5 Tips to Follow Your Dreams

OK, so you all know I have these dreams of being a big time blogger/artist/designer/shop-owner... and even though I'm about to celebrate my 2-year blogiversary, I feel like I've just started on this journey and I have such a long way to go. I think it has something to do with how FAST time and life is sprinting by me, which is all the more reason why not just following your dreams, but following your dreams NOW, is so important.

I keep dreaming of the day I can trade in my day job to focus on a full time design biz... but something inside me keeps telling me to wait. It's not that I hate my day job. It's really not that bad - I'm a real estate assistant. I'm good at it, I work with a lot of really cool people, plus my boss is awesome and lets me come in at 10AM (OK, 10:30...).

I see my boss jumping up and down over the fact that he's got 13 under contracts - his dreams of being a badass realtor are coming true. I can't help but half smile whenever I see his obvious joy, because I'm thinking about the dreams of my own that are just waiting on the sidelines... you see, I don't want to be jumping up and down over real estate or a big commission check - I want to jump up and down like I did over CJ's blog design getting completed this week! Every. Day. Very few things in life beat that sense of accomplishment - it's like a pat on the back from Jesus.

We all have our own dreams tugging at our heart to follow them... so what's the trouble? Our logic, our sense of reason, our mind telling us we can't... but, hear me out: if we are logical people, and logical people are out there reaching their dreams, then certainly we can apply logic to reaching them ourselves... right?

Allow me to introduce Stephanie - a girl my age who has made the leap into being a full time artist/designer. She's going to give you and I her five tips to following your dreams... plus you'll want to look out for what she's giving away to one lucky reader! :)

Take it away girl!

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Hi everyone! My name is Stephanie and I blog over Shades of Color Art. I'm super excited to be a guest on Kristen's blog today - I've been reading her stuff since she was known as "Confessions of a GDS," even before I had my little space in the blog community!

Me? I like to write about interior design, art, and my lifestyle. Today I'm going to share my story with you and talk about some tips on how to follow your dreams!

I am 24 years old and I graduated a year and a half ago with a BBA in Marketing. Right away I went to the corporate world. During this time I became a bitter person, always in a bad mood, and complaining all the time. I wasn't enjoying my life, I wasn't happy with things that were happening, and I became a totally different person.

One day, in a conversation with my boyfriend, he pointed out some things I had been blind to - I was only happy on the weekends and then completely miserable Monday through Friday (of course, I always spend the weekends with him and he makes me happy), and that's when it hit me - he was right... I was working more than eight hours a day doing something I didn't love, coming back to my home to complain about my day with my parents, and then again with my boyfriend over the phone. Every day I was thinking about quitting my job, but I also thought about things like the money, what my family and friends would say, what society thinks, and I wasn't sure what to do.

That's when I decided to get back to what I love most - painting and designing. Little by little, I started to organize this passion of mine - creating, designing, brainstorming business ideas - until one day I said to myself:

"You know what Stephanie? You have to do what makes YOU happy - not what everyone thinks would make you happy. It's your life and you only live once. Forget about what your family/friends think (excluding my parents, they always support me no matter what I do) and start living!"

And that's when I did it... I QUIT MY DAY JOB!! I became the happiest girl of the world! I decided to open an online store, continue painting, work with my marketing skills, and start implementing all these ideas that had been brewing over so much time. Thanks to God, I now work full time with my store and I’m currently studying for my Masters Degree.

Yes, I work more than 8 hours, and sometimes it's exhausting, but hey! Putting all my heart and soul into doing something that gives me joy? That's happiness!

So now I’m going to share with you the steps I took to follow my dreams... because it definitely wasn't easy!

1. Decide What You Want

We, creative people usually have a million ideas in our brain at once, and sometimes it's difficult to decide what we want. For me, it was important to be creating things that I’m truly passionate about. So if you are deciding to jump into a creative business, make sure that you love creating/designing “that thing” because you will be spending hours upon hours doing that.

2. Get Organized

First, you should be prepared to have less than your actual income. If you depend a lot on this money you should save for various months before you jump into this journey. Like every business, you should have a plan. It's okay if you don’t have it at first, but it's really important to organize when you are going to do it, where to do it, and how to do it. I’m very organized and I write down EVERYTHING, so I always have my business notebook handy for whenever I need to write out my ideas and goals.

3. Get Out There

Once I had everything organized I created Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest accounts, and of course entered the BLOG world. I started telling EVERYONE what I was doing. Some were interested and some were not. I didn’t care - I told them anyways. You would be surprised how many people want to do business with you!

4. Know Your Limits

If you are a perfectionist and control freak like me, you should know that you are not Wonder Woman! Yes - I thought I was and I thought I could do everything all at once. I thought I could paint, design notebooks, design cards, design agendas, take photos, blog, social media, social events, trade shows… all at the same time. The reality is that I couldn't. I knew if I was organized that I could do everything, but not at the same time. Know that you should rest and enjoy your life too!

5. Be Happy

Last and not least, BE HAPPY! This should be a fun journey. Owning a business is a growing experience. You are constantly learning new things and growing as a person. Like everything else, it has its ups and downs, but if you are really passionate about it and put your heart and soul into it, you'll do wonderful things and you will make it.

So if you are thinking whether or not you should start your business… if you really want it, I urge you to go out and DO IT! It's scary and anything but easy, but I can tell you it will all be worth it!

Isn't she amazing? I mean, you got to love a girl that goes out and gets what she wants out of life - go Stephanie!

So to help you get your dreams organized, Stephanie is giving away:

Two Personalized Notebooks & 1 Custom Notepad... a $30 value!!!

I got totally jelly when I saw Erin @ Living in Yellow's version,

and I'm probably going to feel the same about the winner of this giveaway.

Time to get legit, friends... you've only got the next seven days to enter!

Open to US residents only!!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway