Sometimes dream work isn’t working from a beach chair and taking calls when you want to. It might be sitting on a dirty floor cleaning, priming, and painting neglected baseboards.
Dream work might not be going in late and coming home early right now. For now, it’s early starts and long days that don’t include the required lunch and breaks most people may enjoy.
Sometimes dream work isn’t sitting in a beautiful board room with people you respect and enjoy being around. It may well be working shoulder to shoulder in cramped spaces and uncomfortable positions, doing something neither is qualified in.
Dream work isn’t the final destination after years of paying your dues. It’s also figuring out how you’re going to pay those dues.
Sometimes dream work isn’t the perfect career for you and your skill set. It may well be days filled with how-to videos just to get another task marked of your list, a “school of hard knocks”, and every day feels like the first day.
Most people don’t have their dream handed to them on a silver platter. They must work for it. This is the dream work I’m describing – WORKING on your dream. It can include some of the most difficult, dirty, sweaty, and gut-testing days you’ll ever experience. Friends and loved ones may watch and wonder why, or even question your sanity. There may even be moments you do the same.
My husband and I recently made a life-altering move to be close to the beach. We went from a 12-hour drive, to having our feet in the sand in less than 10 minutes. Many would question the thought process of leaving a nice (clean) home, established jobs, friends and family, to jump into renovating a foreclosure while searching for new jobs in a place where we don’t know very many people. After hours of cleaning, painting, sawing, mowing, drilling…that question was answered in a single quick trip to the beach. Just two beach chairs, a small cooler, an umbrella, and 90 minutes. Because when you live this close, you don’t have to pack for an entire day.
This is our dream work. We’re working on our dream of living near the beach. One day our “to do” list will shrink, and we’ll make the adjustment from this transition phase to more fully enjoy the fruits of our labor. But who am I kidding? There will always be a list, that’s the price of continual growth and evolution. We are never done. What we can do is enjoy the process, all of it. The hard days and the rest days. The sweat and the sand.
Consider your dream in the “under construction” phase and get to work. What does your dream work look like today?