judge me? What if I suck? What if they won’t like me anymore? What if I get it wrong? 

But then again, what if you succeed, attract people that share your same values, manage to create incredible things? 

Also, what did we say about scary actions? You have to take one every day. 

5. Be thankful 

Last year I was introduced to the gratitude diary. I’ve heard life and business coaches talking about it and to be honest, I thought it was silly. 

A gratitude diary is where you take notes about what you are thankful for, ideally every day. It supposed to help to end your day with a positive note and keep that good feeling as the days pass. 

Despite my skepticism, I tried it. Mainly because I noticed how much I was complaining about things not being ideal for me or for what I wanted to do. I was complaining a lot but not finding solutions. Until one day I saw this diary in a charity shop and decided to buy it. 

First of all, how nice to finish your day admitting what you are happy about and what could have been better. Secondly, the act of putting the thoughts out of my brain, helped me to make space for constructive reflections and solution making. 

6. Small steps are huge steps

If you check my Facebook page you’ll see I have started a series of live interviews called “Change the world with…” I did that because

I wanted to have a conversation with people and organisations who are using communication effectively and to change the world. Of course, they are not changing the entire world but the piece they can reach. We have this wrong assumption that only “others” can change the world and that means reaching all the six billion people on earth. Nope, not true. We have to start closer to home, and we have to start with small steps. 

7. Focus on who you want to help 

One of the first videos I have watched from American entrepreneur Marie Forleo was about how we have to shift our perspective from our to that of our customers, in my case, of the people I want to help. Doing this means we stop thinking about: how we look, how we say things, how we get it wrong. From one side we stop worrying about us. While on the other side, we put our energy into creating for them. This means we are more likely to produce content that can have a real impact on our audience. One way to focus on the people you want to help is by interacting with them and knowing what they need 

These are the lessons I have learned from a year spent reaching my dreams. 

What did you learn this year? 

Share it in the comments or on Twitter (#measureayear)