When I first moved to Rhode Island 13 years ago, I worked out of my car and used to drive past a beautiful North Smithfield farm with white fences and horses grazing. It always made my day to see these horses, so happy in their pastures sometimes I even drove out of my way to see them. If I looked hard enough, I could probably find pictures of random horses on my old cell phones.
You see, I grew up riding horses and it’s been my passion as long I can remember. I was lucky enough to get my own pony at 11 years old (after 9 years of begging) and ride as much as possible throughout my college years. But then life happened, my horse passed away, I got my own job and could not afford to ride. My career grew and my income did as well, but the free time was just not there for a horse. I loved seeing horses out on my drives in the suburbs, and my old riding buddies updates on Facebook, but there was always a small part of my heart that wished I was back in the barn.
When I had our son, I was lucky enough to stay at home with him and fulfill my dream of being a full-time mom. I was at the point in life where I had more time to ride a horse, but definitely not the disposable income. I never knew if my dream of riding again would come true.
So I took care of my family and I worked on becoming a better person and I read about vision boards. That’s when a board went up in my home office and I printed out a picture of two horses out to pasture (among other things). They weren’t fancy horses or show horses like I sometimes rode as a child, but they were beautiful horses and they were on my vision board. Then I found a way to add another stream of income to our family’s budget and I focused on building that while raising our family. I chipped away at my goals, day by day.
Fast forward a few years and my business (that I work from my phone) has grown to the point where I work when the kids are at school, from wherever I want. Today was at the barn and while driving home, I did some self-reflection. Holy crap. I am driving out of the same farm that I used to drive by so many years ago and look at the beautiful horses… and that is MY beautiful horse staring back at me. She’s even better than the picture I posted on my vision board so many years ago. My freaking vision has manifested and her name is Annie.
As we head into the last 60 days of 2018, I urge you to take some time and make your own vision board. If you already have one, take an inventory and see where you’re at with your goals. Dream big! Sometimes we get so caught up in our day-to-day routines that we don’t event realize our dreams have come true. Time to come up with bigger dreams and see how we can help change the world.