This weekend I had such an epiphany and I couldn’t wait to share it with you. I decided to go through my Instagram account to clean up shop and unfollow any inactive accounts. I do this every now and again to make sure that I’m not overwhelming the account and that I’m not following anything inappropriate.
Side note: I’m super careful of what I post on social media because you NEVER know what will come back to bite you in the butt and I will feel real silly if I lost an opportunity about something so trivial so always think before you post.
Well as I’m hitting the “unfollow” button, I noticed some of those accounts hadn’t posted in months, some hadn’t posted in over a year. I felt crushed because some were incredible organizations, businesses, movements, and blogs that seemed to have fallen by the wayside.
I’ve been at this “entrepreneurial/walking in my purpose” journey for years now. When I started, there were so many people that started with me as they built their own businesses and birth those dreams. However, as I’ve walked deeper into my journey, I noticed that many of those people dropped out of the race.
I started to ask myself this question, why have so many people decided to quit or put their dreams on standby?
It’s simple – comfort.
When you decide to pursue your purpose full-time and it doesn’t go the way you anticipated, it’s natural to go back into working full-time for someone else and part-time on your dreams. Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with that. But I’ve noticed that it takes one extraordinary, determined, driven, persistent human being to not allow the comfort of a guaranteed income stream, benefits, and vacations to distract you from realizing your dreams 100%.
There’s this notion that “right now is not that time” or “I’ll get back to that business next year.” I’m here to tell you that it will never, ever be the perfect timing.
That’s why comfort can be the greatest enemy of success.
Have you ever noticed that some of the most dynamic success stories come from people who were forced into uncomfortable circumstances? Once their back was put up against a wall, they had no choice but to be creative, tap into their potential and make a way out of what seems to be no way. Daymond John (the award winning entrepreneur, branding expert and the “people’s Shark” on Shark Tank), calls this the power of broke.
When you’re broke, uncomfortable and outright tired of mediocrity in your life then you’re forced into becoming the force of nature that you were always created to be. When you’re fed up with allowing fear to paralyze you, just getting by, having another person start the same business idea you had, not having enough money to buy the groceries you want, or not being able to afford the meal you want at dinner with your friends that when you’ve reached your breaking point.
It’s up to you to decide to choose comfort or courage, but you cannot have both.
So where have you allowed comfort to deter you from going all the way in to achieve your goals? I know how that feels because I was so comfortable with making a set income when I was working in the music business that it stopped me from even looking for a new job, let alone start a business because I was comfortable – even though my soul was dying.
Did you have a catering business that you allowed to fall by the wayside? Have you stopped working on your blog because you’re working too much? Did you stop pursuing that acting career because you got a nice, cozy corporate job but your heart is screaming for you to get back in the game?
True success isn’t for the faint of heart my dear! I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the greatest inventions, books, businesses, movies and albums are birthed from people who have been from their job. Walt Disney was fired from his job because he wasn’t creative enough, Mark Cuban was fired from his job at a computer store because he failed to open the store one day and Oprah was told she wasn’t a good fit for television news and was demoted!
Sometimes we’re pushed into those uncomfortable situations because God knows that’s the only way He’ll get you to see what was already inside of you.
You have an unstoppable champion and a remarkable legacy that is waiting to be birthed inside of you! Don’t allow anyone else to dictate your destiny for you so don’t wait until you’re pushed into uncomfortable circumstances to pursue your dreams full force.
Decide right now that you’ll get back into the game!
XOXO,
Maria I. Melendez
@embraceherlegacy
@iammariamelendez