Ep 9: Chasing My Dreams

The theme of this season of my life must be "chasing dreams". I'm podcasting. I'm training to be a coach. I'm preparing to leave the organization I love and where I've spent my career, to date, to rest for a while and then dive into building my business. And in less than a month, I'm heading to Ghana to stay for at least 3 months, but perhaps much longer. All of this is amazing to me. For years I was stuck, held back from moving towards some of my biggest goals by fear - fear of failure, fear of my inner critic, fear of what if, etc.- and now here I am preparing to leave the places and people I know for a while to chase a dream. Where did the fear go? Just a year ago my dreams seemed hopelessly out of reach, on the other side of fear and self-doubt. I was stuck. The fear hasn't disappeared. I'm moving towards my goals now, but it's not because I dropped fear or self-doubt; I've just changed my relationship to them. Before, I used to go through great lengths to avoid needing to confront fear, self-doubt, disappointment, and other "negative" emotions. To be honest, I tried to avoid these feelings by not having goals that seemed too big of a stretch. I buried my dreams. I tried to send them to the idea graveyard. I tried to rationalize myself out of my desires. How many of us who want to change the world are doing this at the individual, organizational, and societal scale? What does it look like for each of us to start owning our power to change our relationship to our fears, self-doubt, and anything else that limits our imaginations and keeps us from dreaming big - first as individuals and then, as a collective? This week, I invite you to reflect on these prompts: What, if any of your rooms, with icky thoughts and feelings, have you been hesitant to go spend time in? Why is that? Can you think of an emotion that you want to change your relationship to? What does it look like for you to own your power in the week ahead? If you want to chime in on the discussion, the “I Want to Change the World Podcast Community” on Facebook is the perfect place to do so! You can also email me at [email protected] or drop me a line @missjanaiashley on IG. Don't forget to rate, subscribe, and share, if you're enjoying the podcast ;)