Got A Dream? Do It!

Sorry I have been quiet for a couple of days, no I haven’t gone off on my holidays just yet! Far from it, I have been working on a huge new project that is probably the biggest undertaking I have ever thought about doing.  However, it is something that I am passionate about getting off the ground so with some hard work and long hours, this will happen soon.

Before I start anything new, I also question whether or not I could actually ‘pull it off’, not just personally, but financially, time, how it will impact my family etc.  There is also that saying ‘don’t jump in with both feet’ which is true with some ideas, however if we all just dreamt about what we wanted to do and never actually did it, nothing would ever get done. So sometimes, going in with both feet is just what you need.

If you don’t think and dream big, how will you ever know just what you are capable of? If you don’t get out there and (to steal a popular sports brands phrase!) and ‘just do it’, how will you know whether or not you could make a difference?

It is easy to get bogged down with the ‘what if’s’ and to worry about what could go wrong, but even the most successful of business people have these niggling doubts at the start, you just need to ask yourself  ‘do I really want this?’  if the anwer is yes, then go for it.

For those of you who don’t know me very well, 12 years ago I was told I may have a brain tumour.  I was having a series of strokes and lost my speech, the feeling in my legs and the grip in my hands.  I was in a wheelchair and I that is where I thought I would stay, forever.  I was told I would never have children and the chance of me walking again or using my hands to grip were slim.  My world collapsed.  I was newly married, I had a great job and it was meant to be the happiest time of my life but then BANG, all my dreams stopped.

I admit I got very down with everything that happened, not only did my illness get worse but because I could not work, we (as a married couple) ended up in extreme financial difficulties.  At that point, I thought my life was over.

Or was it just the beginning?…..

Luckily I am married to someone who has more faith in me than anyone else in the world, even through the really bad times when he was being told I could die,  he was there saving my life, quite literally on two occassions, telling me to look forward and to keep going, that no matter what was in the way, I could do it, I would be able to beat this.  I am also quite stubborn and once he ‘flicked the switch’ inside me to fight, I started to push myself to get through it.

With therapy and support I started to walk again and use my hands, my speech became less and less slurred and finally in 1998 we had a massive breakthrough when I was told I was pregnant, I am sure you can imagine our joy.  This joy was later followed in 2000 when I fell pregnant again.

12 years on, I can not only walk, but I can run (although to be honest, I don’t like running, I don’t think Sally’s were actually born to run, we wobble ), I can write, cook, type (again, something that I can do but as you will notice from some of my posts, not that accurately, nothing to do with being ill, I just think my brain goes faster than my fingers!), I can do everything that I should be able to do.  More importantly, I am a Mum, somthing I never thought possible.

Life is hard, it throws things in our path that are so huge and so life stopping that it is a wonder that as a human race we haven’t just all sat down and shouted ‘WHAT IS THE POINT?’ but we don’t.  We carry on.  We dream about making things better and it is those dreams that you have to grab with both hands and really work hard to achieve.

So not only ‘think big, dream big’ but also ACHIEVE BIG!  Whether your ‘big’ is employment, work, family life, health or just trying to lose a few pounds on a diet, just go for it. Life is too short to waste away. You can do it!