I want to encourage you a little. I hope you don’t mind.

Do you remember your last ‘light bulb’ moment? That moment when everything in your life turned, when you realized something so crucial, so life changing that you had no choice but to follow it?

I remember that moment. I’ll never forget it.

I had a friend say something to me, something that I heard repeated last week while I was at a conference.

If you want it bad enough you'll do anything to make it happen.

My “it” was to become a writer. A full time published author where I wrote stories that touched hearts.

The “anything” to make it happen became the sacrifices to find time to write. To learn how to write. To learn what to write. I would wake up early, stay up late, bring my laptop to work and write during my lunch hour, I would spend my weekends on my laptop writing and rewriting my stories, I would take online courses on writing, I would save money to pay for an editor to go through my novels…

I did everything and anything I could to see this dream of mine become a reality. I learned how to believe in myself, to trust my instincts, to push myself to do better and be better and yes, sometimes the sacrifices seemed too hard at the time but I kept my focus – I still keep my focus on my goal.

I’ve had countless people say to me: “I always wanted to…(fill in the blank) but…”. My response has always been to encourage them to follow their dreams, to not let life getting the way, but at this conference the speaker went further than that.

If there is a ‘but’ following your “I’ve always wanted to…” then you don’t want it bad enough.

You don’t want it bad enough.

Is there something you’ve always wanted to do? Something you’ve dreamed about, or used to dream about but gave up?

Why not change your excuse?

What if you were to change the ‘but’ (your excuse) and say ‘so’, instead?

“I’ve always wanted to (fill in the blank), so I’m…” (changing my schedule, taking a class…). 

For me, I always wanted to be a writer, so I stayed up late after the kids were in bed, I woke up early before I had to get my kids up, I stayed at my desk during my lunch hour and wrote, I stopped buying $5 latte’s and put that towards my writing fund… you get the idea, right?

So let me ask you this: how bad do you want your dream to come true? Are you willing to stop with the excuses and find a way…even if it’s a small first step…to make it happen?

I hope so! You won’t regret it!