Dreams, Destinations, and Expectations

As we enter into the last quarter of 2018, I felt a strong need to write this post. Today’s words come from a place of reflection and a desire for groundedness (let’s make this a word if it’s not already in the dictionary). I’ve been quiet on my personal Instagram, my fashion Instagram and here on the blog quite a bit for the last several months. Let’s just say that consistency went out the window this year.

I went into 2018 with every intention of “killing it” like I did in 2017, but life had different plans. After dealing with the second round of the flu in March, I decided to just embrace the whole slowing down in life thing. My plan was to slow down in the spring and hustle during the summer. 

Welp, those plans failed too. 

Instead, this summer was a summer about learning and experiencing a turning point. I made myself get more rest and the more I relaxed, the more I thought about my dreams, where I wanted to travel, what I wanted to learn and do with my life.

Reducing my time away from all things social media and technology-related has helped me to refocus as well. Not only has this time helped refueled me, but it helped me figure out the direction of my future, what routes to take for some of my goals and taught me to embrace the unknown.

Taking a break from the usual fashion and beauty topics, for today’s post, I wanted to talk about dreams, destinations and expectations. 

Dreams

When was the last time you dreamed? I mean, really dreamed? It’s been a VERY long time for me. In fact, this year, I had to teach myself to learn how to dream big again…in every aspect. It’s funny because I’ve been working on gathering images for my vision board these last few weeks. From what I want to own, experience to people I want to have in my life, I’ve been thinking a ton on what/who will go on my imfamous board.

Let me tell you, I’m dreaming so big that I’ve saved pictures of famous celebrities who have great mindsets and work ethics and leaders that I want to be real-life friends with on my board. Heck, I even responded to Lewis Howes on Twitter and told him to interview The Rock because I’ll be friends with him someday!

The funny thing to me is that I didn’t hesitate to respond to Lewis with a yes and add my vision to my answer. And guess what? It was fun! Besides, I don’t think I could ever be “starstruck” by any celebrity when I meet him/her. I just think of that person as someone like me. They put their pants on one leg at a time, has struggles like everyone else, but just has a very high-profile job compared to me. On the list to be friends with? Chris Pratt, Kristine Forseth, Hugh Jackman, Gary Vaynerchuck among many others.

Aside from having a loving family of my own, living in a nice home, traveling, giving back, not having to worry about finances and having strong relationships are my biggest dreams in life. And you know what? If you haven’t dreamed at this level, do it. It’s not that farfetched. Trust me.

Destinations

The most memorable vacation of my life was an 18-day cruise to Europe with my girlfriends a little over ten years ago. After that, it was another cruise to Alaska/Canada and it’s been over five years since that vacation. Unplugging from technology and not knowing the time (cruise ships don’t have a lot of clocks, haha) was surprisingly nice. However, I’ve learned that vacations should not be the end destination. I don’t want to live such a life that I’d need to take a vacation from it. I want a life like Dale Partridge said, “Vacations are meant to be new, they are meant to be fun, but they are not meant to be better than your normal life.”

For me, it’s not so much about the end destination that I’m worried about because I know Where I’m going. Right now, I want to experience everything I can. I want to live life to the fullest doing fun things, forming relationships with new friends and building relationships with old ones. Experiencing the journey of those kinds of travel are what destinations really mean to me.

Expectations

I used to expect a lot out of life and out of others. And I’ve been disappointed more than I ever thought I could be. People whom I thought would never hurt me did. Whether it was a sudden cut off of a relationship/friendship to being dishonest to wrongful accusations, the one thing that all those experiences had in common was that I was the one who expected a lot from others. 

Now, I expect a lot more out of myself and for myself. It’s so gratifying because I’m relying on myself and on God for blessing me with what/who I need. And that’s all I could ever need to keep living this crazy, beautiful life. 

I believe that dreams aren't farfetched, that destinations are really about experiencing the journey and expectations are needed so you can learn to trust yourself. Click To Tweet

Tell me, what are your dreams, destinations and expectations for 2019?

Please feel free to share because I’d love to know!

Image via Tumblr (please let me know if this is your image so I can credit you properly!)