The Space to Dream, and the Permission to Act on It

I dream vividly at night – so much so that I keep a note book by my bed. I’ve had some of my best art inspiration, writing ideas, and work ideas come from those moments!

Earlier this week I was paging through my book filled with night scribbles, and saw two sentences written on a single page. It said ‘The space to dream. The permission to act on it’.

The timing was perfect – that’s exactly how I’m feeling right now. I have made it a priority to give myself white space in my schedule to think about (daydream about, really) what I want. What I want my life to look like.  What kinds of experiences I want to have.  Then I’d write it down and figure out how to act on those things.

I’m a planner – I am generally planning multiple vacations over the course of the next rolling 18 months so I always have various things to look forward to. I also have planned the meat and potatoes of my race calendar clear through next spring. These are all things that I have daydreamed about accomplishing.

There’s a beautiful shift in excitement that happens when you transition from planning mode, to ‘oh my goodness, this is right around the corner!’ mode.  That shift happened today! 

I have a 50 mile race coming up, and this morning when I looked at my weather app I saw race day as the very last slot on the extended forecast.  It’s right around the corner!

Then as I was getting ready for my work day I looked up at the calendar, and realized that two months from tomorrow I fly to Greece.  GREECE!  I’m tackling the Athens Marathon with a good friend of mine, then hopping over to a Greek island for nearly a week before heading home.

It all seems so real now!  Two things that I dared to dream up for myself that are now coming up quickly.  Isn’t that the best feeling??   Challenging yourself to get uncomfortable, do something you’ve never done (I’ve never run 50 miles at once before- I’m ready for the hurt!), and to go places you’ve never been – that’s living a dream! Those are the times when I feel so fully alive, like I’m making the best use of this life I have been given. It’s the outcome of creating the space to dream, and giving myself permission to act on them.

Not everything in my world is perfect or even great, but knowing that I am prioritizing living out my dreams and sharing it with other people makes the less than stellar aspects of my world seem smaller. Less significant.  Because they are.  Living on purpose is what matters. Creating the life you really want to live is what matters.  Hot damn – I’m so ready for what is coming my way!